Summary of Part 1: Professor Houghton shared her journey from a single-parent family to becoming a nutrition expert through a wide variety of experiences. She emphasised the significance of learning from mistakes and highlighted her transition from high school to university, discussing challenges and decisions faced. Lisa's university years saw her exploring different courses, leading to her passion for nutrition and navigating through diverse job opportunities and volunteer work to shape her career path. She stressed the value of volunteer work and gaining diverse experiences in career development, advising caution in managing student debt and pursuing higher degrees judiciously. Lisa reflected on transitioning through different job roles, underscoring the importance of trying various paths before settling on a career - and not being too fixed in that.. Her research work in low and middle-income countries highlighted the importance of community impact and collaborative research efforts, discussing the influence of cultural factors on nutrition strategies.
Changing Career Paths
Q. The first question touched on the issue of career change. [Years ago people tended to hold the same job throughout their working lives, but this has become much less common.]
A. Lisa recalled a conversation she had had with her middle child in which she postulated Kennedy would have something like 7 different - not merely jobs, but career paths. (Kennedy was unimpressed). But it is Prof. Houghton’s belief that: “You're going to have to upskill throughout your career, and you're going to have those opportunities.” Again returning to volunteer work: “The evidence does show that recruiters pick people with volunteer experience, especially new graduates coming out. You may not have a lot of job experience in that area, but it's like 83% of recruiters pick people with volunteer experience, but only 30% of people have volunteer experience on their resumé.”
Another advantage of volunteer work relates to finding out what you really want to do. Prof. Houghton’s own story well illustrates this search, and she talked about how interesting it had made life, working at different things in different countries. “My kids kind of laugh that I think my oldest daughter Erin's lived in 13 different households throughout her lifetime.”
In answering another question Prof. Houghton mentioned a student who had done a number of different volunteer jobs during her undergraduate degree and immediately secured a job with MyFoodBag, upon graduation. ” It's a job many experienced nutrition professionals would die for.”
Language and Culture
Q. You said that connecting with the community is very important for you, and especially in your current job in developing countries. So by any chance, do you speak any of the languages spoken in those countries?
A. In answering this one, Lisa first mentioned working in a factory in Japan for four months just before going on to University and thinking how cool it would be to learn Japanese. “And right from the get-go, I lived in a dormitory with mostly Brazilian women, because a lot of Brazilians have Japanese citizenship. They spoke Portuguese, and I learned more Portuguese than Japanese. But all of these countries I work in, they want to learn English!” So beyond the local words for ‘Hello’, ‘please’, ‘thankyou’ etc., she was occupied in teaching others English.
Prof, Houghton asked the questioner: “Why were you asking that?”
“Because I think with learning language, you get to learn a lot of culture alongside language. And that's really, really important.”
A. “I think that's an excellent goal to have. But, yeah, in my experience, they want to learn English from me. And, you know, in my Kiribati crew, I've turned them on to ChatGPT. It's blown their mind. I was like, that is the most professional email I've ever seen!”
RESOURCES
Q. Would you change anything about how you did all of your education?
A. Prof. Houghton operates a career podcast (fni.health on Spotify. [https://www.fni.health/]) and a good deal of the content is interviewing students who have just graduated.She always asks them one particular question: ‘If you were starting again, would you do the same degree?
“I think you guys can do anything you want to do at any point in your life. It will actually maybe take you a little bit of grit and grind to get there if you change your mind.” If you contemplate doing this, there are now some excellent resources available:
One resource that could help is Coursera. It offers courses by such institutions as Princeton, Harvard, the London School, Johns Hopkins and many others..[https://www.coursera.org/) most are free, and if you want proof that you took them, a certificate costs around $60. They are also connected to Linkedin, through which you can get a badge, again as proof you have taken the course.
EdX is another web-based resource [https://www.edx.org/] which offers 4000+courses. [I noticed one on AI in HealthCare which I’m going to look at!].
Some of these can be done in 6 to 8 weeks, so possible during the vacation between years 1 and 2 - or later. They could give you the information you need to change direction - or reinforce that you are going in the right direction for you.
[Others include the Open University in the UK, plus the Open Polytech and Massey University in New Zealand - but beware that some of these can be very expensive.]
Many organisations have learning and development ‘in-house’, perhaps to upskill, or to facilitate a change in direction.
This is an expanding area - partly because some Universities saw Coursera as signalling the end of Universities, so they jumped in with courses generally given by some of their best professors.
