dental hygienist Archives - Page 12 of 21 - RDH Resumes and Career Guidance

Do You REALLY Love Dental Hygiene?

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

We’re mid-holiday season now and so much is going on. But many of you are still looking for a better job, and even beginning to think about your New Years resolutions.

As you think about these things, think about what is you love about dental hygiene. Hopefully you can come up with lots of reasons or at least a few really big ones. Now, ask yourself, “Is my love for those things about dental hygiene showing to employers?”

Hopefully, it’s really obvious to them. Employers want employees who are passionate about their career – dental hygienists who love talking shop and making a difference in the lives of their patients. More than just saying it, you have to show it.

So here’s five ways to communicate your love for dental hygiene without even saying it.

1. Social Sharing
I’ve talked in the past about making sure you take advantage of all the great technology to help you create connections with potential employers. So once you’ve got yourself set up with a professional blog, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook account start using them to post, comment, share and “like” things about dental hygiene.

When employers begin to search for your name, they’re going to find these profiles and one of things they are going to look for are the kinds of things you are posting. It’s not to say you can’t have a life outside dental hygiene – no problem there. But sprinkled into your posts and things you share should be dentistry stuff you find interesting or come across. I would make a habit of posting at least one thing per week to keep it fresh.

There’s one more thing you can do also. Like or follow the social media pages of offices you are interested in working at. When they post an interesting item on their pages, comment on or “like” it. They get notifications of that and my get curious to see who you are. That gives you a very subtle connection with them as hopefully they will see that you are a hygienist in their area, which may lead to them reaching out to you to temp or even interview with them. Be subtle – don’t “like” or comment on everything they post – just create the connection with them here and there.

2. Volunteering
Find a way to volunteer either at a clinic for low-income people or maybe teaching school kids about dental hygiene. Then include that information on your resume – it sends a message that you really do care about people and your profession. To take it a step further, come prepared in your interview to talk about one or two volunteer experiences you have had.

A couple dental hygienist friends of mine, Andrew Johnston and Michelle Strange go on dental missions to third-world countries every year – Andrew through SomosAmigos.org and Michelle through palmettomedical.org. The trips are fairly inexpensive and great ways in which to volunteer and share your talents. They talk about this and other things on their new dental hygiene podcast “Off the Cusp Podcast” which you can subscribe to in iTunes.

Another friend and dental hygienist client of mine, Amy Pittelkau, runs her own non-profit organization called Amy’s Village where she organizes similar missions.

3. Conference & Chapter Participation
To maintain your license, you always need CE. So it’s not a shocker to see lots of hygienists at association and component conferences. However, take your involvement a little further by attending more than just the annual meeting. Volunteer to serve on committees and accept other leadership opportunities.

Not only does this look great on a resume, it keeps you extremely well-connected with others and that by itself will lead you to job opportunities. All of this communicates to employers that you take dentistry and your career very seriously.

4. Become an Expert
Find your own area of dental hygiene that really fascinates you and dive in deeper. Make it your niche so that you can share what you know and, again, talk with potential employers in a way that they will conclude you are an expert in that area.

You can further demonstrate your expertise by writing and speaking about it within your local circles of dental hygiene all the way up to a national or even international level. Hygienists who do this are regarded very highly and it shows you are passionate about dental hygiene.

5. The Little Things
Compared to the previous four, this might sound really silly to some of you. It is subtle, but really helps complete the picture of your love for dental hygiene so don’t laugh.

Find and use trinkets and symbols that show you are proud to be a dental hygienist. Here are some examples:

Get a vanity license plate for your car that says ILUVRDH or RDHPRO;
Put your keys on a keychain that includes a trinket about loving dental hygiene;
Post a picture of yourself wearing a dental hygiene t-shirt on your Facebook page or blog.

