Alumni Profile: Chloe Swiney
1. What do you love most about your
job/career?
I love the variety that I have within my job. In my role there are many areas that I get to spread my time over:
- Food regulation: I have to understand FSANZ regulations that relate to our products, keep up to date with changes in the regulations, understanding new legislations for labelling and packaging, be part of committee’s and stakeholder groups to have an input into future food industry regulations.
- Public health: I get to run nutrition talks for the community like Mothers groups and Probus/retirement/aged care groups. I also help with school and holiday program groups which educated children on digestion, healthy eating and food production.
- Health Professional Development: I attend conferences and external Professional Development opportunities, both representing myself or my workplace, whilst also creating and implementing health professional resources for Yakult. We have a health profession website yakultknowledge.com.au that I update with regular blog posts, new Professional Development resources and patient/client resources regarding probiotics.
- Social Media: I assist in creating social media posts that can help educate our followers on living a healthy lifestyle. This type of variety can really help to take out the monotony often experienced in an office job.
2. How did you get to where you are
today? Was there a pivotal decision or occurrence?
Once I graduated from the Master of Dietetics in 2019, I really wanted to go into clinical work, however, there were very limited job openings for an inexperienced graduate like myself. After working as a pharmacy assistant for 6 months once I had graduated, the Yakult dietitian position came up. Initially I wasn’t going apply as I thought I would hold out until a clinical job came about. After talking to my mentor, she reminded me that there are so many transferrable skills between dietetic jobs, and a foot in the door may be better than holding out. After spending time reflecting, I came to the conclusion that as I had been working in a pharmacy and had learnt more about probiotics, combined with a passion for gut health, I thought I may as well apply even if it isn’t my ‘dream job’.
This push and decision to pursue something different from clinical work has given me such a breadth of experience and given me the ability to really expand my knowledge over many dietetic areas. It has also made me realise that I really much prefer public health level work rather than the one-on-one client work that you get in clinical settings. In the end, the push to try something different from my idea of a ‘dream job’ allowed me to find the stream of work I am really passionate about.
3. How has Monash University influenced
your career?
Without the food regulation experience from my undergraduate degree, Bachelor of Nutrition Science, and the great understanding of gut health that I gained from my Master’s degree, I would never have been able to work effectively within this job. Having that both my degree’s coming from Monash from my resume gave me a great edge as my employer knew that Monash graduates usually have a good understanding of the gut, as well other important skills for my position.
4. What is your biggest piece of advice
for those studying in the field, or those who are early in their careers?
Try jobs that you didn’t think you’d enjoy! If you are in a position in life where you can have a few casual jobs and try different dietetics areas, then I implore you to. I never had that opportunity, but I took a gamble to try a full-time position in a dietetic area I didn’t think I would enjoy, and it really paid off. However, even if I didn’t enjoy it, it was a little bit more experience that I didn’t have before.
Always remember that there are dietitians outside of the clinical stream, and they are still ‘real’ dietitians, and they still have a high job satisfaction even without being client facing.
Interested in studying with us?
We offer the Bachelor of Nutrition Science, Bachelor of Nutrition (Honours), Master of Dietetics and PhD opportunities.
