Finding an Associate Dentist Job - It’s not Just What You Do, It is How You Do It

Dentistry is a highly technical field requiring extensive training to hone clinical techniques and skills, yet it is often not these technical skills that determine who get the best jobs after dental school. Generally, the “soft skills” are what will make or break your chances of landing an ideal associate position. To separate yourself from other associate candidates, it is important to recognize what these skills are and why they matter.

What are “Soft Skills?” Soft skills, or people skills, are what inspire trust from patients. They make someone an effective communicator and a productive part of a team. There are many soft skills needed to be an effective dentist, but here are the leading soft skills requested by the practice owners for whom we consult.

Communication skills

Patients will take it for granted that the “Dr.” in front of your name means that you are qualified to drill a tooth or seat a crown. They do not become long-term patients because your margins are perfect. They come back to you because you are a pleasant person who understands your patient’s apprehension and takes the time to answer his or her questions. When interviewing a potential associate, a practice owner will look for these characteristics to determine the quality of your communication skills:

• Clear articulation: Can you convey ideas so that others easily understand?
• Expressiveness: Do you use voice inflection and descriptive language to avoid sounding “dry?"
• Empathy: Do you inspire trust by accurately reading the emotions of others and respond appropriately?
• Confidence: Do you exude self-assurance in your abilities?

 

Attitude and Outlook

Practice owners need their associates to be an asset to their practice. Most genuinely want the associate arrangement to be a “win-win” arrangement where everyone profits. Hiring a clinically exceptional but emotionally-taxing associate will not be sustainably beneficial to the practice. To avoid this, practice owners will look for the following:

• Positive Attitude: Are you generally optimistic or are you overly critical? Will it be fun to work with you?
• Willingness to learn: Are you accepting of feedback and helpful criticism or do you become defensive?
• Flexibility: Can you adapt to changing circumstances and new challenges?
• Work ethic: Will you exceed the minimum expectations? Will you go above and beyond for your patients when necessary?
• Motivation: Will you continuously strive for improvement? Do you set challenging personal and professional goals? Will you be satisfied if you fail to achieve those goals?

Professionalism

Even the freshest new dental school graduate is a doctor and so has earned the respect of the dental practice staff and the larger community. With this respect comes the demand of maintaining a professional demeanor. Beyond that, you are a highly compensated professional with a public profile. You are a pillar of the community who will be a leader in the office. Can a practice owner trust you to maintain this esteem? Here is what he or she will look for:

• Time Management: Can you be trusted to be ready to see patients as soon as the practice opens?
• Team Player: Will you be cooperative and respectful when working toward greater group goals?
• Leadership: Will you lead the office staff by example? Will you avoid petty squabbles? Will you have the courage to address problems and work towards solutions?
• Problem Solving: Will you apply your training in a creative manner to drive innovation and improvement?
• Work under pressure: Can you be trusted to maintain decorum under deadlines and through difficulties?

The more of these skills you display, the more comfortable a practice owner will be in choosing you for his or her practice. Remember - it is not what a practice can do for you, it is what you can do for a practice.
 

Posted by Morgan Pace, Vice President and Senior Dentist Recruitment Consultant with ETS Dental. To find out more, call Morgan at (540) 491-9102 or email at mpace@etsdental.com.

 

Balancing the Chaos - Ten Tips to Create a Better Work Life Balance

I feel like I should start a support group with this introduction, but…

Hi, my name is Tiffany and I suffer from horrible work/life balance.  I work full time, am taking classes online, and I am raising two kids.  Throw into the mix household chores, two dogs, Girl Scouts, viola lessons, marching band, and a plethora of other projects going on at any given time, and you have a snapshot of my life.   Just writing this down is making me nervous.  What am I forgetting that needs to be taken care of or done tonight?!

Crazy thing about my little chaotic snapshot above is I know I am not alone.  Life is crazy anymore.  Looking around my office, each one of us has a handful or two of other activities and responsibilities.  Chances are your office is the same way.  Life happens regardless of your title or position.

So, how do you balance it all?  Initially, I started looking for sites with tips, but I decided it was better to get real life answers so I took my question to my colleagues and Facebook followers.  Some answers were almost universal; some were a little more unique.  Here are some highlights….

Ten things you can do to create a better work life balance

1. Limit the amounts of time that you do work stuff at home or vice versa.
2. Use a calendar!  Scheduling events makes it easier to know what is coming up and plan accordingly.  Google Calendar is a favorite for many of those that responded.
3.  Create lists.  Do what must be done first.  Do what you do not want to do and get it out of the way.  Once something is completed, check it off and move on to the next.
4. Turn off your alerts; do not be a slave to your phone.  Check your emails on your own terms; not with every beep, buzz, or blinking light.
5. Take some time for what makes you happy: read a book, watch a movie, go for a run, exercise, or go out for a drink with a friend.
6. Find some peace.  Pray.  Meditate.  Get a massage. 
7. Get help!  This was a tough one for me, but there is no reason that my kids couldn’t straighten up the house while they are waiting for me to get home or wash the dishes from breakfast.  They even like starting dinner once in a while. 
8. Don’t be afraid to let go.  One of my Facebook friends said it best, “When I was working full time, was a full time graduate student and a single mom I achieved balance by letting go of things that do NOT last-dishes, dust and laundry.  Instead, I chose football practice, school activities and a kid flick.”
9. Say no.  I struggle with this one, but it is okay to not do everything all of the time.  If something is not important to you, let it go and focus on what needs your attention.
10. Find what works for you.  Take advantage of the time you have; I study on my lunch breaks and can knock out a good bit of my reading without interruptions which helps me immensely.  A colleague wrote, “Having the opportunity to work remotely is a huge thing for me.  It helps me not to feel guilty about going to my kids’ activities (games, etc.) and I make up my time in the evenings when they are engrossed with homework.  Sometimes they will come and hang out in my office as they do their homework and we’ll all be ‘working’ together.” 