If these specific things aren’t your style, that’s okay. Think about small ways like these that you can communicate the same thing. Sure, by themselves they aren’t going to land you a job, but it helps create within the minds of potential employers a depiction of who you are. They may have never met you, but when they see evidence (not just words on your resume) that you truly love dental hygiene they will be more likely to believe it. Creating that belief and then backing it up will get you on the path to landing a great dental hygiene job.

What’s Your Type?

December 7, 2015 By Doug Perry, Dental Hygiene Resume Coach

Are you stranded on the island of Times New Roman? I’m not, and here’s why – everyone visits that place and, to me, it’s just too crowded.

Aesthetically, it’s a serviceable font and has been sort of the go-to typeface for a long time. But I’m all about making the dental hygienists I work with stand out and differentiate themselves in every way possible. Writing a resume with Times New Roman is anything but different.

But more than that, there are several best practices when it comes to the fonts on resumes you should be aware of and remember. So here are some quick tips on making your resume work better at grabbing attention and making you look professional.

Most Important

Rule number one with fonts is to be consistent. Don’t use lots of different fonts, in fact I would highly recommend you only stick with one throughout your entire resume packet (ie resume, cover letter, testimonial sheet, CAR Sheet, business card).

Consistency is a hallmark of looking professional and organized – both traits you want to show a potential employer.

Size

Fonts come in all shapes and sizes. Two fonts of the same size can look remarkably different. The best way to gauge if it’s too big or not is to print it out and have a look – don’t trust your computer monitor as it’s deceptive about a lot things (colors, sizing, context, etc.).

Depending on the font you use, a good size is between 10 and 12. I tend to write resumes in about 11 point with the fonts I use, but often will use even a 10 pt to help with space.

Some will use the font size to compensate for lack of information on their resume, but I think that’s a mistake. I think it’s better to use a normal size and simply increase the spacing between lines – looks more professional and is more readable.

Styles

There are different styles of fonts out there. The two most common are serif and san serif fonts. Serif fonts have little flags at the tips or ends of lines called “serifs,” whereas san serif fonts don’t have them. Times New Roman has serifs, while Arial does not, by way of comparison.

I like minimalism in resumes – keeping them simple, succinct and clean. To me, serifs clutter up the page (even if only subtly). I think they have their place in other types of documents and certainly with books, magazines and newspapers, but not resumes.

I would also advise against choosing script- or gothic-style fonts. I think gothic is self-explanatory, but scripts are the ones that look like your handwriting (Kirsten, Comic and Balloon are common examples). Those have no place (ever) on a resume – don’t even consider them. They lack professionalism and that hurts your credibility.

Bold & Italic

In certain places you will want to place emphasis on specific words – usually headings and sub-headings. Bold and italic are great ways to do that, so long as you keep them consistent and use them sparingly.

If you bold or italic too much, these type treatments lose their impact on the reader. So save them for places where you want to make an impression. They also help guide a reader through your document. Our eyes are naturally trained to look for little road signs to help us navigate a document efficiently – too many signs leads to overload and we get lost.

ALL CAPS

The only place I would suggest you use all caps is with your name. All caps in a section of text can really make you look either computer illiterate or obnoxious – not the image you want.

THINK OF HOW ANNOYING IT IS WHEN SOMEONE SENDS YOU A MESSAG THAT IS IN ALL CAPS. IT’S DISTRACTING AND THEY LOSE SOME OF THEIR ABILITY TO TRULY COMMUNICATE WITH YOU.

Recommended Fonts

All computers come with their own sets of typefaces, so play around with a few. Type up a line of text and then copy and paste it several times on a page with each line using a different font, then print that off and decide.

One of my favorites right now is the current default for Microsoft Word, called Calibri. It will no doubt go the way of Times New Roman at some point, but right now it looks great on a resume and is easy to read.

Summary

Your chosen typeface may seem small and immaterial to your resume, but it’s these small touches that accumulatively have a big impact on your ability to differentiate yourself and land a great dental hygiene job.

