dental hygiene jobs Archives - RDH Resumes and Career Guidance

5 Reasons You Aren’t Getting Dental Hygiene Interviews

June 24, 2015 By Doug Perry, Dental Hygiene Resume Coach

It may be sunny outside right now, but the dental hygiene job market is still cloudy.

However, there are breaks in the clouds for those that go the extra mile.

Are you getting interviews? If so, that’s good – you are doing some things right. But for those that aren’t or maybe the interviews seem just token or like the employer has already made up their mind, here are five problems that may be hurting your chances.

[Resume Service]

Bad Contact Information
This one goes both ways – on your end and on theirs.

Sounds ridiculous, right? A lot of employers today reply by e-mail these days to schedule interviews. This avoids the whole phone-tag thing since most people don’t answer their phones when it’s an unfamiliar number. You can’t avoid when someone mistyped your address but here’s three suggestions:

Create a really easy-to-type or remember e-mail address (I wrote more about e-mail addresses here)
Make double-, triple-, quadruple-sure YOU have it listed correctly on your resume
Do the same for your phone number, and even consider getting Google Voice to route calls through your cell phone so that you can create a custom voice message for potential employers

Sometimes the problem is on their end. When you e-mail your resume always ask for a quick confirmation that they got it. If they don’t respond within 24 hours, call, visit or re-email them – you’ll be glad you did if they legitimately didn’t get it. SPAM blockers are very aggressive these days and sometimes legit mail just doesn’t make it.

No Cover Letter
Lots of employers don’t even ask for a cover letter, but if your peers applying for the job all send one that could by why you don’t make the short list. It’s a standard practice to include a cover letter – no one will penalize you for including one, but some will if you don’t. Here’s how to write the perfect cover letter.

Unaddressed Qualifications
Review the job advertisement very carefully and address each of the things they are requesting. This is one of your best tools for helping to sell yourself. They want someone who is a good fit and if you ignore the qualifications or don’t adequately share how you are a great fit, you probably won’t get an interview (you can read more about this here)

For example, there will be a line that reads something like “Please include in your cover letter the name of the current president of the United States.” Those that comply pass the first test of being “attentive to details” and those that don’t… well, their resume gets tossed.

Nothing Has Happened Yet
It’s frustrating for sure, but employers will sometimes hold off for various reasons, putting not just you, but everyone in limbo. It would be appropriate, assuming you have confirmed they received your information in the first place, to contact them 1-2 weeks after you submitted your resume (I wrote more about that here). I sometimes look at that as a red flag that perhaps the employer isn’t someone you would want to work for anyway.

My wife, Tracie, had an experience like that when she was first seeking employment. There was a doctor that had her come in as a temp several times and told her he would soon be seeking a permanent hygienist, but he would never pull the trigger even though he got to the point where he had no permanent hygienist. For whatever reason he struggled with making decisions and it wasn’t just this situation, there were others Tracie heard about later.

Finally, one of the best pieces of advice I can give when seeking a job is never push pause. By that I mean keep looking, keep sending resumes, and keep making contacts with people. One great job interview or one potential dream job can cause a great deal of stress and the best way to alleviate that is to push forward to the next one… to the next opening in the clouds.

Try this Unique Dental Hygiene Job Search Strategy

May 27, 2015 By Doug Perry, Dental Hygiene Resume Coach

There are lots of ways for you to stand out during your dental hygiene job search. But I’m guessing this will be a new one for you.

I call it a CAR Sheet. This has nothing to do with transportation, although it could help you speed up the processing of landing a job.

CAR stands for Challenge – Action – Resolution and it’s a way for you tell more of your story, getting potential employers a little closer to the know-, like-, trust-stage – a major part of landing interviews and jobs.

Dental employers assume because you have a license in dental hygiene that you know how to do dental hygiene – that’s great. But the bigger question is how well you do it.

Accompanied with a dental hygiene resume, cover letter, and testimonial sheet, a CAR Sheet helps employers see how awesome you are before you get to the interview stage. Like a Testimonial Sheet, it validates that you are the real deal.

So let’s create your CAR Sheet. This is a one-page document designed with the same font and overall look of your resume. But for the content, you will share 3-5 experiences you’ve had as a hygienist in very simple, succinct writing. I’m talking about something like five short sentences in one paragraph.

Here’s a one paragraph example broken up:

[Challenge]

[Action]

I could sense her apprehension and decided to give her a little extra attention – more empathy and compassion – and tried to connect on things we had in common to help distract her.

[Resolution]

It worked! She became one of my best, most consistent patients (and a great friend). She thanked me profusely when we were done and would only reschedule on days when I was working.

