Apologize if a similar question has been posted before & I appreciate directions to any similar post!
This one is for our experienced dentists and current/ future practice owners here... I’m really confused and need someone to shed some light for me.
Background story: I graduated 4 years ago, spent one year in residency, got hired by a health center, & relocated to a new state/ town with my husband (due to his work) at the end of last year. My 5-year plan when I moved to this area was looking for a full-time job in a private practice as an associate, save enough money/investment, and either open my own office or become a partner. The decision (self-own or partnership) was based on the situation I observed through job-hunting websites: not as many private offices looking for associate as in other cities where my dental school friends are living right now. Instead, many DSO kept showing up whenever I checked for availability. (This observation was later confirmed by another international dentist who’s been shadowing through private offices in town for over a year)
Anyway, the “sticky” part is this.
I contacted 6 private practices, 3 public health services, and 1 mobile dental-based program. Among all these, two private office owners have strong tight to my husband’s practice/ colleagues (he’s MD). I had high hope for these two places since they have good local reputation (told by people we met who’ve been living here for years) and pleasant staffs during my visits. The actual interview parts went pretty smooth too.
I actually found out I’m pregnant in the beginning of the year. It should not be an issue for now since I’m feeling well enough to keep up daily activities, but the timeline for pregnancy seems to get in the way of this potential associateship. Due to the “strong tight,” my husband urged me to tell both owner dentists about my pregnancy before there’s any paperwork done since this will eventually affect his work schedule later on. And plus there’s no way to hide from one or two colleagues when someone else in his office already knew it (one of his current colleagues is a friend of another friend. They all know each other).
So then one office decided not to move on. They also spent about two months deciding if they want to hire me, which is not a bad thing if I put this as how serious they want to hire an associate who’d eventually stay on a partner track.
The other one proceeded to process credentialing and had one of their staffs in charge of handling my documentation... but no contract yet! It’s the first time the owner hires an associate, and they also don’t have enough days for me there yet. It’s going to be a part-time job- not ideal but I’m going to have an infant soon. This might work really well for me.
As soon as I know how many days a week I might get from this office, I accepted the offer by this mobile dental program and hoped to make up the days before I go into labor. However, as my due date approaching and this unknown contract-signing date from this private practice, I started to doubt about my decision. Did I get tricked or was I not careful enough when I agreed to let them process my credentialing since there’s only verbal aggreement so far?
I’m not looking for an easy way out, especially when there’s this family/ colleague/ friend situation involved. Just can’t help but wondering... I could have accpted the job from one of the health centers purely for their guaranteed salary and benefits while I still have time to take care of my newborn kid, but it seems too late and not ethical for me to turn around and decline this part-time offer with this credentialling part already taken off? The future plan this onwner told me is also very appealing & makes it hard for me to not thinking about working there (2nd location, potential partner track, autonomy, state of the art facility, and support for huge CE opportunities).
Appreciate any thought, suggestion, input, or any direction you’d like to point out. TIA!
This one is for our experienced dentists and current/ future practice owners here... I’m really confused and need someone to shed some light for me.
Background story: I graduated 4 years ago, spent one year in residency, got hired by a health center, & relocated to a new state/ town with my husband (due to his work) at the end of last year. My 5-year plan when I moved to this area was looking for a full-time job in a private practice as an associate, save enough money/investment, and either open my own office or become a partner. The decision (self-own or partnership) was based on the situation I observed through job-hunting websites: not as many private offices looking for associate as in other cities where my dental school friends are living right now. Instead, many DSO kept showing up whenever I checked for availability. (This observation was later confirmed by another international dentist who’s been shadowing through private offices in town for over a year)
Anyway, the “sticky” part is this.
I contacted 6 private practices, 3 public health services, and 1 mobile dental-based program. Among all these, two private office owners have strong tight to my husband’s practice/ colleagues (he’s MD). I had high hope for these two places since they have good local reputation (told by people we met who’ve been living here for years) and pleasant staffs during my visits. The actual interview parts went pretty smooth too.
I actually found out I’m pregnant in the beginning of the year. It should not be an issue for now since I’m feeling well enough to keep up daily activities, but the timeline for pregnancy seems to get in the way of this potential associateship. Due to the “strong tight,” my husband urged me to tell both owner dentists about my pregnancy before there’s any paperwork done since this will eventually affect his work schedule later on. And plus there’s no way to hide from one or two colleagues when someone else in his office already knew it (one of his current colleagues is a friend of another friend. They all know each other).
So then one office decided not to move on. They also spent about two months deciding if they want to hire me, which is not a bad thing if I put this as how serious they want to hire an associate who’d eventually stay on a partner track.
The other one proceeded to process credentialing and had one of their staffs in charge of handling my documentation... but no contract yet! It’s the first time the owner hires an associate, and they also don’t have enough days for me there yet. It’s going to be a part-time job- not ideal but I’m going to have an infant soon. This might work really well for me.
As soon as I know how many days a week I might get from this office, I accepted the offer by this mobile dental program and hoped to make up the days before I go into labor. However, as my due date approaching and this unknown contract-signing date from this private practice, I started to doubt about my decision. Did I get tricked or was I not careful enough when I agreed to let them process my credentialing since there’s only verbal aggreement so far?
I’m not looking for an easy way out, especially when there’s this family/ colleague/ friend situation involved. Just can’t help but wondering... I could have accpted the job from one of the health centers purely for their guaranteed salary and benefits while I still have time to take care of my newborn kid, but it seems too late and not ethical for me to turn around and decline this part-time offer with this credentialling part already taken off? The future plan this onwner told me is also very appealing & makes it hard for me to not thinking about working there (2nd location, potential partner track, autonomy, state of the art facility, and support for huge CE opportunities).
Appreciate any thought, suggestion, input, or any direction you’d like to point out. TIA!
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