Steps to Protect your Dental Hygiene Reputation

November 30, 2015 By Doug Perry, Dental Hygiene Resume Coach

It’s a fact – 92% of employers use information they find about you online to decide whether or not to interview you. What will they find? And how do you fix it?

Are there pictures of you floating around you thought were long gone? Will they mix you up with someone else? Have you posted information about yourself in open chat rooms and forums that is less than flattering?

It’s doubtful everything you want hidden is posted on the Internet somewhere, but you really owe it to yourself to take a look at what they will find if they search your name because there are things you can do about your online reputation. And when it comes your career – your livelihood – you’ve invested too much to leave it to Google to introduce you to potential employers.

So here are some steps you can take to protect your online reputation.

1. Google Your Name

This is a good first step to make sure what comes up is what you think. Try a few different searches because chances are good there’s another person with your name. So try the following (with your name):

“Karen Jones”
“Karen Jones dental hygienist”
“Karen Jones Illinois” or “Karen Jones Chicago dental hygienist”

I would suggest you look several search pages deep because search results can fluctuate over time – something about you may pop up on page 2 one day but then page 1 a month later. Going deep will help ensure you have a good handle on it.

You should also perform this same exercise using Yahoo and Bing. They aren’t used as much as Google, but they do produce different results. Also search in the Images section of these search engines to see what pictures popup.

What if you find something you don’t want shown? Clean it up. Contact the site administrators of that information and ask that the information be removed. Often times it can be something you posted a while back through an account or profile you set up, so you can take it down yourself.

There are also a number of reputation management companies who, for a fee, will work with you to clean up and remove problem search results. Here are a few to consider:

Tip: Facebook allows you to report photos others post of you, and they also allow you to remove tags of you that others place in photos they post.

2. Complete a LinkedIn Profile

You might be wondering how creating more online information about yourself is going to help protect you. By creating a LinkedIn profile account you are actually helping an employer find information about you that YOU control. Moreover, it’s often one of the first results that show up when someone searches your name. And, because it’s a career-oriented social media, it has the added benefit of reinforcing and even enhancing what’s on your resume.

Here’s how it actually improves on what you give them on your resume:

It shows employers you are current with the times (most serious job seekers have a LinkedIn profile page).
It shows employers you are tech-savy (it’s one thing to say you are current with technology, quite another to actually demonstrate it).
LinkedIn profiles give you additional space to highlight additional career-related activities you are involved with.
LinkedIn profiles have a built-in mechanism whereby others you are connected with can endorse your skills and provide written testimonials about you.

3. Get and Post Professional Pictures

It takes time and even some money, but hiring a professional photographer to take some pictures of you for LinkedIn, or your resume and postcards, or even for your other social media accounts makes a powerful first impression – a more visual connection with your brand.

And it gives you a little more control of the pictures they do find of you online. Remember they are looking for you online and they will, a good majority of the time, find a picture of you somewhere. It may not be what you want them to find, or it may not even be you (but they think it’s you). Why not give them what they are looking for in a way in which YOU can control it?

I would even recommend you take it a step further and have some nice pictures of you taken in a dental setting or at least with your lab coat on – possibly even some action shots of you working. These are great because they help potential employers more easily envision you as a dental professional. Use these pictures on your social pages, paper resume, video resume, resume website, postcards, business cards – everywhere – and you will leave no doubt as to who you are and no reason for an employer to keep digging.

4. Lock Down Your Online Privacy Settings

There’s never a guarantee your privacy will stay intact. Always remember, what happens online stays online.

Facebook, in particular, is notorious for changing and tweaking privacy settings and though they do announce them sometimes we don’t notice the memo.

Your privacy settings on all social medias may not be what you originally had them set at, or maybe you’ve changed your mind since creating them up. But if you are about to embark on a job search make sure they are set the way you want them and monitor them from time to time.

