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One-Size-Fits-All Dental Hygiene Resume – Good or Bad?

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Are all clinical dental hygiene jobs alike? Of course not.

Are all employers alike? Ha – not even close.

So should your dental hygiene resume be the exact same for every clinical job interview?

It’s a legitimate question to consider. If I had to guess, I would say that about 99% of all hygienists probably do indeed send out the exact same resume for every clinical job.

Lots of career coaches will tell you that’s a bad idea, but I’m a little torn on it. I think if you’ve crafted a nicely-designed, well-written dental hygiene resume you are probably going to be fine… 80-90% of time.

Is that good enough to get you an interview that will lead you to a job? Probably, but not always.

There are always going to be employers out there who look to see how personalized your resume and cover letter to their unique job opening and so it really does make sense to at least look it over each time you send it out.

Here are four tips to help ensure you are sending out the best possible resume:

Read the ENTIRE Job Announcement

On more than one occasion I have seen employers place little tricks within their announcement to help weed out the less-attentive job seekers. Most commonly I have seen where they will place a very specific instruction at the bottom of the text telling you to include something different – maybe it’s an answer to a question or possible some word they want you to share with them in your e-mail back to them.

If you aren’t reading carefully you will miss it and your resume will get the automatic heave-ho.

Picture

It’s very rare (mostly in government-type jobs), but I have seen job announcements that specifically say “do not include a photo.” If your resume has a place for a photo on it, have an additional copy without it. In place of it you could put a nice monogram of your initials or perhaps some tasteful clipart or dental related design.

About Me Section

We are complex creatures with lots of dimensions. Your personal brand may be strong in one area such as being “detail-oriented” but maybe they seem to be more focused on someone that is fun to be around or compassionate. If you are those things, too, then consider modifying the wording of your About Me section to best match what they are seeking.

Skills/Experiences Section

Using the functional style resume we recommend – placing skills and experiences in a section of their own near the top – there might be a specific set of skills you don’t list but that they are wanting, such as using intraoral cameras. Include that if you have it and, in fact, do so prominently near the top of your list. Likewise, if you have something they are interested in already on your resume, move it up near the top.

Work History Section

If you have worked for an employer that was a bad experience (whether your fault or not), consider pulling it out if you are applying for a job and you know the potential employer knows that employer you had a bad experience with. There’s no law or ethic violation for omitting previous employers.

You may also benefit from including a non-dental hygiene job among your list of previous employers if there was a transferable skill gained. For example, if you worked at a day-care center for a year or two and are applying for a job with a pediatric practice you would likely want to include that.

Finding a New Dental Hygiene Job Checklist

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Finding a dental hygiene job can take months and even years in the current job market climate, depending on what kinds of things you do to market yourself. While you can’t always predict when you will need to search for a new job, there are lots of things you can do if you are in a position to prepare for it.

Whether you are preparing to graduate or are just planning your next career move, here’s a simple checklist to ensure you are doing all the right things to begin the search.

Your Target Market

Define the area you want to work in. Pinpoint a specific radius and create a spreadsheet with the name and address of every dental office within those boundaries. This is who you will concentrate your marketing on – your “target market”. If you don’t have time, hire someone on Elance.com or Fiverr.com to do it for you (could be as little as $20).

Define Your Brand

Decide how you want to “brand” yourself. For example, are you an experienced, easy-going, friendly, hard worker, tenacious, a great salesperson, exceptionally skilled at hygiene, flexible in terms of days or hours?  Choose two or three things and hone in on them in the messaging on your resume, cover letter and other printed materials. But also have it become a part of what you say when people ask about you. This is how you position or differentiate yourself from others so you can stand out.

Locate the Place for Job Announcements

Studies show, three out of every four jobs that get filled were never advertised. There’s a huge secret job market you can only tap into through networking (both online and in-person – see below for tips on that). However, you can’t ignore positions that are advertised on job boards and other places. It’s important that you know where dental offices are posting job announcements where you live. There are lots of national job boards and local ones, too (see the list we have put together at GetHiredRDH.com).

Another resource is your local staffing agency – they, too, have job listings – and we have a list of those across the country at GetHiredRDH.com. Sometimes dental practices will use a staffing agency to setup several working interviews. So get connected and stay connected with your local staffing agency as a resource for openings.

Get Resume Kit Ready

Get your print materials ready go (this includes what we like to call your “resume kit”  – the resume itself, cover letter, business card, a testimonial sheet, a CAR sheet. Create a stunning design that makes you stand out and look different than all the other resumes offices will get. You can see samples of these in our store at GetHiredRDH.com. For testimonial sheets, start collecting positive feedback you have received (verbally or in writing) from employers, co-workers and even patients. Because of HIPAA law you will need permission from patients or you could simply attribute the quote to “anonymous patient.”

Create a Postcard

Going door-to-door handing out resumes is very time consuming and can get kind of discouraging. Should you do it? Yes, if you have the time, but get your name out there first by sending a post card that can reach every office in your target market on the same day or staggered over several days. Then do follow-up visits as you have time. Design a post card that tells offices you are available to work on a temporary or permanent basis (we have templates or full custom design services to help you with the design and we recommend VistaPrint.com for the printing).

