Navigating The Transition Into The real World Of Dentistry

1. Navigating The Transition Into The real World Of Dentistry Matthew David McNutt, DDS, MS

2. Who Am I? • Moved to NC in 1991 • US Army three years • Lab tech and assistant: 1997-2000 • Undergraduate: NC State. • Dental School and Orthodontic Residency: UNC • Private practice started 2007 • Practice in Cary & Clayton • Married with children

3. Why Am I NOT Here Today? • I am not here to market my orthodontic practice.I am not here to be a cheerleader. • I am not here to feed my ego by going around giving lectures.

4. Why Am I Here Today? • I am here because I care about the present and the future of the dental profession. • YOU are an important part of that future. • I am here to challenge you as you get ready to enter the dental profession to become the best possible version of yourself. • I am here to give you some reality when it comes to being hired onto a dental team and serving on a dental team. • I have been in your shoes and started at the bottom in a practice.

5. Why Is This Important? • Serving the public in the dental profession is a privilege, an honor and is a big responsibility. • In the dental field you will impact and influence countless people of all ages. • How will you choose to influence people? • How will you choose to carry yourself? • What kind of citizen will you be in your community?

6. What does it mean to be a good citizen? • Our society is slowly changing the definition to mean that if we hold the right opinions about a range of political and social issues then we are good citizens. • Values put into action such as selflessness, honesty, integrity, a genuine ethic for the value of hard work, lifelong self improvement and mutual respect for one another should form the core of good citizenship.

7. What does it mean to be a good citizen? • These attributes also form the core of clinical dental team members who • Excel at their craft • Put the best interests of patients first • Work in the best practices • Are valued most highly • Are better compensated

8. Interviewing Tips: Be A Professional Being professional vs. informal in digital communications during the interview process:Take the time to write out your inquiries and responses in a professional manner. “Sent from my iphone” is not ok. Typos and informal writing and formatting is not ok.

9. Interviewing Tips: Be A Professional Do not curse You would be surprised “JC” is not a casual term despite how secular our society is becoming.

10. Interviewing Tips: Follow Directions Follow directions: Follow directions: Follow directions: When you don’t you weed yourself out.

11. Interviewing Tips: Social Media • On average when we are looking to hire, I weed out 70% of all received resumes by reviewing social media accounts. • Honestly, I’m thankful that so many people post and give me access to see what they post. • Having someone who fits your office culture is critically important. • Many practices don’t mind at all if you conduct yourself during your private time in a way that would embarrass your grandmother or your pastor. • However, many practices do care deeply.

12. Interviewing Tips: Social Media • If social media is a potential issue for you.... • I personally don’t want you to turn if off or hide it. • I want you to turn it around. • We all grow up at some point. • Right now you are all at a turning point in your lives. • Choosing to conduct yourselves with high moral character and high personal standards will bring you so much more opportunity, happiness and fulfillment. • Choose to lead that kind of life and let the truth of your character speak for itself.

13. Assumptions we might make when we are being interviewed: • The person interviewing me is highly skilled at interviewing people.The person interviewing me is comfortable interviewing people.The person interviewing me will guide me through the interview in a systematic way. The person interviewing me will do a good job conveying to the doctor / team a summary of my interview (this may not be the case).

14. Assumptions we might make when we are being interviewed: Interviewing is an art / skill that many people do not posses. Many times the interviewer is just as nervous as you are. Younger doctors tend to have less developed interview skills and good seasoned doctors tend to know what they are looking for in people.

15. The art of the interview • In recent years it has been common for candidates to tell us after our interview session that it was intense that it was the best interview experience they have ever had. • I can tell that if I interviewed you 5-7 years ago that would not have been true. • I am much better at interviewing now that I am seasoned with gray hair.

16. The art of the interview • Interviewing is an art that evolves over time: • In recent years it has been common for candidates to tell us after our interview session that it was intense that it was the best interview experience they have ever had. • I can tell that if I interviewed you 5-7 years ago that would not have been true.

