Alumni Profile: Ashleigh Gale
We sat down with Monash Nutrition graduate Ashleigh Gale to find out about her role as a Dietitian with MTC Diet and Exercise. Alongside this position, Ashleigh is part of an innovative start-up LEAN Nutrition Technologies.
" Every experience you have whether that’s in a voluntary capacity or work, is an opportunity to figure out what you do and don’t like and there’s absolutely no rush "
1. What do you love most about your job/career?
I’ve always been a relationships person, so I really enjoy working with clients in private practice and having the opportunity to work with people long term to achieve meaningful results and outcomes. I enjoy the fact that my week is extremely varied. I tend to consult ½ day clinics and then spend the rest of my time working on things for the practice, or on our other start up business that launched last year.
Our other business is called LEAN Nutrition Technologies which is a software we have created as a digital dietitian service and has meal planning capabilities to sell within the fitness and healthcare industries. It’s been an amazing learning experience and it’s allowed me to combine the things I love about dietetics, but within a different environment than traditional which I really love. I think we can sometimes underestimate the transferable skills we have as dietitians that can be implemented into other roles which I’ve had to do in this business such as marketing, sales and client relationships.
2. How did you get to where you are today? Was there a pivotal decision or occurrence?
I would say always being open minded as to where a career in dietetics could take me has been quite pivotal, I think that it’s so easy to get wound up in the stress of the limited amount of full time jobs there are as a graduate to apply for, but if you are open to applying for jobs that are casual/part time even internships rather than just full time work, things will eventually fall into place, and opportunities will come up when you least expect it.
I was very lucky all the way back in 2019 (when we could leave the country) to spend a few months travelling and not worrying about applying for anything until I got home. Once I did, I ended up applying for a couple of hospital jobs unsuccessfully, and after a couple of months I saw my current job advertised as a 1-2 day per week position.
The job I got with MTC Diet and Exercise in September 2019 started off as casually 1-2 days a week which has now turned into full time work across multiple clinic locations across Melbourne, as well as an exciting new business working with my boss launching LEAN Nutrition Tech. Within this new business I’ve been able to work in everything from sales, marketing, client relationships and partnerships, database creation and meal planning development as well as still a consulting dietitian. Hopefully in the next 6 months LEAN will become our full-time work and whilst I’ll still be a dietitian, it won’t be in a traditional setting and instead a tech business providing health care solutions around Australia.
A lot of jobs that exist now, didn’t exist 5 years ago so keep an open mind to job hunting, and try not to stress if your dream job doesn’t pop up in its pure and complete form on Seek.com. Every experience you have whether that’s in a voluntary capacity or work, is an opportunity to figure out what you do and don’t like and there’s absolutely no rush – if there’s one thing we certainly have in 2020/2021, its time!
3. How has Monash University influenced your career?
Monash definitely set us up as great clinicians and professionals which is obviously extremely important, but I think one of my biggest takeaways that I learned from the Master's course in particular is to think outside the box of where dietetics could take you. I’ll never forget one lecture we had in our final few weeks of the Master’s course, it was run by Claire Palermo and she basically got us to think about how we could take our skills as dietitians and create new jobs for ourselves. It just made me really think about all the possibilities there could be in an industry that can sometimes appear limited in jobs to apply for, and I think it’s a big part of why I jumped at the opportunity to be involved in this start up business alongside my work as a private practice clinician.
4. What is your biggest piece of advice for those studying in the field, or those who are early in their careers?
A lot of jobs that exist now, didn’t exist 5 years ago so keep an open mind to job hunting, and try not to stress if your dream job doesn’t pop up in its pure and complete form on Seek.com. Every experience you have whether that’s in a voluntary capacity or work, is an opportunity to figure out what you do and don’t like and there’s absolutely no rush – if there’s one thing we certainly have in 2020/2021, its time!
Interested in studying with us?
We offer the Bachelor of Nutrition Science, Bachelor of Nutrition (Honours), Master of Dietetics and PhD opportunities.
