The Career You Want May Not Be Posted on a Job Board
Aug 27, 2026, 09:01 AM
By Diana Mesa, RDN, LDN, CDCES
When most of us begin our careers, we search job boards looking for the perfect next opportunity. We scroll through listings, compare qualifications, and hope to find a position that feels like the right fit.
Some of the most rewarding opportunities I’ve had in my career as a diabetes care and education specialist, however, were never posted online. No one advertised for a bilingual diabetes educator to become a television nutrition spokesperson. There wasn’t a job posting looking for someone to consult on culturally inclusive nutrition messaging for healthcare organizations and food brands.
Those opportunities didn’t exist until I created them. That realization completely changed how I think about career growth as a DCES.
Early in my career, I believed that the next step would always come from applying for another position. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with that path, I eventually realized that sometimes career advancement looks less like finding the next opening and more like identifying a need that hasn’t been filled yet.
For me, that meant asking questions like:
- What conversations aren’t happening that should be?
- Whose voices are missing?
- What unique experiences or skills do I bring that someone else may not?
As a bilingual Latina diabetes care and education specialist, I saw an opportunity to help bridge cultural gaps in nutrition and diabetes communication. While working at a diabetes clinic with exclusively Spanish speakers, I found myself translating English resources into Spanish and finding ways to display our cultural foods on the diabetes plate. I noticed the limitations in the existing resources— see, the challenge with generalizing diabetes education in Spanish is that, among Latin America, there are so many different words for the same thing, or there are fruits and vegetables that we don’t have names for in English. So, I created a digital workbook with examples of a diabetes plate using traditional foods from each Latin American country, and then I sold it online!
I started creating educational content online, not because I wanted to become an influencer, but because I wanted more people to have access to evidence-based, culturally relevant information. I shared what I was learning, spoke about topics I cared deeply about, and consistently showed up (or tried to!).
Slowly, people began to notice.
Conference invitations followed. Consulting opportunities emerged. Media requests came in. Organizations reached out to collaborate on projects that aligned with my expertise.
None of those opportunities happened overnight. They were built through years of consistently sharing my work, investing in relationships, and saying yes to experiences that stretched me outside my comfort zone.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that advocating for yourself isn’t about being the loudest person in the room. It’s about being willing to tell people what you’re passionate about and where you can add value.
For many healthcare professionals, self-advocacy can feel uncomfortable. We’re taught to focus on serving others, not promoting ourselves. But I’ve come to realize there’s an important difference between self-promotion and self-advocacy.
Self-promotion says, “Look at me.”
Self-advocacy says, “Here’s how I can help.”
That mindset shift changed everything.
Sometimes advocating for yourself means asking to lead a new initiative at work. Sometimes it means presenting a poster at a conference, volunteering for a committee, writing an article, or reaching out to someone whose career you admire. Other times, it means pitching an idea that no one asked for because you believe it could make a difference.
Not every idea will work. Some emails will go unanswered. Some proposals will be declined. Some opportunities won’t materialize the way you hoped. That’s okay.
Every “no” teaches you something, and every attempt helps you become more confident in sharing your ideas.
If you’re early in your career, my advice is this: don’t limit your vision to the jobs you can search for today. Build expertise in something you genuinely care about. Share your knowledge. Raise your hand. Solve problems. Be curious. Look for gaps where your skills can make an impact.
The career you dream about may not exist yet. You may have to be the one who creates it.