Many students have limited professional interview experience, so applying for a job as an FD can be a little scary. Your future rides on a 20 minute interview! So, how to maximise your chances of getting the job you really want? Let’s start by asking what a Trainer wants in an FD?
The ideal FD looks and behaves professionally, has good communication skills and is an enthusiastic team player without being over confident. Good clinical skills are expected too!
How do you demonstrate this at interview?
Prepare your CV so it is easy to adapt. Research the profiles for each practice you like tailoring your CV to show how your knowledge and skills make you their ideal candidate. Include interests, previous achievements and employments in your CV. Try to demonstrate your ability to work in a team.
Check practice websites, noting areas of expertise. If you enjoy sedation, then working in a sedation practice will develop your skills and you may also figure in the practice's business plan. Look at opportunities that each practice can give you and think what advantages you could bring to them. It's your opportunity to set your application apart from the rest. What is different and good about you? Address your covering letter to the Trainer (not the practice owner). Putting thought into your application by tailoring it to the practice and Trainer will pay dividends. A blanket email application to all practices is a turn off!
If you apply to a deanery running a centralised recruitment programme, create a generic CV, as you will be appointed to the deanery first, before further interviews to determine who will be your Trainer. Some deaneries facilitate a pairing or matching process. You apply to the deanery but with an application that is focused round the practices you like. Check deanery websites to find out which recruitment method is in use.
Include two references in your application, ensuring you get your referee's permission first! Ask people who will give you favourable references, but, as this is your opportunity to showcase your clinical skills, select your referees well. Ask tutors in different specialties to demonstrate the breadth of your clinical skills.
Lastly – if you post your application, ensure you put enough postage on the envelope else it may not be delivered!
Prepare for interview carefully. First impressions count and you will be expected to dress appropriately
Give yourself time to get to the interview, so you go in feeling relaxed. (Tip - many Trainers get members of staff to show you round either before or after the interview. Later the Trainer will probably ask staff what they thought of you so treat everyone you meet as a potential interviewer!)
In the interview, follow these rules
- Smile
- Tell the truth
- Make eye contact with the interviewer and look interested
- Sit up straight leaning slightly forward with uncrossed arms and legs
Hopefully, they will see a quietly confident individual who is enthusiastic about learning and wants to be a part of the practice team.
Lastly, prepare an answer for the following question - 'Why do you want to work here?'
GOOD LUCK!
Valerie Silver
Regional Dental Foundation Programmes Adviser
Northern Deanery
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