Quick questions about being a dental assistant

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So this summer i'll most likely land a part-time job as an assistant for my dad's good friend who is a dentist. Im going to be a junior in undergrad this fall and i have a few questions about the whole process.

1) When recording my hours, do i just write down how many hours i do each day and have him sign it when i finish working with him? btw i plan to attain at least 100 hours

2) Should I ask for the LOR when I finish working with him or is it too soon(should i ask when im applying for schools)

3) Hahaha and last question, how do i brg up getting paid? Do i wait for him to talk about payment, or don't initiate it at all? i know i know experience is the important aspect of this whole thing but i need some cash, I'm a poor college kid.

 

[mms0039]

So this summer i'll most likely land a part-time job as an assistant for my dad's good friend who is a dentist. Im going to be a junior in undergrad this fall and i have a few questions about the whole process.

1) When recording my hours, do i just write down how many hours i do each day and have him sign it when i finish working with him? btw i plan to attain at least 100 hours

2) Should I ask for the LOR when I finish working with him or is it too soon(should i ask when im applying for schools)

3) Hahaha and last question, how do i brg up getting paid? Do i wait for him to talk about payment, or don't initiate it at all? i know i know experience is the important aspect of this whole thing but i need some cash, I'm a poor college kid.

Lol... Yea man.. Most of the undergrad like us are broke us fck unless the parent is rich. I am not very lucky neither. I had to work my butt off to pay my bills and keep the decent grade. Dental schools don't ask for the signature of dentist if I remember it correctly. So, if you know the dentist quite well, you might be able to pull something that u never thught of. That way u don't even need to ask for LOR... it comes with the package. For the payment, I don't know. It's kinda awkward. But if you think that u r doing well the first couple of weeks in the office... u prob can initiate. They will never ask u whether u wanna get paid cuz ... well most of them simply don't. Who wanna pay, right? Hope that help...🙂

 

[Vicviper]

You really don't need an exact number of hours, just a best guess with rounding will do - and there is only like one or two schools that need the signature (LLU being one).

You should definetly mention that you're applying to dental schools, and if he doesn't bring up a LOR, after about a week bring it up yourself, in a sense of, this is my job shadowing experience and the dental schools expect that I have a LOR from the dentist I shadow.

He probably had to do this himself, so he knows what it is to be applying to dental school.

As far as the money, if it is specifically a JOB and not SHADOWING or an INTERNSHIP, he should bring up the money, and it might be rather awkward if you do first.

Don't stress, dentists are normal people too!

 

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for the letter of recommendation thing, im only a rising junior. so i basically have 2 years until i have to get this LOR. would it be too soon to ask for it by the time i finish working with him? or do it 2 years later? Im afraid if i do it 2 years later, he'll almost forget who i am.

 

[Vicviper]

Well, if you're starting your Junior year then you're probably going to be applying next June if you want to start D. School right after you graduate.

I think that you could ask him to write the letter at his leisure, and then keep it on file, to be possibly updated at a later date - couldn't hurt.