5. Pro-Actively Share

Since we already know potential employers are going to do some searching, consider giving it to them upfront. In your cover letter and resume (and other job hunting materials), include the addresses to your main profile pages (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). I think most employers are satisfied if you’ve given them something about you other than just your paper resume.

They are running a business and want to be careful about who they hire. If they feel you are a mystery or possibly hiding something, that can be a strike against you. Better to give them something – doesn’t have to be everything – but just something so that trust can flow. I would add, parenthetically, that you owe it to yourself to check them out also. There are employers everywhere who have some skeletons in the closet and if a hygienist did a simple search they would find them. Whether you choose to work for them or not is up to you, but you should at least be aware.

Wrapping it up

Your career is serious business and you need to take this issue of reputation management head on. Find out what’s out there, take action on stuff you don’t want employers to see, and then become proactive in sharing what you do want them to see about you and you will improve your chances of landing a great dental hygiene job.

Guaranteed Dental Hygiene Job Interviews

November 23, 2015 By Doug Perry, Dental Hygiene Resume Coach

There is, of course, no way to guarantee a dental hygiene job interview. But, using this week’s tips will probably bring you as close as anything else out there.

I’ve written a lot about the specifics of creating job-seeking materials such as resumes, cover letters and so forth so they really stand out for you. Believe it or not you can do one more thing with those documents that gives you a leg up.

Most dental hygiene job seekers create a basic resume, send it off to job openings and cross their fingers. When everyone else is doing the same thing, it’s hard to stand out. So going the extra mile with your documents and then putting them all together to create an organized and creative package will almost guarantee you get an interview.

I call this a resume kit – a suite of documents (resume, cover letter, testimonial sheet, CAR sheet and business card) encased in a professional and even creative-looking package such as a folder or eye-catching clip.

Extra work? Extra time? Extra expense? Yes. Yes. And yes.

Employers believe the extra work, time and expense translates into an employee that will do more and be more on the job.

So let me share with you four key tips for creating a great resume kit.

Consistency

Make sure the design, fonts, colors, and paper are all in agreement with one another. The entire kit should look intentional – as though you carefully planned it all out. It should look like a family of documents.

Don’t Skimp

If your kit looks like you took the easiest path (cheapest paper, no color, standard font(s), little or no design) it won’t have the affect it could. Granted, it will be good, but not great.

So spend a little bit on paper, consider having your documents printed with a laser printer (either one you own or at an office supply store). And most important, invest some time or money into the design of your documents.

In-Person Delivery

There’s only one thing better than thoughtful resume kit and that’s a thoughtful resume kit that is hand-delivered to an office. Whether you are applying for a job or just sharing your materials without an opening, there’s no replacement for getting the chance to see the great person you are live and in the flesh.

Being able to meet the front office person and possibly others when handing them the resume kit completes the package so they can put your materials with your face and personality. It helps create and build on connections that are critical to you getting hired.

Holding it Together

Some will either paperclip or staple these documents together. That certainly works, but take it a step further and finish your resume kit with professional looking folder or some other binding that grabs attention and makes you look like you are organized. You can get a black (or other color) folder for about dollar each at any office supply store or online.

Summing it up

Again, this yet one more way to stand out and differentiate yourself from other job applicants. Going the extra mile requires a little bit of extra time, expense, and effort, but it’s what all but guarantees lots of job interviews and opportunities to land a great dental hygiene job.

How to be a Picky Dental Hygienist

November 16, 2015 By Doug Perry, Dental Hygiene Resume Coach

Many employers seeking a dental hygienist would have you believe it is they who can be picky about who they hire. Truth is, YOU can and should be picky, too.

As desperate as you may be to find a job, there are bad employment situations out there – plenty of them! I totally get that sometimes you can’t be too picky about who you work for. “A paycheck is a paycheck,” some might lament. But that should never be your approach to finding an employer to work for.