Build a Professional Online Presence

Find out if you need to do any online cleanup. Studies show, employers will Google your name before they decide to bring you in for an interview. What will they find? Give it a try yourself and see if there are any “skeletons” or things you need to remove. Google your name in the web browser standard search, but also image search. And, google the e-mail address you plan to use on your resume as some employers will try to learn more about you by searching your e-mail address too.

Create and prep your online presence, making sure your key branding messages are showing up prominently on a LinkedIn page at minimum. You also might consider creating your own website (yep GetHiredRDH.com can help you with this also). Or, maybe consider creating a Facebook page (independent of your personal page) as a professional profile page. You could also look to create a video resume to post about yourself online or a blog where you share your thoughts on dental topics.

More Online Strategy

If you are on Facebook or Twitter, start liking or following the pages of potential employers, this will give you some very valuable information about them and, who knows, maybe they will learn a little more about this new person that started liking them too. Start participating in Facebook and LinkedIn Group pages for dental hygienists (there are hundreds of them) – this is a great way to network and meet lots of peers.

Practice Interviewing

Have you ever wondered how people get good at answering questions from the media? Repetition, anticipation, and more repetition are the secret ingredients. They first sit down and think through all the questions they might get asked, then they answer them on paper, then they practice their responses, over and over and over again until they get it exactly how they want it without sounding canned or rehearsed.

You don’t have to be  a pro at it – most people interviewing are very sensitive about these situations and will be okay with you showing some “nerves” but the great thing about practicing so much is not only will your responses sound better, you will feel more confident too. And confidence is an attribute that is hard to overlook in any potential employee.

Wardrobe Check

Make sure you have thought through how you will dress in your interviews and even have one or two go-to outfits that make you look and feel professional. Clothes don’t make the person, but there’s no doubt you can feel much more confident when you love what you are wearing.

In-Person Networking

Start attending conferences and monthly association meetings and bring your business cards along. Look for opportunities to sit next to people you don’t know and introduce yourself to them, but also sit with a few you do know as this will help you feel more at ease when you meet new people.

Seven Tips for the Best Dental Hygiene Cover Letter

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Cover letters are often forgotten as a tool to help you stand out in your dental hygiene job applications. A well-written dental hygiene cover letter is a great way to expand on some things about you that might be more difficult in your resume.
Here are six quick tips to help you out with your cover letter.Seven-Tips-for-the-Best-Dental-Hygiene-Cover-Letter
Keep it all Short: Never ever use more than one page for a cover letter. In fact, 5-6 paragraphs of 1-3 sentences each is plenty. Remember, yours is only one of dozens they are getting and they just won’t take the time to read all of them. If it’s shorter (easier) to get through you stand a much better chance.
Use Bullets: In one of your paragraphs where you list some qualifications you have (hard or soft qualifications), put your list into bullets. This creates a visual break for a reader and makes it both more appealing to read but also easier as the person can simply scan it.
Consistent Design: Create a subtle design that matches your resume. If your resume uses color, use a little bit of color in your cover letter. If you resume has your name in a big font at the top, do the same only a little smaller on the cover letter. If you resume uses Calibri for a font, use it on the cover letter, too. The point is to make your cover letter and resume look like they are coming from the same family but are not identical twins.
Paragraph One – Acknowledge the Job: Let the employer know in the first paragraph where you heard about the job and that you are applying for it. Knowing where you heard about it is a courtesy to them so they know what ways are most effective in advertising openings.
Paragraph Two – Acknowledge Hard Qualifications: If they want someone with two years clinical experience and experience working with Dentrix, you want to acknowledge first and foremost as they are minimums of what they expect and so you wan to make it clear, early on, you meet that need.
Example. “From the ad I see you are seeking someone with two years experience and a knowledge of Dentrix. Having worked in three different offices over the the last five years, I have not only used Dentrix but also other dental software and am very comfortable with them.”
Paragraph Three – Acknowledge Soft Qualifications: These are things related to your personality, work ethic, or professionalism. Similar to the technical stuff, you want them to know you are aware these are things they are seeking and that you meet the need.
I will often use also use this paragraph to transition to some things about you (your personal brand) you think they will appreciate but haven’t specified in the ad, and I will include them in bullet form (see comment above about bullets).
For example:
  • Unique ability to build relationships with patients that result in greater compliance
  • Highly professional in my interactions with co-workers and patients
  • Live within five minutes of All Smiles Dental and personally know several existing patients
Paragraph Four – Wrap it Up: Simply tell them you look for ward to discussing your qualifications and showing how you can be a great fit in the form of a formal interview, or working interview. Then leave them a phone number to reach you and add your signature line beneath that paragraph.

Are You Boring Potential Dental Hygiene Employers?

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Tight job markets, like dental hygiene, often mean going many months and even years before you land a job. No one really loves looking for a job so it only makes sense that when it drags on and on – rejection after rejection – the whole process wears you down and any enthusiasm you were able to muster early on is long gone.

Unfortunately, it shows.

It often shows in your voice, the language you use, facial expressions and your posture, too. It even shows in your resume and other materials.

