Reality check when looking for a job....

[DrJeff]

So last night I was at a dinner with various colleagues from the 5 different local component societies that make up the district caucus for my state (CT) for our state House of Delegates.

As we were talking over dinner, one of my colleagues, who has a very successful private practice in a very desirable shoreline town, said that he has been looking for an associate for many months now, and has been amazed at some of the sticking points that he has come across.

One of them, was how he and his partner operate the practice is that patient treatment times, based on the wants of many of the patients, starts at 8AM. The office has a "morning huddle" meeting at 7:45 to go over the schedule for the day, and any other practice related items.

The practice owner literally said that he's had some recent grads balk at the notion of being at work at 7:45 since it would interfere with his regular morning workout routine and asked if he could start at "9 or 10" instead...

Reality check if one is looking for a job. There are many times when it's about what the practice needs, not what you're dream situation is about. Especially at the beginning, before you're an established owner

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[oralcare123]

Smiling speechless

 

[lemoncurry]

I hate morning huddles. If the staff want to do them, then that's great. I take my schedule as it comes and let them direct me to where I need to go. Besides, I'm useless until coffee.

 

[free99]

For many new grads, this will be their first real job more than a summer gig between college; i don’t foubt at all that many are in for a tough transition from DS, where schedules are often very light and flexible.

Any other comments from your friend re: where new grad expectations don’t align with reality? I expected this post to be about compensation (ie, new grad thinking they were worth much more than they are).

 

[setdoc7]

I don't understand. Are you not aware that the current group of grads will opt to stay idle until they find the job that fits into their life rather than vice versa. If they are single, no spouse or children, then they will wait for the "right" job to come along, and not interfere with gym, pilates, yoga, or sleep. Get used to it.

 

[Localnative]

I don't understand. Are you not aware that the current group of grads will opt to stay idle until they find the job that fits into their life rather than vice versa. If they are single, no spouse or children, then they will wait for the "right" job to come along, and not interfere with gym, pilates, yoga, or sleep. Get used to it.

desperation begets necessity-
if you need that cash asap lest you go on food stamps for your family of 5, you will take what comes your way and throw short-sightedness out the window.

 

[1070752]

For many new grads, this will be their first real job more than a summer gig between college; i don’t foubt at all that many are in for a tough transition from DS, where schedules are often very light and flexible.

Any other comments from your friend re: where new grad expectations don’t align with reality? I expected this post to be about compensation (ie, new grad thinking they were worth much more than they are).

DS very light and flexible schedule? Lol.

 

[ncide]

For many new grads, this will be their first real job more than a summer gig between college; i don’t foubt at all that many are in for a tough transition from DS, where schedules are often very light and flexible.

Give me a schedule where I don't have to tell a patient they have to go through three 3 hour long appointments before a cleaning, where a hygienist can do my perio charting, where assistants do my x-rays and turn over my rooms and hand me my instruments, and where my hygienists can place fillings after I prep teeth.

Come on. Being on the other side is not all roses and daisies, but it's certainly better.

 

[yappy]

Give me a schedule where I don't have to tell a patient they have to go through three 3 hour long appointments before a cleaning, where a hygienist can do my perio charting, where assistants do my x-rays and turn over my rooms and hand me my instruments, and where my hygienists can place fillings after I prep teeth.

Come on. Being on the other side is not all roses and daisies, but it's certainly better.

It's a great career but enjoy your life while in dental school. Being a dentist is much more work than being a student.

 

[ProspectivePostPreDent]

It's a great career but enjoy your life while in dental school. Being a dentist is much more work than being a student.

Interesting. The vast majority of dentists I talk to seem to be having a much better time than they describe during their DS days.

 

[Garett24]

For many new grads, this will be their first real job more than a summer gig between college; i don’t foubt at all that many are in for a tough transition from DS, where schedules are often very light and flexible.

Any other comments from your friend re: where new grad expectations don’t align with reality? I expected this post to be about compensation (ie, new grad thinking they were worth much more than they are).

"Very light and flexible" What dental school did you go to? I am midrange in my class and usually go to school 8-7, then go workout and then go home.

 

[DrJeff]

Interesting. The vast majority of dentists I talk to seem to be having a much better time than they describe during their DS days.

It's different, but demanding as well.

In private practice, you are the one that the rest of the offices looks to to make the final decision. In Dental School, you're always looking to a faculty member to make the decision. In private practice, especially if you are the practice owner, you quickly get the notion that YOU are responsible for providing for the financial well being of your staff, as well as yourself and your family (if you aren't single). In private practice, yuo often, just by the simple larger number of patients you treat vs in dental school, come across far more "annoying" patients, which can take a toll on you over time.

Dental school is on some levels about one learning what the need to do to "survive" at the what often feels like the mercy of some faculty members for long enough until you can "escape" (graduate). Private practice is more like the challenge of regularly adapt and adjust and change to the current challenges from treatment techniques to acquiring patients to actually being someones boss and the challenges that that can bring at times. That can be demanding as well, but in a different way than the demands of dental school often present....

 

[DrJeff]

I don't understand. Are you not aware that the current group of grads will opt to stay idle until they find the job that fits into their life rather than vice versa. If they are single, no spouse or children, then they will wait for the "right" job to come along, and not interfere with gym, pilates, yoga, or sleep. Get used to it.

