Find a Job Before You Graduate

How I found a job as an Associate Dentist before I even graduated.

You just graduated dental school and now you’re a dentist! Congratulations!

Now what? Here are some tips and strategies I used to get my first dream job as a dentist!

Start Applying Early

Many dental students will wait until their licenses get instated to start applying to jobs. But why wait? Thousands of students are graduating at the same time and will be applying to many of the same jobs that you’re looking at. Additionally, some states (like California) take up to three months post graduation to instate new dental licenses. This means that some students may wait until August for their license then another month or two to land a job. Don’t wait, start early.

I started applying to jobs before my fourth year spring break. I used this time to get my resume to a bunch of offices I was interested in. That way, once spring break came around, I used the week long break to shadow different offices and attend many in-person interviews.

Send in documents for your Dental License right away

I also applied for my dental license very early on! In other words, I began submitting paperwork for my license during the last few months of my education. In doing so, the department of health was able to process all of my records as they received them. Once I finished my boards, I submitted that, once I finished WREB, I submitted that as well. For that matter, it only took three weeks for the department of health to activate my dental license because by the time I graduated, they had all the necessary documents to push my application forward.

Some may say this was too quick to start working and that I should have gone on vacation. Under my specific circumstances, however, it wasn’t a good time for me to go on vacation and I needed to start saving money for my wedding. You could see why I was in such a rush to start working.

So with all of this said,

Where do I apply for Dentist Jobs?

I also used the following sites to find unique opportunities.

1. Facebook
   • There are many unique facebook groups you could join.
   • The Dental Practice Matchmaker is a good one to look at!
2. Dental Associations
   • Some dental associations allow new grads to post on their websites. For example, the Washington State Dental Association allows new grads to advertise themselves for free!
   • Additionally, you could also look at county dental associations to see if there are any opportunities in their classifieds sections.
3. ADA Career Center
   • The American Dental Association also has a job search platform. I didn’t use it much but I did occasionally look through it to see what opportunities were out there.
4. Personal website
   • My About Michael Yoo page first started out as a link I would send to practice owners via email. When dentists opened this link, they would see a cover letter plus link to my resume. It was a nice and easy way to market myself to practice owners.
5. USA Jobs
   • USAjobs.gov is an amazing way to find government based jobs. Applying to a federal position means that you’re covered for licensing fees and guaranteed benefits. I highly suggest checking this out.

All in all, apply to jobs early, interview during your last spring break, and send in paperwork as they become available to find your dream job as a dentist before you even graduate.