Nutrition Talent celebrated its 6th birthday on 1st February 2024, and Anna and Danielle find themselves musing over a cuppa, reflecting on what they have learned, how they and the nutrition landscape has grown and changed in that time.
What started as reminiscing transformed into something highly reflective – their discussion started to take shape, with 6 themes emerging representing key areas of learning, growth and change during the 6 years of Nutrition Talent.
The reflections are summarised below, or you can listen to our podcast!
The whole package and salary negotiations
Change: There has been a significant change in working practices, particularly the rise of remote and hybrid roles. This is now appreciated to have benefits to both employer and employee. More emphasis is being placed on working arrangements to suit lifestyle, on job satisfaction and enjoyment.
Learning: Part of Nutrition Talent’s recruitment process involves salary discussions with both client and candidate. It begged the question “How do we gauge our ‘value’ as nutrition professionals?” Nutrition Talent have learned to navigate this conversation, balancing the budgets of clients while championing the value nutrition professionals add to organisational goals.
Growth: Measuring impact of nutrition activities can be difficult. However specific metrics can be identified to demonstrate impact and as nutrition professionals, we must also be skilled at communicating these to key stakeholders within our organisations, which can help to progress our careers.
Career mapping/ pivoting
Change: For many, the traditional ‘career ladder’ is no longer in place, leaving the nutrition professional landscape wide open. While this may be disconcerting for some, it also creates a lot of exciting opportunity. Something to discuss in one of Nutrition Talent’s Career Conversations?
Learning: Career pivoters are on the rise! This gives you a unique and wider skill set, and speaks volumes of your character! “A pivoter may not conform to institutionalised or large company approaches”.
Presenting yourself well
Learning: When applying for a role, the first step is often presenting your written ‘story’ – your CV. The next stage will involve you telling your ‘story’. Now you have the opportunity to present the ‘whole’ you – what are your life and work experiences, and how, in the context of applying nutrition expertise, could this be valuable?
Growth: Could you think about displaying your CV in a different way to make it stand out more? We have worked with numerous professionals throughout our 6 years to help their applications stand out, both in how it looks and of course also in the content. For example, if you have come to nutrition as a second career, you will bring a unique set of skills and experiences that can help you stand out from the crowd.
Defining success
Change: Professional success is no longer measured in just monetary terms. Job satisfaction, a good work/life balance, flexible working arrangements, having the right blend of remote working with in-person human interactions, and a match between organisation values and personal/professional values also need to be in the mix.
Sustainability
Change: Nutrition security is a global priority and sustainability is increasingly being integrated into job roles and titles. Nutrition professionals have a responsibility to be informed, and to be seen as a stakeholder in the evolving conversation.
Learning and growth: Great work is being done by organisations such as IGD and research projects like Sus-Health. Nutrition professionals need to be aware of the challenges and opportunities around sustainability and consider how to take those insights and apply them. This links back to measuring your value and impact. You could develop your own learning and professional development by having a look at the links above.
Data
Change: The exponential growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on the nutrition world cannot be ignored. Nutrition experts need to be part of this journey. As Markus Stripf commented on the podcast S2 E3, we need to be the “human in the loop” and consider how this technology could be used to assist us in our work.
Learning: High quality, explorative, consistent, reliable data sources remain critical, arguably increasingly so given the proliferation of AI.
Growth: Nutrition Talent rely on data in their nutrition consultancy. Understanding detailed data informs the design and implementation of food-related health strategies to guide clients’ consultancy projects towards what is likely to ‘work’ in practice, applying current evidence for best outcomes.
You can listen to Anna and Danielle’s full discussion on all these themes in our birthday podcast here.
Nutrition Talent recruitment
Nutrition Talent is uniquely placed to have insight into both client and candidate perspectives and have honed the skill of matching candidate wants and client needs. If your organisation needs a nutrition professional, get in touch.
If you are a nutrition professional looking for your next opportunity, register with us here.
Nutrition Talent consultancy
Nutrition Talent consultancy has continued to grow over the past 6 years. Nutrition Talent has the essential experience and skill to deliver a successful and impactful project or continuing support to advance your organisational goals. If you or your organisation need resource for a consultancy project, large or small, get in touch to discuss your needs and hear how we can help.
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