What do you look for in an associate/would you hire Canadians?

[euphaire]

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Hello all,

I'm a Canadian student and I'd like to go to one of the US schools that accepted me and work in the US after graduation. Like many dental graduates, I'm hoping to become an associate dentist. I know this is 4 years into the future, but your input would greatly help me in terms of knowing how to prepare myself and to certain degree, which dental school to choose.

1. I did a lot of research - it seems that potential employers look for great skills and great personalities in job seekers, not grades, board scores, or alma mater. However, how does this work? Does this mean the job seeker can only apply to jobs near him/her where he/she can go in physically to demonstrate skills and personality? These qualities can not be proven on a resume! How does it work, really? Please let me know...

2. I'm a Canadian citizen. Would I. even be eligible to be hired as an associate? I know for typical jobs in US I'd need a work VISA, sponsored by my company, and my company needs to write a letter justifying hiring a Canadian rather than a US citizen to the government. Now, a dentist is not a 'company', so I don't know if he/she can sponsor my visa.

3. Assume my visa will work out, it's still a lot of trouble to go through for my employer so I assume my employer would prefer to hire US citizens as associate instead. Do you have any advice for me to become a more competitive dental graduate? I was thinking excelling in school/board exam/doing lots of extracurricular, but it seems that the grades are not even looked at....Please tell me what I can do to "stand out" when the time comes to find a job after graduation 🙂

4. I want to work in the US. I'm choosing between Case Western and possibly UBC. Does the nationality of the school matter at all when finding a job (US vs. Canadian)? Which one would be better if I were to work in US (not necessarily cleveland OH).

Thank you so much! Your feedback is very, very valuable to me.
C

 

[persenmi]

Hello all,

I'm a Canadian student and I'd like to go to one of the US schools that accepted me and work in the US after graduation. Like many dental graduates, I'm hoping to become an associate dentist. I know this is 4 years into the future, but your input would greatly help me in terms of knowing how to prepare myself and to certain degree, which dental school to choose.

1. I did a lot of research - it seems that potential employers look for great skills and great personalities in job seekers, not grades, board scores, or alma mater. However, how does this work? Does this mean the job seeker can only apply to jobs near him/her where he/she can go in physically to demonstrate skills and personality? These qualities can not be proven on a resume! How does it work, really? Please let me know...

2. I'm a Canadian citizen. Would I. even be eligible to be hired as an associate? I know for typical jobs in US I'd need a work VISA, sponsored by my company, and my company needs to write a letter justifying hiring a Canadian rather than a US citizen to the government. Now, a dentist is not a 'company', so I don't know if he/she can sponsor my visa.

3. Assume my visa will work out, it's still a lot of trouble to go through for my employer so I assume my employer would prefer to hire US citizens as associate instead. Do you have any advice for me to become a more competitive dental graduate? I was thinking excelling in school/board exam/doing lots of extracurricular, but it seems that the grades are not even looked at....Please tell me what I can do to "stand out" when the time comes to find a job after graduation 🙂

4. I want to work in the US. I'm choosing between Case Western and possibly UBC. Does the nationality of the school matter at all when finding a job (US vs. Canadian)? Which one would be better if I were to work in US (not necessarily cleveland OH).

Thank you so much! Your feedback is very, very valuable to me.
C

I can't answer any of your questions but I can tell you that there are many Canadians in my class and I go to a US school. Therefore, they must all think it's a good deal despite their non-citizen status.

 

[AlbinoPolarBear]

So they have this thing called the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), that allows highly skilled professionals to run back and forth between the 3 North American countries if there are jobs available.

Dentists are highly skilled, so you can easily obtain a TN Visa if you can prove that you have found a job in the states.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TN_status

There are many jobs for dentists after you graduate if you go to the right places. It's not all about finding a job, but more of finding a job you like (eg. location, salary, how hard you work, chance of promotion etc).

If you go to a small town, big chains like Aspen and Heartland dental hires tons of new grads, to cater to the low income families. Lots of dental offices in areas that do well don't take low-paying insurance like Medicaid/Medicare, so these chains grab this market.

When you've graduated from dental school and passed the required boards, you're competent enough to handle the dental work load, and companies will usually hire you expecting you to be competent. If you feel that after graduating from dental school that you still have weak hand skills, then do a 1-year residency (GRP or AEGD) to get your skills up.

 

[AlbinoPolarBear]

Dude, congrats for getting into Case. 👍

 

[euphaire]

Thanks dude. That's really helpful. It's so good to know that I'm eligible to work in the US after graduation.
I guess my main concern is the whole "finding job is all about networking" thing I keep hearing from current students. It sounds like people can only find jobs near where they went to school since they can't really 'network' (I'm guessing meeting up and chat??) with dentists further away. For me, I could go to Case, but I'm probably not going to practice in Cleveland due to family reasons. In that case, would it be much harder/nearly impossible for me to find a decent job elsewhere in the US? What do people normally need to do to land a job elsewhere?

 

[AlbinoPolarBear]

In that case, would it be much harder/nearly impossible for me to find a decent job elsewhere in the US? What do people normally need to do to land a job elsewhere?

You need to write the regional board exams for that particular region to practice.
For Ohio, most students take the NERB (North East Regional Board), and then you can gain licensure from any state that takes the NERB.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Regional_Board_of_Dental_Examiners

Oh, there will be plenty of jobs. Don't worry about that.
I don't think you understood me so I'll repeat it again...

Dental chains have plenty of jobs available that most graduates don't want.

Will you make good money? Yes, you can make 100-140k/year starting.
Are the hours long and you'll see a lot of patients? Yes, up to 50 patients a day.
Will you live in a crappy location? Probably.

Of course, these jobs are usually for those who are desperate and wanna pay back their loans. It's hard work, and you deal with low income patients that like to complain. But it's a job.

There are always other jobs listed on craigslist or something that you can go for. I don't think finding a job is a problem for a majority of dental school graduates.

Dentistry is a very small business minded profession. And people usually only do associateships until they have enough money to buy their own practice. You'll make a lot more once you have your own office.

 

[AlbinoPolarBear]

The whole networking/finding a job thing is only for "desirable" places to live, where jobs are harder to come by.

If you stay in big cities such as Philly, NYC, Boston, LA, SF, Vancouver, etc, you'll have a hard time finding a good job. This is because these places are over-saturated with dentists.

New dental grads start out at only 60k/year in some parts of California, if they managed to find a job.

If you don't mind moving to a less saturated area, you'll have no trouble finding jobs.

Or if you wanna put yourself ahead of the pack, then specialize.