Here’s the paragraph all together:

At All Smiles Dental, I serviced a patient that had an intense fear of dental offices. She had been to several different practices in the last five years and kept changing because she didn’t feel comfortable. I could sense her apprehension and decided to give her a little extra attention – more empathy and compassion – and tried to connect on things we had in common to help distract her. It worked! She became one of my best, most consistent patients (and a great friend). She thanked me profusely when we were done and would only reschedule on days when I was working.

Again, brevity is important so that you don’t overwhelm the receiver. Just get straight to those three things and move on to the next example – no more than one page in total. Save extended details for the interview.

These are your top experiences – your best examples of how you shine as a dental hygienist. And the best part is, the story isn’t finished yet – keep recording these experiences through out your career. I promise you, they will make a difference in your job search.

Most hygienists won’t go to this length to share information. The ones who do, have an advantage so take it seriously and grab the keys to your CAR and take off!

Most Dental Hygienists Can’t Do Enough of this One Thing…

May 13, 2015 By Doug Perry, Dental Hygiene Resume Coach

It’s not just me saying it and it’s probably nothing new to you, but your most valuable dental hygiene job hunting combination is you and your friends.

Don’t get me wrong – job boards are extremely important – lots and lots of hygienists find work this way. Postcards have absolutely proven their merit in finding work for my clients. And a great resume beats even an average resume every time.

But those still don’t compare to who you know and a consistent effort to making new connections throughout your career.

According the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, around 70 percent of all jobs filled are done so without even advertising the job. Jobvite.com recently provided research that referred employees get hired on an average of about 1-2 weeks faster and report greater satisfaction with the job.

And all it amounts to is employers and job seekers communicating within their networks – but does YOUR name come up in the those conversations?

Here’s some quick reminders of ways launch your networking skills:

Most Important: When you begin networking shift your mindset from what others can do for you and instead focus on what you can do for them. There’s an old saying, “Help others get what they want, and they will help you get what you want.” Research studies have backed up this principle of reciprocity for a long time and it rarely if ever works in reverse.
Join and get involved in your local ADHA chapter/component (you won’t get anything out of simply joining, you have to participate regularly)
If you don’t have a chapter near you, consider starting your own or starting a simple study group of hygienists. Even if there are only a handful of hygienists in your local community, it really does help to get together regularly (quarterly) to talk about the profession and share best practices.
Re-acquaint yourself with previous employers and co-workers. Stay in contact with these people. Obviously some you never want to talk to again, but too often we severe ties with co-workers we do get along with and with social media these days it need not be so.
Use social media to foster and create new local relationships (ie LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, even Pinterest!). Don’t be afraid to connect with someone you don’t know or that you have only met once – some with shy away from that, but others will embrace and you can do a lot of good for your career by reaching out.
Focus extra attention on the network closest to you (within the radius you are willing to work). You never know where you will eventually land and so it’s good to reach out beyond your community, but the bulk of your efforts should be on connecting with those nearest to your and your career objectives.
Don’t think of networking as a quick job-hunting strategy – it’s best described as a career mindset. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. But that’s okay, a year from now or five years from now, you won’t care that you’ve been networking for five years. The only thing that will matter at that point is that you have an awesome collection of contacts you’ve helped out and who are anxious to now return the favor.

Dental Hygiene Job Hunting From a Distance

March 4, 2015 By Doug Perry, Dental Hygiene Resume Coach

Dental hygiene job hunting is hard enough without adding the element of doing it from a distance. When you don’t live in the area where you need to find a job, you have to some extra things to make you current location not an issue.

But it can be done (I’ve had several dental hygiene clients pull it off) and here are a few considerations and pointers to make it happen for you.

Research

It’s really important you get a handle on the situation where you want to move to. Spend some time profiling the area. Learn everything you can about the area – average hygiene wages, where job openings are posted, proximity to hygiene schools (more schools often equals tougher competition), contact information of local staffing agencies, contact information of local dental hygiene associations or components, and so on.

If the decision to move is still up on the air, it’s really important to know what you are getting into before you make any commitments. It may cause you to change your mind or at least adjust your plans and expectations.

Licensure

The next thing you will need to consider, and hopefully this is obvious, is RDH licensure. What will be required in terms of a new license? What’s legal or not legal where you want to move?

Anesthesia licensing, for example, may be perfectly normal where you live now, but in some areas it’s a new practice and some doctors just aren’t as comfortable with it yet. Are you okay with that?

Networking

The absolute best and most important thing you can do is begin networking with other hygienists in the new area. You can find them on LinkedIn or Facebook in many cases. Or perhaps you have friends in the new area that have contacts.

There are lots of dental hygiene Facebook discussion groups that are tied to specific cities or regions and I believe most followers of those groups will be happy to help you. I help administrate the largest social media group on LinkedIn called Dental Hygienists (at coming up on 13,500 members, you can click here to join them).

