dental hygienists Archives - RDH Resumes and Career Guidance

Good and Bad Dental Hygiene Job Interview Appearance Choices

October 17, 2014 By Doug Perry, Dental Hygiene Resume Coach

There are lots of wrongs and rights when it comes to choosing your appearance for a dental hygiene job interview. What you wear really does make a difference – the margin between the successful candidates and several of the unsuccessful ones in dental hygiene can be very thin at times because the market is so saturated.

Since you have lots of choices, let’s talk about what works and what doesn’t.

Keep in mind (disclaimer time – lol), while this comes from my own experience and doing lots of research, you may find some variations to these tips that are acceptable. My hope is mostly to get you thinking about these things so you can make great choices.

Clothing

Wear a pant suit, dress, or skirt suit with an appropriate blouse or top. Conservative tones and solid patterns are also advisable. Avoid sleeveless tops and make sure skirts are an appropriate length (not too high). No scrubs (unless it’s a working interview – make sure you clarify that ahead of time). No jeans.

Hair

Shouldn’t have to say it but make sure it’s washed that day. Long hair is often best tied neatly in the back. It’s popular to color hair entirely or in strands, consider going natural, but at bare minimum highlight it conservatively.

Footwear

Heels are okay, just don’t break out the four-inchers for your interview. You want to be comfortable, but mostly you want to be able to walk. Avoid open-toe shoes.

Nails

Keep them neatly cut with a conservative color.

Tattoos and Piercings

If you like tattoos that’s okay, but avoid showing them all off – win the employer over with your personality just in case they think tattoos are ugly. Piercings are similar, and fortunately can often be removed ahead of time. In fact, simplify your jewelry ensemble and if you like a lot of it, leave a lot of it at home.

Perfume

Be very cautious about the scent you give off. It may be pleasing to you but not to others if it’s too strong or something that conjures up a bad memory, so keep it minimal.

In summary, everything counts – you are being judged from many different angles in a job interview and you simply don’t know who you is going to be accepting of your style so it’s best to strive for that awesome-average look when it comes to dress.

Finding a New Dental Hygiene Job Checklist

October 13, 2014 By Doug Perry, Dental Hygiene Resume Coach

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.

The Ultimate Dental Hygiene Resume Kit

October 6, 2014 By Doug Perry, Dental Hygiene Resume Coach

Lots and lots of dental hygiene job seekers are simply sending a resume off for job openings and calling it good. This is your chance to impress so be different by simply doing more than most – send the ultimate dental hygiene resume kit.

A resume kit is a suite of documents that include a resume, cover letter, testimonial sheet, CAR sheet and business card, encased in a professional and even creative-looking package.

Is it extra work? Extra time? Extra expense?

Yes. Yes. And yes. Why do it? Because employers believe the extra work, time and expense translates into an employee that will do more and be more on the job.

Job seekers that are attentive to detail in their approach to finding a job, will likely carry that trait into the workplace. Moreover, very few job seekers will put together a kit like this, which by default will cause your presentation to stand out and draw greater interest.

Assembling a Dental Hygiene Resume Kit

Here are some basic tips for assembling your own ultimate dental hygiene 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.
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.
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 influencing them to hiring you.
Holding it Together: As you can see in the picture, what you use to hold the materials together can vary greatly and you can even be pretty creative with it. I love the clip example! But you could also use a kit cover (inexpensive folder or pouch) or even a cool cardboard document box. Just keep it classy and interesting. I guarantee if you hold it all together with something other than a staple or paper clip you will create some buzz and really stand out.

The Trick Dental Hygiene Interview Question

October 3, 2014 By Doug Perry, Dental Hygiene Resume Coach

Dental Practice Job Interviewer: “So tell me what you know about our practice?”

Dental Hygienist: “Well, I don’t know much, but it seems like everyone here is nice.”

FAIL

This job interview question is not really designed to be a trick question but it can trip you up if you are not prepared.

Not every job interviewer will ask it, which is partly why most simply aren’t ready for it. But it is an important question and you can be one of the few that gives a stellar answer if you are prepared.