Loan Control and Higher Degrees
Particularly if you are at University with the aid of a loan, be aware of your expenditure.Prof. Houghton quoted the case of one of her daughters who “liked the café scene”, and when they went through her bank account were shocked at how much she spent on unnecessary items in cafés, on vending machines and the like. “I said I was disappointed - use that as a parent down the road: ’I’m disappointed!’”
“Do you know that most students graduate if they've taken a loan out with about a $60,000 debt owed at the end of the day?” - With a Masters as well, owing $80,000 is not unusual.
“A part time job, of course, helps. That's how I got through university. I had a five year degree . . . . . .I lived in a closet, that type of thing.”
So explore whether you need a higher degree before you undertake additional loans.
Prof. Houghton described cases of people who got good jobs without doing higher degrees, (often on the strength of volunteer work), and also noted others who did require them to do the work they were aiming at. Without a higher degree one can ‘hit a ceiling’ as one progresses, but it is still possible to do one if you see such a possibility on the horizon.
More on Volunteering
A volunteer job does not have to be directly relevant to any job for which you apply. “But I think any volunteer work really just helps you explore what the world's all about . . . . “I know OUSA has their volunteer program, there's UniCrew . . . . . . but I do encourage students to go to Volunteer South, which is filled with great jobs out there that are local community. I mean, balance it with the transport you need to get if there's a community job.
How to Handle Being in a Competitive Course
Q. How do you get over the fact that, like, everyone else is doing it [a competitive course] and I have to follow?
Once again, Prof. Houghton noted the value of volunteer work: ”But I think any volunteer work really just helps you explore what the world's all about . . . You've got to get a bigger picture. Join a club, get out, take different papers if you can. So, just to get that perspective, that will help you with a little bit of reflection at the end of the day.
Prof. Houghton asked the questioner what she wanted to do with Health Sciences, and the answer was Medicine - “I like working with people for people.”
“You're just going to do your best [with] the skills that you have to compete for Medicine. But you're obviously going to keep an open mind as well. Because one, you may not get in. Two, you may not want it if you do get in. So, I think, just do different papers. Go on to Coursera. Just make sure you're doing the right thing. And get some volunteer under your belt. I'm going to send you all out to volunteer!”
Volunteer for an Organisation of Your Choice
In answer to another question, Lisa noted that if one was particularly interested in an organisation, it could often pay to just contact them directly and give them some examples, or better yet, show them what you could do for them. She gave us an example using the the free design platform ‘Canva’ to prepare communication material like social media posts for an organisation or perhaps prepare a review in an area of interest to the target organisation and send it to them. “What's the worst thing they could do? Ignore your email?. . . . You’ve got ChatGPT to help you with a lovely email. . . .get out there and show them what you can do . . . . . having somebody enthusiastically on board is just a breath of fresh air.”
Why New Zealand?
Asked why they had chosen to come to New Zealand, Lisa noted that the job she had at the time had a very minor research component, but she loved doing research. A very good friend told her about the position here at Otago, and she already had a colleague working here.
“We're 15 years in Dunedin because of family, which has been a lovely place to be stuck, you know, as the kids have grown up here.”
Insights From Working in Low and Middle Income Countries
Q. You mentioned that in Kenya you had a moment where it's like you don't want to leave. What kind of new insights did working in a low and middle income country give you that you don't think you would have received if you had not done that kind of work?
A. Wow, okay. That the world is big. That their world is full of innovative and hardworking people that are trying to get to where we are, in our situation.
I work with a lot of NGOs that attract what I call cream of the crop because they're not making big money, but they're there for the right reasons. They are serving their communities. I would like to say that about New Zealand. That's not always the case, you know, so I say to my daughters, really reflect on who you're serving. Is it yourself? You want to be strategic about your decisions, but I think if you want happiness in life, you really do have to aim for a positive impact on the world and that is an evidence-based statement. Oxford University has what's called, and I would encourage you to check it out, 80,000 hours. [https://80000hours.org/ - This is a very useful site. They offer many career tips, including a downloadable free booklet. See footnote1]
That is the amount of time that you'll spend working in your career and there's a little calendar for that to see where you're at . . .but they do say there's five key ingredients to a dream job that you should always be checking in on, and one of the key ones is making a positive impact.
Working in those countries, I really saw these people that needed capacity building, they needed education, they needed security in terms of both financial security and safety . . . I think I just really loved working with them and being part of their team and learning culture. I learned how to co-design around their particular needs . . . . and that's a lot of what I do now.
I train the trainer and then the trainer can tailor it to their community.” [To my mind this sentence summarises THE most important thing about working in such communities - Ed.]
