Help!!! Shadowing

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03Yuk0n

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Hey SDN,

I finally got a call back from a general dentist willing to let me shadow him. However, we set up a meeting and he said bring your resume. I said okay I guess just from the excitement but I just started my sophomore year and have no clue what to put on there. I haven't worked a real job yet, only stuff off the books. And as I have said before, I am a sophomore year student. What would you guys recommend? Also when I meet the guy for the first time is there any questions/topics I should bring up with him?

Thanks in advance guys,
Farhad
 
Google "how to make a resume" and go from there.The guy isn't going to expect much from you (resume-wise). It's mainly to know a bit more about you and to see that you are actually putting in some sort of effort into this.
 
Ask him how to improve your resume.
 
I would at least write a cover letter since you won't have much on your resume.
 
he/she is interested so just make it clear you are shadowing and want to gain experience in the feild, something to gain an experience from and learn from, im sure they will want to help, from the dentists i shadowed i did find that i was a previous patient of theirs but were infact very willing to tell me the in/out of the feild
 
Hey guys,

Thanks much for the advice. Here's the update on my situation. The dentist accepted me and said I could pick my hours and offered me help on anything. Really great guy. The dentist graduated from NYU I think a few years back (I think 5 year) so he's fairly new. What I asked him though, was how many hours I should be putting in. He said anywhere from 50 hours to 100+ hours in the year, so about 1-2 hours a week. What do you guys think? I thought of doing more hours like 3-4 per week but I wanted to know what the majority of people do in regards to shadowing hours.

Thnx guys for your help,
Farhad
 
depends on you Farhad. Going in everyday will probably get boring. Depends on the dentist, but when I went in everyday, I basically saw pretty much the same procedures everyday. I think 2 hours a day for 3 days a week is ok.
 
Hey guys,

Thanks much for the advice. Here's the update on my situation. The dentist accepted me and said I could pick my hours and offered me help on anything. Really great guy. The dentist graduated from NYU I think a few years back (I think 5 year) so he's fairly new. What I asked him though, was how many hours I should be putting in. He said anywhere from 50 hours to 100+ hours in the year, so about 1-2 hours a week. What do you guys think? I thought of doing more hours like 3-4 per week but I wanted to know what the majority of people do in regards to shadowing hours.

Thnx guys for your help,
Farhad

It's not so much how many hours but how much you learn from shadowing. Don't worry about memorizing the details of the procedures but be sure that you absolutely can imagine yourself doing dentistry for the rest of your life. The first several times you shadow will be all, "Oh cool! Wow!" But then it gets old fast as procedures start to become very repetitive. I would invest about 4-5 hours per session to observe what a 'typical day' as a dentist is like. You can probably cut it down to twice a month if you do that.
 
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