17. The art of the interview • My strategy during interviews is to ask questions that are: • Engaging on a personal level • Centered around how a candidate became the person they are today • What they value in life • How best they learn new things • What management style works best for them • Making people feel comfortable to discuss their weaknesses

18. The art of the interview • Good interviews often include these topics and types of questions. • If the person interviewing you is not a skillful interviewer it may be helpful to take these ideas and work them into the interview yourself. • A good interviewer is like having a good dance partner, they know when to lead and where to take you. • If they do not it may be in your best interest to try to lead the conversation yourself.

19. The art of the interview • In 2018 our standard one-on-one interview process for a clinical assistant includes:A 45-60 minute interview with the doctor & sometimes another clinical assistant. • A standard list of questions are presented for discussion.Completing an online personality assessment: this is critical.A typing test.A timed math test. • Our GROUP interviews often include a group game, like playing ‘Heads Up’.

20. The art of the interview • Good candidates are then required to complete two clinical working day interviews. • Then our team decides as a group whether or not to extend an offer. • If one team member objects, no offer is extended.I tell all candidates that I don’t hire new people, the team does.

21. Interviewing Tips: Do you need to ask questions during the interview? • A skillful and experienced interviewer expects you to asks questions.My Personal Pet Peeve: For me as a doctor when the candidate says, “Nope, I have no questions, I pretty much learned everything I needed to know from your website.” • Remember, you are interviewing the practice just as much as they are interviewing you. • Do you just want a job and any practice will do, or do you want to find the right fit for you as a person?

22. Interviewing Tips: Do you need to ask questions during the interview? • Here is a list of good questions to consider asking:Would you please describe the training protocol for new clinical team members? What is the general schedule?How often is the practice closed for the doctor to take CE courses or vacation? On average how many patients does each clinical assistant see in their column? • Have team members been on the team for a long time?

23. Interviewing Tips: Do you need to ask questions during the interview? • Here is a list of good questions to consider asking:Are clinical assistants expected to present treatment options to patients and suggest that patients pursue treatment, such as Zoom Whitening or Invisalign, as examples.How is the practice involved in the community.Are clinical team member allowed to take time off when the doctor is seeing patients, or only when the doctor takes time off?What benefits are offered to employee team members (this question should come near the end).

24. WHO is interviewing you is important: What is their role within the practice? • Dentist? Office Manager? RDH/DA? • This is also effected by the TYPE of practice you are seeking to join. • Is it a corporate style large practice or an individual practice situation? • How experienced is the person who is interviewing you? • How long has the practice been established?

25. WHO is interviewing you is important: What is their role within the practice? • Suggestions & Solutions: When the doctor is NOT interviewing you take the opportunity to ask what are the challenges and the most difficult things within the office. • Ask about the demeanor of the doctor and how the staff are treated. • Ask what type of relationship the doctor and the staff develop. Some offices are a close knit family and some have strict inter-personal boundaries and professionalism is adopted at all times.

26. WHO is interviewing you is important: What is their role within the practice? • Suggestions & Solutions: When the OM is interviewing you be sure to inquire about their style of management and what the manager’s expectations are. • How does your team work together to prevent divisions or cliques from forming within the practice?

27. Interviews: the dreaded question and the dreaded answer: • “Describe your strengths and describe your weaknesses?”Strengths: most people list virtues like “hard working”, “team player” and “dedicated”. These are hollow, lack descriptive depth and sound like coached answers. • Weaknesses: the most common answer given is. “I would say that probably my biggest weakness is that I am too much of a perfectionist and that I care too much.”

28. Interviews: the dreaded question and the dreaded answer: • Weaknesses: the second most common answer is no answer at all. When candidates list their virtues and the move the conversation quickly in another direction, it tells me a great deal about them as a person. Be able and ready to maturely self evaluate your REAL weaknesses and to talk about them in real terms. • Be able and ready to describe what steps you are taking in life to try to improve in those areas. • If you answer this honestly and well, it will pleasantly surprise most doctors and they will respect your for it.

