This is a guest blog from BU graduate Olivia who shares her experience of studying BSc (Hons) Nutrition, her advice and what she’s been up to since graduating. 

Hi, I’m Olivia, and I graduated from the Nutrition degree at Bournemouth University in 2022.

My time at BU taught me several lessons.

1. Bournemouth is windy (really, I did not expect it!! But the beach is beautiful to have on the doorstep and the best way to unwind after studying)
2. Obviously, the academic lessons; having a sound understanding of food, recipes and product labels is a huge part of my job now.
3. However, arguably more valuable to me are the skills I learnt. The presentations we had to do (whilst dreading them at the beginning of the course) set me up for speaking with confidence in meetings and I use communication professionalism in emails every day in my current role. My cohort had a unique experience, as we started in September 2019 and then Covid hit in March 2020, causing uni to be completely online until the beginning of our final year. Whilst I missed out on much of the traditional uni experience, this meant I could call upon many experiences of remote studying to prove I was capable of my current job role. Whilst this (hopefully) won’t be applicable to any prospective students, I hope it shows how you will become invaluable to employers regardless of external factors.

After having a break the summer after I graduated, I got a job working for ZOE, a personalised nutrition company, as a Food Database Operations Associate. Part of my job involves maintaining the food database and adding new foods and recipes each week. It’s exciting to work with people who are so passionate about helping the public understand nutrition, and as it’s a start-up company, I look forward to seeing where the opportunity will take me as the company grows.

I would really recommend a career in nutrition for prospective students at Bournemouth. It’s a degree with so many opportunities, and I know people who have gone into healthcare, teaching and research after graduating, just to name a few. When I handed in my dissertation I did not expect to be working with as much data as I do now, but I love it! It is a challenging course, but the support available will make that easier and the knowledge you gain is worth it!

For anyone ready to start in September, my biggest tip is to keep an open mind and take advantage of every opportunity offered. It’ll either help you get to where you want to go or help you decide what’s not for you, which is just as important.

And to anyone soon to graduate from the course; use examples in interviews! This took a few rejections for me to realise (extra tip: ALWAYS ask for feedback if you get turned down) but reflecting on certain parts of the course will help. It may sound obvious, but in the heat of an interview when you’re feeling nervous, you’ll be glad you reminded yourself of the time you had to work as a team at uni, making tortilla chips out of homemade oat flour in your shared house kitchen, whilst on a video call with the rest of your team, and the challenges you had to overcome whilst doing that!!

Find out more

BSc (Hons) Nutrition (with Foundation Year option)