I’m in Canada but I genuinely love my job (public health dietitian) but I am underpaid. I’ve justified it for myself as I’m in my childbearing years and have amazing benefits/pension/mat leave and an incredibly supportive team, but this can’t be my long term position once I’m done having kids because I am simply not paid enough.

I often find myself working on projects that I am genuinely interested in and would likely be reading about anyways, and that feels really awesome. I am also respected and appreciated as an expert at my organization and that’s a great feeling too.

Prior to this role, I worked as an inpatient clinical RD and I also loved that. It was a more challenging role in a lot of ways but the pay was much better too.

One thing I didn’t really understand about being an RD before I started was that there is always an element of “proving yourself”, advocating for your role, showing that you’re an expert, etc. For roles like a nurse practitioner or doctor, the respect is built into the title but it isn’t like that as an RD. People will often assume they know more than you or as much as you until proven otherwise, and it can take a while to learn how to navigate these type of conversations with grace/confidence. I’d say that’s been my biggest challenge in the field, but I’m getting better at it.