Through any profession understanding, your audience is essential to market yourself in a way that keeps you in the mind of employers. Doug Perry’s wife is a dental hygienist who had a hard time marketing herself. Since marketing and communication is what Doug does, he helped his wife and many other dental hygienists find opportunities. Through his research, he found most dental hygienists do not know how to market themselves. Hopefully, through our conversation, you will implement some of Doug’s successful strategies and thinking. Understand this: Conventional and traditional does not catch the eyes and ears of most employers.

Or, as I would say, employers will not hear you.

Which of Doug’s strategies will you try? Have you tried any of these strategies before? Did they work? Why do you think they didn’t work? Ask yourself these questions during this conversation.

I would love to hear about your experiences in one of three ways:

Blog: TheVoiceofJobSeekers.com (Use the send voicemail feature)

Email: [email protected]

Voicemail: 708.365.9822

Doug Perry (@GetHiredRDH) is the founder of GetHiredRDH.com and author of Landing a Great Dental Hygiene Job. He is a Dental Hygienist Career Coach, who serves that community through coaching and resume writing services (and other media). He gets his client’s name out in front of hundreds of potential clients through marketing strategies that keep their names in front of employers. You should know that Doug’s day job is a Communications Director of the state Association. Anyone could apply the strategies Doug uses.
Here are some highlights from our conversation:

• Doug started his career coaching venture because his wife had a difficult time finding a job as a dental hygienist. He noticed that most dental hygienists don’t know how to market themselves.
• Doug’s background in marketing and communications is useful in helping his clients standout. Dental hygienist are not trained in those areas so most of them don’t know what to do
• The crux of marketing for dental hygienists is the soft skills in treating patients, rapport with staff, and understanding and communicating with the dentist. It is something that is learned over time as you earn trust
• Doug said that one of the challenges in marketing is getting his clients away  from the “…this is the way it has always done.” When you Google “dental hygienist resume,” it is likely you get a boring resume that doesn’t stand out. It looks more like anyone else’s resume
• Doug’s stated that you had to look at the cosmetic side: Different font sizes, adding color, format, and even adding a picture. It is challenging to get hygienist to focus more on accomplishments and results
• He understood that it was not widely accepted to add a picture on a resume. He suggests and implements as people feel comfortable doing it. The picture helps the candidate stand out and elicit trust–a critical attribute with dental clientele
• Doug wrote a book based on strategies that helped his wife find a job so fast. One of the strategies he shared was sending a postcard. What tends to happen with postcards–people saved them until they needed someone in a pinch. They also created a dedicated website and video resume produced by his son

You don’t want  to miss next week’s “Veteran’s Day” special episode. I will be publishing that show first thing Tuesday morning, November 11. If you have friends or relatives who served our country, all of who served valiantly and job searching, please plan to recommend and share next Tuesday’s episode.