“Kiribati is a great example. There is so little food, they are so isolated and they are sinking. So, you are sitting on the main road and you can see the ocean on both sides.
I was there initially because of a beriberi epidemic (thiamine deficiency), . . because they only really have four main foods, rice, sugar, flour, and a few of their indigenous fruits and vegetables. That's really a down-and-out situation. There is really no education there, no jobs, and the island is quickly sinking and they are at risk of lots of things like cyclones that they have never been at risk before - because of climate change. But, my goodness, they are just resilient as.
In Kenya, one of the things I learned is lots of things went wrong.
We were really rural. We were doing large household surveys. We were taking blood samples and we ran out of vacutainers.
I said to the phlebotomist, we've got a problem. And, he says, ‘Okay, we've got a challenge here.’ - These people always say challenge instead of problem . . . . You only have a problem if you can't solve it. But, challenges are things that you can [solve]. I bought vacutainers off a pickup truck roadside, - black market vacutainers!”
The Huge Importance of Networking
Prof. Houghton was then asked how she came to be recruited for opportunities like Kiribati.
Essentially, it was through networks. In most cases people who knew her skills, heard of opportunities that would fit them and recommended her. There is also Linkedin, a web-based network with over a billion users that continues to grow.
“I do lots of talk about LinkedIn, which you should get going by next year because that is your network. . . . And, it is kind of your master professional summary. And, from there, you know, you get to tailor it to jobs and everything like that for resumés.
But, I think that was a great thing that they developed in terms of professional connections. So, network is huge. And, you know, you can call it network, friends, colleagues, but most opportunities and most jobs come through networks, not through seeking them . . . .Be polite. You don't get a job, give a nice thank you.
‘What an opportunity it was to meet you.’ - You are professional at every point now from here on in. Right? - I had one student. She didn't get her dream job. She was so gutted. She said, thank you so much. And, then they called her six weeks later because the applicant fell through and they offered it to her, you know. So, it's like she jumped on the plane to Sydney and happily ever after.”
Culture, Nutrition and Rabbits
Q. Going back to your international work, did you find culture and nutrition kind of interwoven?
A. “Yes. Food is an essential part of culture in every country I have worked. And, it plays a key part in the feeding behaviour of infants, too.” Culture is very important in nutrition. One needs to understand the culture before making recommendations, so working with local teams and codesigning with them is the way to go. This is called ‘Participatory Research’.
As said previously, train the trainer and then the trainer can tailor it to their community
“In Kenya, we worked with schools in looking at animal-sourced foods, because they're very important for growing children. And, Nairobi had a training program on rabbits, breeding rabbits for rabbit meat.” It therefore seemed a good idea to introduce this to the Maasai tribe who were faced with a lack of animal-sourced foods for their children.
But the Maasai live quite far from Nairobi, and they keep rabbits as pets, so suggesting they breed them for food is equivalent to suggesting New Zealanders breed dogs for food.
“I will say, because I'm interested in history and literature, I've used my opportunities. Every time I go to a different location, I learn everything. I take the books, the history books. Particularly, our Pacific countries. I'm really into geopolitics. You can see the world facing increasing pressure because of geopolitics right now.
So, I think it's more important than ever that you take a look at history. And, even history is very subjective at times. But, really understanding where you're going, where this place has been, the challenges it's been put through, and working with local teams around culture and religion.
Especially in the Pacific countries “The church really plays a big role in the health and wellbeing of the community.”
Joining Linkedin
Q. Can we connect on LinkedIn, please? Do you have LinkedIn?
A. Yes. You can definitely connect with me on LinkedIn.
And, I run courses on LinkedIn of how to use it. It is something that is very important. It's just a nice master summary of your experience.” - Including volunteer experience:
“You can do a blog for somebody as a volunteer action and put it on LinkedIn as a feature. And, you know, most resumes and cover letters that you'll write for jobs in the end, even summer jobs, you shouldn't be really kind of putting a lot on them. They're tailored to the position.
You shouldn't even put a photo on them. That's not really acceptable. But, LinkedIn, of course, wants all your details along with a nice photo of you. A professional looking head and shoulders shot with a smile!”
[1.The 80,000 hours web site is well worth a visit. Here is a small extract:]
Career guide
“Our career guide covers everything you need to know about how to find a fulfilling career that does good, from why you shouldn’t “follow your passion,” to why medicine and charity work aren’t always the best ways to help others.
It’s full of practical tips and exercises, and at the end, you’ll have a draft of your new career plan.”