29. Summer Rotation Tips • Summer rotations are not rotations. • They are interviews, plain and simple.Treat all rotations as though they were an extended working interview. It is common for rotating students to be late and to lack an employable work ethic and professionalism.Work to understand the practice culture and embrace it. • Part of our office culture is “ABC” Always Be Contributing. • I clean toilets and vacuum in my office, I expect everyone who works on my team to do likewise. Know when to talk and know when to listen. • “I’m not really interested in ___________.” Really?

30. Summer Rotation Tips • Dentistry is a small world and everyone talks. • When you apply for positions after you graduate: • A good performance in during your Summer rotations may earn you an opportunity in a good practice. • A lukewarm or poor performance may set you back a long time and keep you from earning an opportunity in a good practice.

31. Summer rotations tips: joining a new team • Whether it is your first practice or later in your career when you join a new team there is always an unwritten hierarchy and culture within a team.Ask questions and write things downBe open to new ideas even if it is different to what you have learned at WTCC.Push yourself to learn everyday.

32. Interviews: dentistry is a small world and we always take our past with us wherever we go • Your first job is unlikely to be your last. • Think carefully about what you should and should not say during future interviews if you leave a practice and are looking for a new practice.

33. Interviews: dentistry is a small world and we always take our past with us wherever we go • Immediate reg flags for any hiring doctor:Complaining about the previous doctor & staff (‘throwing them under the bus’). • Complaining that you did not like when the doctor would change things.Having worked at multiple practices within just a few years (if this is you, I would address it directly before being asked). • Not being able to change. The only constant is change.

34. Computer skills for the future • The importance of computer and software skills will be increasingly important to maintain employment in the best practicesTechnical computer skills are of value.As we become more dependent on computer technology, fewer and fewer people possess basic computer skills in the dental work force. • The basic skill of TYPING well is disappearing Knowledge about file systems, file formats and keyboard shortcuts are beneficial.Computer skills are not learned on ipads and iphones

35. Computer skills for the future • Suggestions & Solutions: Take a typing course and continue to practice typing. As a dental assistant, you will spend the rest of your career entering data. The faster and more accurate you are the better. Being able to type quick accurate grammatically correct and properly spelled clinical chart notes will set you apart.

36. Listening skills for the future • Develop your critical listening skills. • Repeat back what you think you have heard. • Clinical assistants are the eyes and ears of both the doctor and the patient. • Being able to consistently and reliably chart the important things that build the narrative within a clinical chart is an invaluable skill. • The skill of listening is no different than the skill of typing in that both require practiced intentional diligence over time.

37. What hiring doctors are REALLYsaying out there today... • “There are no good people out there! It is like finding a needle in a haystack!” • “Hiring is such a headache!” • “I can’t find anyone who actually wants to work.” • With so many open positions and so many available assistants graduating from various programs, how could this be true? • The solution goes back to the beginning of today’s talk:

38. What will you contribute to the future of your chosen craft and your community? • The Wake Tech program is amongst the best in the country and is a highly respected program. • The diploma itself does not make you valuable. • The diploma may give you the opportunity to become a valuable as a team member.

39. What will you contribute to the future of your chosen craft and your community? • Without selflessness, honesty, integrity, a genuine ethic for the value of hard work, self improvement and mutual respect for one another a diploma is nothing more than a piece of paper.

40. What will you contribute to the future of your chosen craft and your community? • When the technical skills you learn in this program are developed in conjunction with living a life that reflects these values on a daily basis you cannot begin to imagine the positive impact that you will have on your own future and the lives of everyone around you.

41. Thank You • My purpose here today is not to give you tips and tricks that will help you to get hired. • My greater purpose is to reinforce the truth that if you develop and carry yourself as a good hard working citizen you will never be without a good job and you will have a fulfilling career that impacts countless people to better your community. • I wish you all success and welcome your questions.