Hello! I am Afifah, the adventurous nutritionist who proudly completed my internship far away from hometown in Johor! Here’s my experience joining Homey team and relocating myself to Penang.
One of the most eye-catching experiences I get in Homey is Homey embeds every nutritionist and dietitian in the team to become a "result-proven" individual. Applying the terms "result-proven" in this career allows us to track our milestones in this field.
In Homey, I communicate with so many clients with various health concerns. Sometimes the clients will come to us clueless and need our support to improve their health. Hence, I learned that I can use my value to build trust with the client. From there, I can show the client what value Homey and I will bring to them. I value talking with the client the most. By knowing more about them, I polished my communication skills throughout the time I am carrying my responsibility as part of a customer care team. As a result, I am more confident in persuading and convincing the client to trust Homey and let Homey help them reach their goal.
The most memorable client I have ever encountered was an old Kampung guy named Mr. A. He is very loving and caring towards his wife; he wants the best for his wife according to her medical condition. I remember I talk to him for more than 1 week to convince him to continue getting our help catering for his wife's meals. Finally, after several attempts to reassure Mr. A of Homey service, Mr. A agrees to receive our help until now. Mr. A is confused and thinks that Afifah is a guy. It is okay. I am so happy that he still remembers me until now.
Other than that, I was also assigned to the meal plating team. I am happy to have hands-on practice with my knowledge during my uni life. Now I can eyeball the grammage for all the ingredients during plating. I believe I have gained a valuable skill that can be helpful when conducting a nutrition consultation somewhere in the future. Furthermore, being on the meal plating team makes me more aware of the ingredients patients need to avoid due to medical conditions. By observing the diet prescribed to the patient, I can take a guess at their current health condition.
I was also assigned to MeSTI and Halal project aimed to assist Homey in getting the MeSTI and Halal certificate. I always thought that MeSTI and Halal are beyond the Nutrition field. However, anyone can actually conduct the company for the certification with proper training. Accepting the responsibility to lead the company in getting the certificate makes me realize several aspects I lack. Therefore, I will provide sometime later to evaluate myself and try my best to improve the aspects I lack.
Kids nutrition has been my interest and I am glad to be part of the junior master chef program. Planning a kids nutrition program is not easy as I need to translate what i learnt into layman term that is very very understandable for the kids. I guess this explains ‘’step out from the confort zone’’.
It's my birthday!
Joining Homey allowed me to cross paths with various amazing people. I get to know a lot of wonderful and supportive colleagues throughout my internship journey. It was a challenging journey but I managed to get through it and did not regret any bit of my journey.
I am beyond grateful to everyone during these six months of internship. I thank myself for accepting the offer to join the Homey team!
Written by,
Afifah
Nutritionist Intern
Universiti Malaysia Sabah