I guess I have some pretty smart colleagues and friends!  Of course this is only a small sampling of the ideas out there; what do you to do to make your own chaos work?  I would love to hear what works for you.    

"Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so love the people who treat you right, forget about the ones who don't, and believe that everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it. 
-Harvey Mackay 

 

Tiffany Worstell is a nationwide Recruiter for Dental Staff at ETS Dental. She can be reached at tworstell@etsdental.com or 540-491-9112. ETS Dental is a Dental Recruiting firm specializing in finding and placing General Dentists, Dental Specialists, and Dental Staff throughout the United States. www.etsdental.com

Balancing Dental School and a Family

This is a great post from the DMDstudent.com. Visit his site for more great articles.

Over the course of this website’s history I have recieved several emails asking how I balance dental school and a family. While I am no professional in the subject, I have been married for six years and have half as many kids, so my opinion and experiance will have to do. I encourage any comments on this subject as well.

Dental School is just a step in life. It ends. It lasts for four years and then life moves on. Your family on the other hand stays with you - or at least it should. The first thing to do is to prioritize. Family comes first. This is up to interpretation of course. During finals week my family might have dropped a few notches on the priority totem pole. I have come up with a few items that have helped keep my family happy - most of the time.

1. Time. Your family needs a daily dose of time. There is always 24 hours in one day. Subtract the time spent at school, the needed study time, dinner time, etc. and use the leftover time to spend with your wife and kids. Sometimes you won’t have any time at all. During my second year I remember leaving early for school, coming home, eating, putting the kids to bed, talking to my wife for 10-15 minutes and studying until bedtime. This was common during the first two years but was remedied by a simple thing seen in #2.

2. Date Night. My classmate (who helped write this article) who also has a family likes the following saying, “It is better to spend money on date night during dental school than to spend money on marriage counseling after dental school.” If you go a week and have only spent 15-30 minutes a day with your family than a date night is a good time to relax and have fun. My uncle went through dental school with a family and his motto was to study hard on weekdays and have fun on the weekends. Date nights on a budget usually consist of going out to dinner, a movie, renting a movie, hanging out with friends, going into the city, playing rockband together, etc. You don’t have to go all out each time, it is the quality of time spent together. Find other families in your area and do a swap. Each week one family takes all the kids for THREE hours while the other families go out. Each week rotates between familes. That means that if you get 4 families to participate you get to go out for three weeks in a row and babysit on the fourth week. The babysitting part isn’t so bad because all the kids entertain each other.

3. When you are spending time with your family are you there in mind or just body? Sometimes when it was close to finals I would find myself hanging out with my family, but my mind was elsewhere. I would be half listening to my boys or my wife - or sometimes not be listening at all. When you are hanging out, take a deep breath, relax, and hang out. Then get back to your studies or lab work, etc.

4. Help out around the house. My wife stays at home with our kids and her routine is pretty much the same. Chores don’t change that much and don’t get more or less exciting. If you come home after along day and you see a pile of laundry on the couch or the garbage is overflowing…take a minute to help out. It only takes about ten minutes to do a few chores and your spouse will appreciate it whether they say so or not. It is the small things that help a relationship.

5. Communicate. This is done daily and is self explanatory. Dental school is stressful for everyone. Your spouse wants to spend time with you, your kids miss you, and you miss your family. I won’t get too mushy here, but express gratitude, tell each other you miss them during the day. More communication can be done during date night.

6. Marry an understanding person. My wife is a strong women. In fact she ran 3 or 4 eight-minute miles almost everyday up until about 6-7 months into her third pregnancy. I can’t drive three mile without breaking a sweat. She is very understanding and has made many sacrifices so I could pursue my studies. Make sure to be understanding of your spouses sacrifices and spouses make sure you realize the sacrifices your spouse is making while in dental school.

None of this information is profound in anyway. This is a little of what we have done in dental school. A lot of this is different depending on the family dynamic and the relationships and personalities of each member. Not all my time is spent with either school or family which makes prioritizing difficult. I am a member of several clubs at school and am a scoutmaster for my church and I am looking at pursuing more education after dental school. LIFE WILL ALWAYS BE BUSY. Dental school is just one chapter in the whole scheme and it is very possible to get through dental school with a family. Remember: Roughly 4,500 new dentists graduate each year, a decent percentage of them are married with kids and if they can do it, so can you. I hope this helps and feel free to comment or ask specific questions and I will do my best to answer them.

The original post can be found by clicking the title to this article.