If you’ve been looking for a job for more than three months and plan to continue in the same patterns, it’s time for a change.

A few years ago I lost 60 pounds over the course of two years, in preparation for two marathons I ran. While you might consider that a success (I certainly do), it wasn’t without lots of failures in between. I would go along great for a couple months (lose 1-2 lbs a week) then I would hit a wall.

The problem wasn’t because I wasn’t doing the right things, but rather because I was doing the SAME things as a routine. My body got used to them and adapted (our bodies resist losing weight – it’s a natural survival instinct built within us).

Searching for a dental hygiene job can be the same way. You may have some good routines in the beginning and a decent set of materials, but over time the experience becomes stale and old and you’ve lost the motivation and excitement. That’s when it’s time to hit pause and shake things up a bit with a fresh or different approach.

Here are five ways you can shake things up in your dental hygiene job search:

Job Searches
Instead of checking the same old job boards you do every day (yes, you should continue that). Be proactive and send out some postcards. Remember 75% of all job openings are unadvertised. That means there are huge numbers of employers looking for employees you will never even hear about because your job search is restricted to just checking for the latest openings on job boards.

Temp Agency Feedback
Meet in person with your local staffing agency and ask for their opinion on your approach. Let them coach you and give you some honest feedback and critique. There may be something you are or are not doing that could make a big difference. Moreover, if they have a client like you who is genuinely seeking their guidance they will go to bat for you and help you.

Resume & Cover Letter
Look at your resume and cover letter. Do they look and read like everyone else’s? Add some color, a design, maybe your picture, or re-write and organize the text differently. Play around with it and ask for feedback from professionals (including us at GetHiredRDH.com).

Drop-In Visits
Take 15-30 minutes out of each day and make it a goal to drop in on three offices (ones that are close to each other). Introduce yourself and that you are seeking temporary or permanent work. Leave them with a business card or postcard. Heck, leave them with a plate of cookies – that’s memorable!

Branch Out
Connect with other hygienists in your area virtually through a number of different social media sites that exist. If there isn’t one that exists then start one! As a more physical approach, contact some offices and ask the hygienist if you can come in and observe how they interact with patients.

Just do this in one-hour chunks with several offices per month. Compliment them (genuinely) if they do a great job and thank them – boom! You just made a valuable contact and you will likely even get the chance to meet the staff and dentist(s). If they don’t have an opening, maybe they will know someone who does.

In summary, just do things different than you have in the past. This alone will help increase your enthusiasm and your new approach(es) will give you confidence and show up on your face, in your voice, and overall attitude.

The Perfect Compliment to a Dental Hygiene Resume

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You’ve probably heard of and even assembled a short list of references to go with your dental hygiene resume, but there’s a better way called a Testimonial Sheet that I’ve been advising hygienists about for some time now.

The Power of Third-Party ValidationThe Perfect Compliment to a Dental Hygiene Resume

References have always been important. Lots of influence research backs up the impact of having someone else talk about how great you are as it’s given higher value than anything you include on your resume.

But what’s the most powerful way to present it?

Traditionally, job seekers provide it one of two ways, on a separate sheet or at the bottom of their resume. This typically includes their top three contacts (name and phone number) or a reference to the references that says something like “References available upon request.”

I’m not going to totally dismiss those practices as they are fine. But I can’t endorse them as the best way, so for my clients I suggest a different direction called a Testimonial Sheet.

The Testimonial Sheet

The Testimonial Sheet is a series of short quotes from patients, co-workers, and employers (both current and former) that attest to how great you are. One of the biggest advantages they offer is that an employer doesn’t have to take the time to call anyone. Anytime you can save someone time, you are gaining in favor-ability with them.

There’s several elements to creating an effective Testimonial Sheet:

  • Keep Them Short: I recommend two or sentences at most. Sometimes as many as five can be appropriate and effective if it tells of an experience, but you risk the employer not wanting to read though it if it’s too wordy.
  • Keep it to one Page: Similar to your resume, keeping the Testimonial Sheet to one page has greater likelihood they will read them all. One page should hold eight to 10 testimonials
  • Quantity: You can’t have too many. I’ve been collecting them for about 10 years now and have pages and pages of them, organized by year. Once I started thinking about them, it was amazing how I had missed so many over the years. You are probably getting lots of feedback and just not thinking that much of it.
  • Quality: When choosing which ones to use, pick the ones that are simple and easy to read and assemble a collection of them that talk about you in different ways and not say the same basic thing each time.
  • Consistent Design: There need not be an elaborate design for a Testimonial Sheet. Just make it look similar to your cover with a simple heading “Testimonial Sheet” at the top using the same font and a consistent size with your resume and cover letter.
  • Anonymity of References: If you don’t feel comfortable disclosing the name of someone you are quoting you can probably get away with it in one or two places but you really should include as many as possible.
  • Hybrid Reference Contacts: Some hygienists don’t really have a lot of quotes. That’s okay, but start collecting them as much as possible. If someone says something nice to you about your skills ask if you can keep that as a quote. Until you have a full sheet of them, it would be perfectly fine to include what you do have with the traditional list of references and contact information.

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