I think what's lost on many new grads is that rarely is there one's "ideal" practice that is just out there waiting for them. Most "ideal" practices started off more than likely as a far from ideal practice, but became that person's vision of what an "ideal" practice is through years of work and often a series of trials and errors and growing pains along the way before they actually figured out what an ideal practice is to them, once they've been practicing, vs what they think an ideal practice is based on some posts about and/or pictures of offices they've seen....

 

[ysrebob]

Interesting. The vast majority of dentists I talk to seem to be having a much better time than they describe during their DS days.

As crazy as it sounds I check into SDN out of nostalgia for dental school -- not that D school is easy, but you don't have a lot of heavy responsibilities to worry about as a student and I really enjoyed the weekends and vacations; did a lot of travelling during school breaks. Probably I'm forgetting some of the hardships of school... but looking back on it, it was a good experience overall.

I am working harder now than I did in dental school, and feeling far more pressure. That's as owner of a newish startup (2 years in). Far different from the stereotypical 4-day work week people imagine. There's just no end of after-hours tasks to be done. There is a reason practice owners earn more than associates. Of course much of it could be delegated, but then overhead goes up.


edit: That said, I was a bachelor during dental school and now have a family, so that's a confounding factor. Maybe practice ownership and school are comparable loads. Don't count on life being easier after graduation - just different.​

 

[ProspectivePostPreDent]

As crazy as it sounds I check into SDN out of nostalgia for dental school -- not that D school is easy, but you don't have a lot of heavy responsibilities to worry about as a student and I really enjoyed the weekends and vacations; did a lot of travelling during school breaks. Probably I'm forgetting some of the hardships of school... but looking back on it, it was a good experience overall.

I am working harder now than I did in dental school, and feeling far more pressure. That's as owner of a newish startup (2 years in). Far different from the stereotypical 4-day work week people imagine. There's just no end of after-hours tasks to be done. There is a reason practice owners earn more than associates. Of course much of it could be delegated, but then overhead goes up.


edit: That said, I was a bachelor during dental school and now have a family, so that's a confounding factor. Maybe practice ownership and school are comparable loads. Don't count on life being easier after graduation - just different..​

I definitely won't count on easier.

On the other hand, I know that the owner of a decently run practice makes more than most any associate, even at pretty high levels of delegation/overhead, so I do plan on owning sooner rather than later.

 

[charlestweed]

Give me a schedule where I don't have to tell a patient they have to go through three 3 hour long appointments before a cleaning, where a hygienist can do my perio charting, where assistants do my x-rays and turn over my rooms and hand me my instruments, and where my hygienists can place fillings after I prep teeth.

Come on. Being on the other side is not all roses and daisies, but it's certainly better.

Yes, it’s better being an associate dentist than being a dental student because you don’t have to wait for your work to be approved by the instructors. But keep in mind that not every office that employs you gives you the ideal hard working assistants/hygienists, who will do all the things that you listed above. Not every office will give you all the ideal supplies that you need. I am sure you read some posts here on SDN, where some of the associate dentists had described how horrible and stingy their bosses were…..the bosses kept all the highly paid procedures to themselves, not giving them enough patients, the assistants side with the bosses, no Septocaine, used endo files etc.

On my first couple of P/T jobs at the corp offices, I had to do many of the assistant’s duties myself. When a newly hired inexperienced assistant couldn’t take x ray and alginate impressions properly I had to take them myself to save time and to avoid hearing complaints from patients. When one of the assistants called in sick, I had to work extra hard because they didn’t cancel the patients. I did all these not because I am a nice person but because:
1. I didn’t want to hear complaints from patients for having to wait too long.
2. I wanted to get things done right in order to protect my license and to avoid getting a lawsuit.
3. I was afraid of getting fired for being too slow and for not meeting the company’s production goal ….and I had a lot of loans to pay back.
4. I wanted to go home on time with my kids.

I am glad that I no longer this hard at the corp offices because their schedules are not as busy as before due to oversaturations and competitions. I have also gained more clinical experience and I can get things done much faster now. Now to me, working at a corp office is like having a vacation.

I, however, still work very hard at my own offices. To keep the overhead low, I still perform many of the assistant’s duties myself. I’d much rather have an understaffed office than an overstaffed one. The less I spend, the higher my take home income will be. When it's my office and I work for myself, I actually enjoy it and don't mind working hard at all. Unlike working at the corp, the busier the schedule, the happier I feel. I enjoy fixing things in my office like a leaky 3-way air/water syringe or a broken x ray developer....and save $$$ and the hassles of having to wait for the repair tech.

 

[lemoncurry]

broken x ray developer

Not using digital radiographs?

 

[charlestweed]

Not using digital radiographs?

Nah. It makes no sense to throw away a good functional machine that has served me well for years and never needed repair....just because everybody else uses digital. The patients and referring GPs don't care what I use. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

When the film processor stops working and while I wait for the parts to arrive, I can just hand dip the films in the solution and not have to cancel my patients. When the digital one stops working, you have to cancel the patients. I twice had to cancel my start patients at the corp office that uses digital radiograph….and the unit is only 2 years old. Nothing is more frustrated than having to call some 1-800 numbers, being put on hold for hours, being transferred to different departments, and getting nothing done.

Companies no longer make new film based pan/ceph units. The good thing is there are a lot of doctors, who want to get rid of them to upgrade to digital. I will just buy a used one from one of these docs just in case when one of my units can no longer be repaired. Film xrays go well with paper chart system, which, IMO, is a more efficient system.