I had one client who contacted some dentists and hygienists in the area she wanted to move to and was able to not only make some new friends, but ended up lining up a couple interviews before she even moved there.

Here’s a good approach for that instead of “Do you have any job openings?” Ask instead, “What advice would you give a hygienist looking for work in your area?” People love giving advice – it’s less threatening, yet if they do happen to have or know of an opening, they will share it with you.

If you plan an actual field trip to the new area, consider contacting a few working dental hygienists in the area you want to work in and offer to take them out to lunch – but target ones who are active in the local association as they will generally be better connected. Just tell them you are looking for mentors and contacts to help you find work.

Consider visiting at a time when you can attend a local dental conference or monthly chapter meeting. That will land some great opportunities to network. Bring lots of business cards or postcards to hand out.

Finally, contact the local temp agency. They can get you up to speed on the area’s job scene.

Marketing Materials

I mentioned getting some postcards printed to hand out. That’s a great strategy but try and concentrate it on a smaller radius of where you might want to live, then mail them out to the broader area.

I would also recommend that on your resume you remove your mailing address. Employers look for the least path of resistance and also for any small thing they can to eliminate you as a potential candidate – where you live could be an automatic dis-qualifier for them.

You may even want to consider getting a Google Voice phone number (free) with a prefix that is more common to the area you want to move to.

Staffing Agency

The local staffing agency can be a huge resource to helping you get off on the right foot. Make an appointment to meet with them to talk about the local job scene. Treat your visit with them like a job interview – impress them, make them want to give you their best leads and staffing opportunities.

Finding a job in another city is challenging, but with the right preparation and steps to market yourself you can land a great dental hygiene job.

Why Am I Not Getting Dental Hygiene Job Interviews?

November 12, 2014 By Doug Perry, Dental Hygiene Resume Coach

Everyone knows, the dental hygiene job market stinks. But there are job openings (maybe not enough, but they do happen) and so you should be getting regular interviews.

Are you getting interviews? If so, that’s good – you are doing some things right. But if your phone isn’t ringing much or at all, despite applying for lots of jobs, you should read on because there could be a variety of things going on.

If you feel good about your resume (how it looks and reads) then consider the following:

[Sales Snippet]

Your Bad Contact Information
Sounds ridiculous, right? A lot of employers today reply by e-mail these days to schedule interviews. This avoids the whole phone-tag thing since most people don’t answer their phones when it’s an unfamiliar number. You can’t avoid when someone mistyped your address but two suggestions – create a really easy-to-type or remember e-mail address and then make sure YOU have it listed correctly on your resume (I wrote more about e-mail addresses here). Also, make sure your phone number is listed correctly and that you have a clear, simple voice message greeting.

Their Bad Contact Information
Sometimes the problem is on their end. Whenever you e-mail your resume always ask for a quick confirmation they received it. If they don’t respond within 24 hours I would recommend you call, visit or try e-mailing again. If they legitimately didn’t get your resume, you’ll be glad you followed up.

No Cover Letter
Lots of employers don’t even ask for a cover letter but if your peers applying for the job all send one and you don’t that could be downfall. It’s a standard practice to include a cover letter so always send one and then make sure you are using it to help sell or market you for that specific job you are applying for. Here’s seven tips for writing a great cover letter.

Unaddressed Qualifications
Review the job advertisement carefully and address each of the things they are requesting. This is one of your best tools for helping to sell yourself to them. They want someone who is a good fit and if you ignore the qualifications or don’t adequately share how you fit your application will be easily dismissed (you can read more about this here)

Directions Not Followed
In job markets where there is lots of parity between hygienists, employers will look for anything to differentiate candidates. That includes playing little tricks on them. I’ve read lots of job announcements where the employer will plant a very important statement at the end of the advertisement to see who’s paying attention. For example, there will be a line that reads something like “Please include in your cover letter the name of the current president of the United States.” Those that comply pass the first test of being “attentive to details” and those that don’t… well, they don’t get the call.

Nothing Has Happened Yet
It’s frustrating for sure, but employers will sometimes hold off for various reasons, putting not just you but everyone in limbo. It would be appropriate, assuming you have confirmed they received your information in the first place, to contact them 1-2 weeks after you submitted your resume (I wrote more about that here). I sometimes look at that as a red flag that perhaps the employer isn’t someone you would want to work for anyway.

5 Reasons You Aren’t Getting Dental Hygiene Interviews

Try this Unique Dental Hygiene Job Search Strategy

Most Dental Hygienists Can’t Do Enough of this One Thing…

Dental Hygiene Job Hunting From a Distance

Why Am I Not Getting Dental Hygiene Job Interviews?

Creating a Transitional Resume for a Dental Hygienist

Contact GetHiredRDH Now

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