Key data
Job title: Dietician
Company: Medical University of Graz, Outpatients’ Clinic for Lipid Metabolism and Obesity
I work in: Graz, Austria
I’ve worked here since: 2014
My contact
My website
What I do:
- Nutritional counselling for all study patients in the endocrinology sector (primarily obesity, diabetes, fat metabolism)
- Planning and organising our ongoing studies, i.e. compiling work materials based on study protocols, data documentation and input, patient screening, processing blood samples, overseeing study monitoring and economic calculations relating to study projects.
Why I love my job:
- Independence
- Flexibility
- Contacting and supervising patients
Important skills in my job:
- Organisation skills
- Patience
- Accuracy
- Reliability
My biggest accomplishment so far:
I think the greatest success of my career to date is that I am able to combine my employment here at the Medical University with my freelancing work. The flexible working hours enable me to offer private patient consultations, to stand in for colleagues on holiday or sick leave and, depending on demand, to offer workshops, training sessions for diabetics and school projects. It is important for me to be able to gather sufficient practical experience of working with others in addition to the ‘dry’ scientific work.
How I found my current job:
I already knew my current boss as a lecturer at FH JOANNEUM and during my job search, asked him whether there might be any vacancies available in his department at present or in the future. By chance, it turned out that a colleague was planning to leave the company soon. An internship provided me with insight into everyday working life and I was quickly able to settle down in my new job.
What I learned for this job during my studies:
On the one hand, professional skills in nutritional therapy and consulting of metabolism patients and on the other, the foundations of scientific work to enable me to get to grips with the world of research.
Job prospects in my field:
Job prospects in the scientific sector are really good although you need a dose of luck to find an interesting field which appeals to you. Dieticians are particularly suited to metabolism studies, while other fields focus primarily on scientific work and not so much on nutritional issues.
I am:
- empathetic
- conscientious
- determined
About my job:
I am very happy with my current combination of working for the university and pursuing freelancing. It is fun to be able to do different jobs at the same time and have such great variety – sometimes I enjoy the peaceful office work at a desk and other times it is fulfilling to be able to help people, give a talk to a group of interested people or experience how my clients are making progress.
I would never have thought that I would be the type of person to pursue freelancing straight after my training but I have gradually settled into it and gained in confidence – not least as a result of my job here at the university which has given me the chance to do this. I am learning lots of things about medicine and science but also practical things too – a study we are carrying out at present with overweight patients has provided me with lots of practical knowledge on the topic of weight reduction.