Gathering career-decision wisdom from our international alumni
Many graduating students or recent graduates can be stressed about their post-qualification employment prospects, especially international students, who have invested heavily in their university training. International students in the Monash Nutrition, Dietetics and Food programs often say:
"I feel lost about what to do post-graduation with my nutrition / dietetics degree. I worry about competing for job opportunities with my local peers but returning to my home country for work would mean applying my Australian knowledge in different food and healthcare systems."
In summer 2022, Dr Tammie Choi ran a 5-week internship
program with a group of 33 international students of diverse backgrounds, from
across year-levels in Bachelor of Nutrition Science and Master of Dietetics.
They were connected with 20 international alumni to collect their career-decision
wisdom. These international alumni completed their nutrition and dietetics
training in Monash in the past ten years. Upon graduation, some obtained
Australian residency and worked in Australian industries or hospitals; others
returned home and translated their Australian nutrition and dietetics knowledge
to respective local food and healthcare settings in Hong Kong, Singapore,
Malaysia, Brunei, etc. The 33 students worked in groups and conducted
qualitative interviews with these graduates to draw out the narratives on their
post-graduation employment experiences.
The students learned from the interviews with the alumni
that: (1) international students often over-focus on their academic performance
and should shift their attention to building employability skills, e.g. getting
a part-time job to help improve communication skills, networking and building
confidence while easing financial stress; (2) multicultural backgrounds and
multilingual skills are strengths and should be promoted in job interviews; (3)
rather than feeling restricted by the competitive job market in Australia,
international students could capitalise on having their feet in both worlds and
craft a career in more than one country! For full stories, check out the
website developed by the internship group for international students. It
includes printable resources and videos of the key learnings.
This internship experience allowed the 33 international
students to gather career-decision wisdom from the alumni who were once in
their position. The stories were authentic and empowering. While conducting the
interviews, the students were able to network with practising nutritionists and
dietitians in different countries, and further develop their communication
skills. The internship also facilitated vertical learning where students learn
from their peers across year-levels and created a sense of community, which is
very important for those learning in a foreign land! The findings from this
project will be utilised in current programs to assist Monash graduates to be
job-ready - anywhere in the world.
By Dr Tammie Choi
Dr Tammie Choi is a lecturer and the international student working group leader at Monash Nutrition. Tammie draws on personal experience as a past international student and her cross-cultural research when designing programs to optimise learning experience of international students. Tammie was awarded the Faculty Dean’s Award for Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion in 2019 and the Vice-Chancellor's Diversity and Inclusion Award in 2018 for her work with the international students.
You can find the International Student Global insights to
success website here.
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