Good evening all!
If you read my introductory post (http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/non-trad-checking-in-introduction.1081240/) you will see that I am an early 30s pre-dent looking to switch careers. I've done a lot of soul searching as to why this is what I want to do, but I'd like the opinions of some experienced dentists.
In my original post I mentioned that my dream job is more "vocational" and less "managerial." What I mean by that is that in my current job (and I think in almost all professional 100k+ type jobs), I don't "do" much. I manage things. I manage projects, manage programs, and manage people. I shuffle paperwork, give lectures and briefs, and ask (and get asked) "where do we stand with X?" all day. I dork around extensively with Excel and Power Point and have weekly staff meetings where we discuss the status of our projects, our programs, and our people. When I go home from work at the end of the day, it's not because I'm "done" with work in the sense that a construction worker is done with work at the end of his day. I've simply reached a more or less convenient momentary stopping point...but the "work" never stops. When I am sitting at home with my family, I am still silently thinking and stressing about those projects, programs and people. Still worried about that big deadline, that big presentation, the next big inspection, Jim in Accounting's drinking problem etc...whatever it is, it's always there. When I take a 2 week vacation, it's not a real vacation...it just means that I'm choosing to allow 2 weeks worth of work to pile up in my absence and will have to play catch up, and oh-by-the-way also hope my phone doesn't ring about some "crisis" that can't be solved without bothering me while I'm on leave.
The vision I have in my head of dentistry is that it is nothing, or very little, like that. I imagine Dental SCHOOL is like this, but that once you get into practice, your job is just that...to practice. You work hard, especially in school, and have to keep up your motivation when it gets monotonous and repetitive, but at the end of your day you can take the pack off...in a similar way to that construction worker...and not have to worry about it until the next morning, when you have a more or less fresh set of one-day challenges on your plate. That's why I use the word "vocational" to describe it. And, oh, your vacations meet the actual spirit and intent of a vacation, because you can actually fully disengage from "career mode" for a while.
Here is the oversimplification: I just want to fix teeth. Don't ask me about the WENIS or the TPS reports (or the cover sheets on my TPS reports) or next week's meeting with the Bobs or the glitch in payroll. Don't come to me with your next harebrained project looking for a "team player" or send me to Des Moines for a landmark symposium about usage-based interdependency on a transitional basis. I don't want to touch Microsoft Excel with a 10 foot pole and prefer to avoid computers altogether as much as possible. I just want to fix teeth. Is that possible in dentistry?
Now I am an adult and I'm not ignorant. I realize that every adult job is a grind and comes with its own share of baggage and I don't think dentistry is some magical exception. My question for active dentists is which of the above descriptions sounds more like your job? And secondly, what is the "grind" as a dentist?
Thank you for listening to my combination rant/question. Your input is my treasure.
If you read my introductory post (http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/non-trad-checking-in-introduction.1081240/) you will see that I am an early 30s pre-dent looking to switch careers. I've done a lot of soul searching as to why this is what I want to do, but I'd like the opinions of some experienced dentists.
In my original post I mentioned that my dream job is more "vocational" and less "managerial." What I mean by that is that in my current job (and I think in almost all professional 100k+ type jobs), I don't "do" much. I manage things. I manage projects, manage programs, and manage people. I shuffle paperwork, give lectures and briefs, and ask (and get asked) "where do we stand with X?" all day. I dork around extensively with Excel and Power Point and have weekly staff meetings where we discuss the status of our projects, our programs, and our people. When I go home from work at the end of the day, it's not because I'm "done" with work in the sense that a construction worker is done with work at the end of his day. I've simply reached a more or less convenient momentary stopping point...but the "work" never stops. When I am sitting at home with my family, I am still silently thinking and stressing about those projects, programs and people. Still worried about that big deadline, that big presentation, the next big inspection, Jim in Accounting's drinking problem etc...whatever it is, it's always there. When I take a 2 week vacation, it's not a real vacation...it just means that I'm choosing to allow 2 weeks worth of work to pile up in my absence and will have to play catch up, and oh-by-the-way also hope my phone doesn't ring about some "crisis" that can't be solved without bothering me while I'm on leave.
The vision I have in my head of dentistry is that it is nothing, or very little, like that. I imagine Dental SCHOOL is like this, but that once you get into practice, your job is just that...to practice. You work hard, especially in school, and have to keep up your motivation when it gets monotonous and repetitive, but at the end of your day you can take the pack off...in a similar way to that construction worker...and not have to worry about it until the next morning, when you have a more or less fresh set of one-day challenges on your plate. That's why I use the word "vocational" to describe it. And, oh, your vacations meet the actual spirit and intent of a vacation, because you can actually fully disengage from "career mode" for a while.
Here is the oversimplification: I just want to fix teeth. Don't ask me about the WENIS or the TPS reports (or the cover sheets on my TPS reports) or next week's meeting with the Bobs or the glitch in payroll. Don't come to me with your next harebrained project looking for a "team player" or send me to Des Moines for a landmark symposium about usage-based interdependency on a transitional basis. I don't want to touch Microsoft Excel with a 10 foot pole and prefer to avoid computers altogether as much as possible. I just want to fix teeth. Is that possible in dentistry?
Now I am an adult and I'm not ignorant. I realize that every adult job is a grind and comes with its own share of baggage and I don't think dentistry is some magical exception. My question for active dentists is which of the above descriptions sounds more like your job? And secondly, what is the "grind" as a dentist?
Thank you for listening to my combination rant/question. Your input is my treasure.
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