RDH Resumes and Career Guidance - Free Tips

Get Serious. Get Hired.

Best Format for Sending Your Dental Hygiene Resume

By

The absolute best way to apply for a dental hygiene job is by dropping off a resume kit in person.

But for lots of reasons this isn’t always possible, and many offices will even instruct you to simply e-mail it. So it’s important to think through your options and best way to do this.

In my mind, there’s more bad ways than good so let’s review them all starting with the bad.

What Not To Do

Sending a Source Document:
Most hygienists create their resumes in a word processing software (usually Microsoft Word on a PC or Pages if you have a Mac). Both can do a great job, but I strongly caution you against sending a Word or Pages file.

It may open and look totally fine in many instances, but this will not always be the case and the problem is you don’t know who will have the problem and who won’t. Different versions of these programs and different users will have different settings and fonts and that can turn a beautiful resume into a complete, unreadable mess in some instances.

Most commonly fonts are the issue. Fonts come in all shapes and sizes and when a computer doesn’t have the same font you used to create your resume it will try to replace it with something similar, which messes up the spacing and overall look.

Sending it in the body of an e-mail:
Another bad idea is to simply paste it in the body of an e-mail you send them. Will it work? For sure! Will it look good? No way!

You can’t even make this kind of format look as good as the average resume. Sending your resume within the body of an e-mail is a sure way to not impress and unless you have really strong writing and background, to receive on of those “thanks, but no thanks” letters.

Sending it By Fax:
In case you hadn’t noticed, faxing is a dying form of communication. Yes, many offices, including dental offices, still have a fax machine and still use it.

They are pretty reliable, but the big problem is in how they look. They often come across with random lines and specks of ink blotches. Sometimes they can even cause parts of your resume to be unreadable. You can’t afford to take a chance on that happening.

The Best Method

By far the best electronic format for sending your resume in is through a PDF file and, truly it has been for many years now.

PDF stands for Portable Document Format. Following its release by Adobe in 1993 it began to be widely adopted as the standard for sharing documents, whose source files could be different from one another.

In 2008 the PDF format became an open source product – meaning other companies besides Adobe could begin incorporating into their software. The result has strengthened the use and prominence of PDF files.

PDF creation capability is now embedded in Microsoft Word and Pages for Mac. But that’s not all, you can also find free PDF making websites.

Most important of all, however, is that the universal ability to open a PDF (called PDF Reader) has been around since the beginning (1993) and is included on all new computers.

The Ultimate Dental Hygiene Resume Kit

By

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

By

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.”

or

“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.

 

 

Anonymous Dental Hygiene Job Openings

By

A dental hygienist posted on LinkedIn the other day about employers posting anonymous dental hygiene job openings.

I have to admit, it’s a big pet peeve of mine not knowing who I am applying for a job with – am I alone there? It almost seems like there should be a law against that.

What if I don’t like that office or if they are vague in the location of it and I don’t want to work there – it’s a waste of my time and theirs.

So what can you do about it?

Unfortunately, not a lot, but there is one thing I have done that works about 50 percent of the time.

It’s called Google and depending on how much information they put in the advertisement, you can sometimes figure out who it is.

So, look for a fax number or e-mail address, or even physical mailing address. Highlight and copy it, open Google and search it. I’ve done this hundreds of times for dental jobs for clients and have come up with the name of the practice or doctor about half the time.

Give it a try next time you are surfing through job openings and then use that information (about the office) to better discover what their problem is and how you can be a solution to it. See my articles earlier this week for more information on how to do that.

Mechanics of Dental Hygiene Postcards

By

There’s no doubt postcards are a great tool for finding dental hygiene work. Our own story isn’t the only success we can report – we’ve worked with dozens of hygienists who have found employment this way.

So let’s talk mechanics to help you get up and and out the door with them.

Here’s five tips about the process and mechanics of dental hygiene postcards.

Determine Where You Will Work
You’ll need to think through exactly how many you want to send out. I recommend choosing a specific mile radius you are willing to work within and then stick to it. For my wife that was about 10 miles and within that radius we located about 110 dental offices.

Work Out Your Budget
Design
First are your design costs. At GetHiredRDH.com we design postcards for you for $57, we also have templates you can customize yourself in Microsoft Word for $7. There are, of course, many other options such as hiring a local designer or purchasing or using a template from another online source.

Printing
Next you have printing costs. There are lots of choices here, too. You can find a local print company to do it or there are many online companies, too. My strong recommendation is to use VistaPrint.com. I have used them many times am pleased at the price and quality. 100 postcards is about $20 to print.

Postage
Finally, you have postage to consider. Postcards in the United States cost $0.34 for sizes up to 4-1/4” x 6” and $0.49 for sizes up to 11-1/2” x 6-1/8”. Click here for more information.

Gather Addresses
This is the part of the job that for me was most painful because it took me many hours to do it. I did find some things to speed the process up or even take it completely out of your hair.

Sometimes, state wide dental associations will have an online database where you can search for dental offices and they often include addresses. You can also search a variety of Yellow Page types of directories online for dental office listings.

My favorite way though is to hire someone else to do it for you. Go to Fiverr.com, elance.com, odesk.com, or peopleperhour.com and you will likely find someone to do all this work for you and deliver it to you in an Excel file for as little as $20.

Label Them
Once you have your database in a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel, run a mail merge between Excel and Microsoft Word to create a batch of labels. It’s really not too hard but if you have trouble doing it there are lots of online tutorials like this one.

Send Them
When my wife and I sent her postcards out we just sent them all at once on a Friday, not really knowing what to expect. We thought it best to have them arrive on Monday morning. We’ve since learned that postcards statistically do better (are not as easily discarded) if they arrive on a Tuesday. That’s because there’s usually a bigger batch of mail that comes in on Tuesdays because there are two full days of deliveries.

A second suggestion is to stagger them in smaller blocks. I would suggest sending out 25 to 50 percent of them at a time. Reason being that you may get too many calls and not be able to manage them. If you have to turn someone down for a temping assignment you may not get another call from them. Staggering the delivery doesn’t completely fix the problem, but it may help a little bit.

Creating a Transitional Resume for a Dental Hygienist

Several dental hygienists wanting to leave clinical practice have been asking me about a transitional resume and how it differs from a regular resume. Much of the categories of content remain the same, such as work history, education history, and summary section to name only a few. The difference is in the language you use […]

Contact GetHiredRDH Now

We would love for you to contact GetHiredRDH now. You can do so by phone, text or the form below. Please send you comments, questions, feedback, and suggestions using the form below. You can also use … Read More

Positive Resume Action Words

Action words are verbs you can use to begin a sentence to describe your skills, results, or accomplishments. They give your reader an interesting shortcut into your experience. Here are 500+ words you … Read More

Passive vs. Active Writing

You may have heard the terms "passive" and "active" writing styles. In resume writing, active is best for two reasons. First, it helps conserve precious space on your resume. And, second, it's much … Read More

Positive Personality Adjectives

Here's a list of 100+ positive personality adjectives you could potentially use on your resume to describe your personal brand. This list is certainly not exhaustive so we would love to hear … Read More

Before you leave... Get my free book!

Plus, weekly tips and coaching.

Thanks!