Here are some thoughts on how to prepare to answer this basic, yet common dental hygiene job interview question:

The Jist of What Interviewers are Looking For

What dentists want to know is if you took the time time to learn about their office. Are they looking to see if you know details like their patient demographics or their gross revenue for the previous five years? Of course not!

But what they do want to know is if you know anything… that’s right, anything!

They want to know if you have visited their website or met any of their patients or employees, or if you know about some of the equipment they use.

So the best advice is to find 2-3 things unique about their office that you can talk with them in detail about, ask them questions about, and compliment them for.

Here’s a couple examples of a responses:

“I’ve learned through talking with one or two friends who used to be patients that you office is great about keeping appointments on schedule and that you are particularly good with kids. One of my friends just raves about your office and how nice everyone is. That’s exactly the type of work environment I thrive in – one that puts patients first.”

“I’ve asked around but don’t know anyone that has gone to your practice. However, I have found online several patient reviews and am impressed that how many people talk about your ability to communicate with them on their level and that many of them have been going to you for years. I do best in work situations where I can customize my communications with patients and so I love that aspect of your practice.”

Where to Get the Information

As indicated in the two examples above, you can get information from a variety of sources and ways – much of it coming online. But don’t overlook asking around. Chances are good if the office is located near you, there’s someone you know who has gone there or knows someone who has or even someone who works there.

Along with the practice website, it would be worthwhile checking out their social media pages to see what kinds of things they post about – some great insights will be there!

Final Tip

I would avoid sharing information that is negative. Some will take it in stride, but others become defensive and will almost view it as an assault from you – even though you are only the messenger. Keep it as specific as you can and as positive as possible for best results.

Doctors and practice office managers love to get this kind of information as feedback (especially positive) is affirming. And it’s really impressive to hear it from a candidate who has gone the extra mile to get it. Very few will do it, but it’s just one more way to stand out.

Finding Dental Hygiene Jobs from a Distance

October 2, 2014 By Doug Perry, Dental Hygiene Resume Coach

Finding dental hygiene jobs in the area you live in can be pretty challenging, right? How about trying to find a dental hygiene job from a distance – as in hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Sounds impossible!

It can for sure be harder, but not impossible.

So let’s talk about some ideas on how you can do this.

Research

It’s really important you get a handle on the situation where you want to move to. What’s an average salary there? Are there any jobs?

In talking with hygienists across the United States and Canada (I think I’ve now had at least one client in every state and province now), the problem of finding a dental hygiene job is shared. Some areas seem to be a little worse than others. A hygienist in Florida was telling me the other day that there are something like 19 dental hygiene schools there and that the average salary is well below the national average.

I haven’t verified that so if it’s incorrect I apologize, but that’s the kind of thing you would want to find out beforehand because it may impact your decision to even begin a search from a distance.

Licensure

The next thing you will need to consider, and hopefully this is obvious, is RDH licensure. How do you get it, what’s legal there and what’s not. Some states allow for anesthesia licensing and others don’t.

And you may want to consider, too, that if anesthesia licensing is new to the area you considering that many doctors may still not be comfortable with hygienists getting their patients numb – I hear lots of reports about that!

Decision Time

Once you’ve researched the area and have the licensing figured out. You have to decide how to conduct your job search. Will you do it completely from a distance? Will you visit there once or twice for a few days or even weeks? Or will you simply roll the dice and move there?

If you have family there it makes the whole process easier, but even then can be risky if you leaving a paying job behind.

It impacts some of the advice I give below so think that through carefully.

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 will be happy to help 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. Just tell them you are looking for mentors and contacts to help you find work. I would also have some postcards designed and hand deliver as many as you can while there.

I would also get in touch with the local component leadership and maybe even do the same – offer to take them to lunch or for a cup of coffee.

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

Good and Bad Dental Hygiene Job Interview Appearance Choices

Finding a New Dental Hygiene Job Checklist

The Ultimate Dental Hygiene Resume Kit

The Trick Dental Hygiene Interview Question

Finding Dental Hygiene Jobs from a Distance

Creating a Transitional Resume for a Dental Hygienist

Contact GetHiredRDH Now

Positive Resume Action Words

Passive vs. Active Writing

Positive Personality Adjectives

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