1. Customizing Your Career: Putting Yourself on a Global Path
Tatyana El-Kour, MS, RDN, FAND
Independent Expert Consultant
Global Health and Nutrition
Images of children screened for malnutrition in Eastern rural Hama in Syria.
Photo credit. Saed Charity in Syria, 2016.

2. I consult for a number of global agencies, currently active with Action Against Hunger-Lebanon
No material within this presentation may be copied, in any form, for public, private, or commercial use without prior approval.
I have no personal or financial interests to declare. I do not have any financial arrangement or consulting agreements related to the content of this presentation.
Disclaimer Tatyana El-Kour, MS, RDN, FAND Independent Expert Consultant Global Health and Nutrition

3. At the end of this webinar, the participant will be able to:
Identify career paths that may be options for dietetic and nutrition professionals in global public health settings.
Describe best strategies and qualities for success needed to effectively work in public health and community nutrition globally.
Apply practical tips for effectively customizing your career based on specific context and need.
Conceptualize ways for improved career planning and learning in everyday practice.
Webinar Objectives

4. My Career Pathway Medical Representative 1 Year
Regional Nutrition Line Specialist
2 Years
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Metabolic Research Technician
Assistant researcher: data entry
6 Months
Several Positions at the World Health Organization
10 Years
Consultant/Private Practice
9 Years
Regional Nutrition Officer and Whole of Syria Co-lead
7 Months
Independent Expert Consultant
My Career Pathway

5. Other Career Pathways In-country field consultants
Disaster relief organizations
Immigrant/refugee health organizations
Research and academic institutions
International agencies
Other non-governmental agencies (NGOs)
Lending agencies that do work in developing countries
Multi-lateral agencies (such as WHO)
Governmental agencies (USAID, in-country ministry of health, etc.)
Other? Who knows!
Other Career Pathways

6. How did I go about choosing my career path?
What’s out there?
What’s out there for me?
What do you really want to do?
What is my dream? Or do I really need to find a new dream?
How did I go about choosing my career path?

7. Career Strategies and Qualities
Foot in the door
Foreign language skills
Relevant clinical training
Public health training
Mentors and role models
Broad professional portfolio
Broad perspective of health
Opportunities
The driver: heart vs. head
Career Strategies and Qualities

8. Key questions for career development
What kind of a problem solver am I?
What kind of problem do I want to solve?
Who can pay me to solve the problem?
Key questions for career development

9. Why you should have a plan
Visual representation/reminder of how you will spend your time achieving your goals
Helps you to identify both short-term and long term goals that can push you toward action
Milestones along the way can be acknowledged and celebrated
Serves as a communication tool between mentors and others
Why you should have a plan

10. Feedback
Points of view
Culture
Tradition
Practice
Attitude
History
Way forward
Innovate Ways To Give And Receive Feedback Across Cultures Based on the Science of Learning

11. Make it stick The Science of Successful Learning
Peter C. Brown
Henry L. Roediger III
Mark A. McDaniel

12. Reflection Testing Generation Key concepts
Retrieves knowledge from memory, connects to new experiences, visualizes and mentally rehearses
Testing
Powerful retrieval tool; i.e. makes learning stick far better than re-exposure to the original material
Generation
Fill in a word’s missing letters resulted in better memory of the word
Key concepts

13. Reflection, testing, and generation solidify pathways in one’s brain
Reference:
Image is retrieved from

14. Some professionals/stude nts are motivated to master highly difficult memory and motor-skill challenges like action video games but are not motivated to learn challenging subjects in gobal nutrition. Why do you think it is the case?
The answer lies in the power of feedback. Check out pages 39 and 40.
In motor learning, trial and error with delayed feedback is a more awkward but effective way of acquiring a skill than a trial and correction through immediate feedback!
Studies show that giving feedback strengthens retention more than testing alone does.
Some evidence show that delaying feedback briefly produces better long-term learning than immediate feedback.
Reference:
Image was retrieved from

15. Strategies to improve complex mastery
Practice
Practice like you play and you will play like you practice
Balance
Balance variety with repeated retrieval practice
Seek out
Seek out practical experience with daily reflection
Quiz
Quiz yourself at all times
Keep
Keep changing practice
Strategies to improve complex mastery
Daily reflection is a form of spaced retrieval practice

16. How efforts help? Re-consolidating Memory Creating Mental Models
Broadening Mastery
Fostering Conceptual Learning
Improving Versatility
Priming the mind for learning
How efforts help?

17. Be the one in charge Reference:
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18. 2 kinds of successful intelligence
Fluid intelligence
Ability to reason, see relationships, think abstractly, and hold information in mind while working on a problem
Crystallized intelligence
one’s accumulated knowledge of the world and the procedures or mental models one has developed from past learning and experiences
2 kinds of successful intelligence
Refer to pages 147 – 150 for other types of successful intelligence, including:
Analytical one; i.e. ability to complete problem-solving tasks.
Creative: ability to synthesize and apply existing knowledge and skills to deal with new and unusual situations
Practical: ability to adapt to everyday life

19. Which study strategies do you need to use on a regular basis?
Re-reading
Practice problems
Mnemonics/Rhymes
Think of real world examples
Highlight
Re-write notes
Flashcards
Make review sheet
Study groups
Memorize
Self-test
Which study strategies do you need to use on a regular basis?

20. Learning Tips Practice Space out Interleave Calibrate Use
Practice retrieving new learning from memory
Practice
Space out your retrieval practice
Space out
Interleave the study of different problem types
Interleave
Practice elaboration
Practice generation
Practice reflection
Always calibrate your judgment of what you know and what you don’t know
Calibrate
Use mnemonic devices
Use
Learning Tips

21. Learning is an effortful process
When learning is difficult and effortful, it is stronger and better remembered.
Easy learning is usually superficial and soon forgotten.
As you learn, challenges and failures are more likely to change your brain and promote true mastery of topics.
Learning is an effortful process

22. Tips for trainers and/or practitioners
Generation
Reflection
Elaboration
rehearsal
Spaced practice
Interleaving
Tell-show-do-review
Tips for trainers and/or practitioners

23. Personal Information
Values
Interest
Personality traits
Data, People, Things preference
Skills and aptitudes
Education/training goals
Career Information
Career values
Career duties and responsibilities
Personality type needed
Data, People, Things characteristics
Skills and aptitudes required
Education/training required
Way for improved career planning: Map your personal against career information

24. The world is evolving and one’s perceptions need to evolve with it.1
There is dire need to know the facts of the past in the context of shaping the story of the future for realizing the Sustainable Development Goals. 2
Knowledge alone is not enough. There are new skills, features and behaviors to possess for driving population engagement through data, and emerging technology and media. 3
Take Home Messages

25. Questions?
Happy to answer any query or question you may have. me at: