How To Become A Community Dietitian: What It Is and Career Path

What is a community dietitian and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted Expert

Shannon Aguilar MS,RD,LD

The average community dietitian salary is $61,786. The most common degree is a bachelor's degree degree with an dietetics major. It usually takes 1-2 years of experience to become a community dietitian. Community dietitians with a Registered Dietitian (RD) certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 7% and produce 5,100 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a Community Dietitian?

Shannon Aguilar MS,RD,LD

Assistant Professor of Practice, Didactic Program Director

Nutrition is constantly changing so staying up to date with current trends, nutrigenomics, food insecurity/food sustainability, social media basics if pursuing consulting field, and cooking skills/classes to engage your patients/clients for real-world skills.

ScoreCommunity DietitianUS Average

Salary

4.8

Avg. Salary $61,786

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

7.2

Growth Rate 7%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.87%

Asian 8.99%

Black or African American 9.11%

Hispanic or Latino 11.35%

Unknown 3.66%

White 66.02%

Gender

female 95.86%

male 4.14%

Age - 40

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 40

Stress Level

7.2

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

9.8

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

6.9

Work Life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Newest jobs for Community Dietitian in Columbus, OH

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Key steps to become a community dietitian

Explore community dietitian education requirements

Most common community dietitian degrees

Bachelor's

76.3 %

Master's

16.3 %

Certificate

3.7 %

Start to develop specific community dietitian skills

Skills	Percentages
Medical Nutrition	17.12%
Health Education	6.69%
Heart Disease	5.73%
Community Health	5.30%
Disease Management	5.07%

Complete relevant community dietitian training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New community dietitians learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a community dietitian based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real community dietitian resumes.

Research community dietitian duties and responsibilities

Manage the anemia status of patients by reviewing necessary lab data and initiating or adjusting medication doses.
Provide nutrition education and diet counseling to WIC participants, groups and individuals.
Provide basic nutrition education to WIC patients and teach nutrition classes in this rural community.
Monitor patients' nutrition status, laboratory values, diet tolerance, and motivate them to adhere to dietary/medications recommendations.

Prepare your community dietitian resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your community dietitian resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a community dietitian resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Community Dietitian Resume templates

Build a professional Community Dietitian resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Community Dietitian resume.

Apply for community dietitian jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a community dietitian job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do community dietitians rate their job?

-/5

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1 Star

Community Dietitian reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2022

Cons

No room for upward mobility in most healthcare areas. Pay is bad. Still the lowest paid healthcare professionals for the amount of education required to become a RDN. For that much education better off becoming a PA or RN that becomes a NP.

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2019

Pros

I love the daytime work hours and having the weekends off most of the time. I love it when a client is interested in diet and ready to learn.