In my consulting work with dental hygienists, the objective is to create an outcome with multiple choices of who to work for. When you have choices as a job seeker, you have more than just a decision to make. You also have more confidence, more negotiating power, and you have a greater likelihood of long-term job satisfaction. And I might add that the employer also comes out a winner, too, in that they get a better employee.

All of the articles and tips I write about (found at my FAQ page) will give you the tools for creating an outcome of choices. If you want get there faster, you can also hire me. But, putting that work aside, let’s talk this week about the actual job interview itself. What questions are you going to ask THEM?

Here’s a sampling of great questions you can ask in job interviews, which will allow you become more picky in who you work for.

Q. Tell me about your ideal hygienist for this opening?

Why ask: There are two reasons to ask this question. First, it gives you some insight that will enable you to match the things they are looking for with the things you have and you can articulate those during the interview or in a follow-up thank you letter/note or post-interview document. Second, it allows you to pick up on some of the culture of the office. Ideally, they will give you some nuggets of information—maybe some things the previous hygienist struggled with or did well.

Q. Aside from revenue and profits, what value does a hygienist bring to your practice?

Why ask: This may give you some idea as to how much importance the doctor places on hygiene in general. Is the hygienist considered a valuable partner in the patient care process? What role does the hygienist play to that particular doctor?

Q. What were some of the best attributes about the hygienist that had this job previously?

Why ask: It would be great to know the worst attributes too, but knowing the best can sometimes be interpreted as some acknowledgement of what wasn’t working so well either. Either way, it gives you a chance to match up your strengths with those of what the doctor is really looking for (those will usually be at the top of his or her list – so listen carefully for those top two or three items).

Q. How would you describe the office culture?

Why ask: Every office has a culture. The interviewer, in this situation, is going to probably take the high road, so you really want to watch their body language and verbal cues on this one (things like pausing to answer, shifting positions in their chair, maybe their tone changes a bit, or they look away and have to think for a second). Those could be signals there has been some internal strife of late. A good employer will admit when improvements need to be made and will share with you how you can play a role in that. Assuming you want to pursue the job still, that’s an opportunity for you, once again, to talk about and demonstrate your ability to mesh well with personality types and even resolve conflict.

Q. Beyond the job description, what are some ways I can make a valuable contribution to the practice?

Why ask: This is just another way to get the employer to articulate what they really want in a hygienist—not just someone who is simply board-certified with two years of experience. And then you take what the doctor says and blend it with your language in describing your unique skills and abilities—your personal brand.

Q. What do you see as the biggest challenges to hiring a new hygienist and the key for me to successfully get through those?

Why ask: Not every employer is the same (duh!). Some want a cheap hygienist with a pulse (they aren’t very picky). Others have a specific thing or set of things they worry about when hiring a new hygienist. Find out what those are and then go to work explaining how you can overcome those challenges.

Q. What is your vision for the practice in 3-5 years?

Why ask: This is important because some may not really have a vision other than to stay the same and make their patients feel loved. Is that what you really want? Or do you want a job where the employer wants to open up additional days, or to expand their hours, or to move to commission-based compensation, or bonuses? This very helpful to know and it shows the doctor that you are not a short-timer—you want to find a practice where you can invest a large portion of your career.

Final Really Important Tip

If possible, turn all of these questions into a conversation. Don’t just ask the question, receive the answer and move on. Respond positively, ask follow-up questions, share insight and experiences – turn the interview into a discussion. This type of Q&A can be so productive for both of you leave you in good position to land a great dental hygiene job.

Do You REALLY Love Dental Hygiene?

What’s Your Type?

Steps to Protect your Dental Hygiene Reputation

Guaranteed Dental Hygiene Job Interviews

How to be a Picky Dental Hygienist

Creating a Transitional Resume for a Dental Hygienist

Contact GetHiredRDH Now

Positive Resume Action Words

Passive vs. Active Writing

Positive Personality Adjectives

Before you leave... Get my free book!

Plus, weekly tips and coaching.