Finding your first job as an associate in general dental practice.

The landscape of dentistry is changing at a rapid rate and nowhere is this more apparent than in the job market. Finding work as an associate GDP is more competitive and seems increasingly driven by large corporate practices and faceless recruitment agencies. There is a massive emphasis in vocational training (VT) and dental school on clinical training, and rightly so, however, practical advice on how to obtain an associate position and what to avoid when looking for work was a little thin on the ground as I finished my degree in 2011. In this article I have attempted to give some basic tips on how to find an associate general dental practice job, what to look for in a practice and basic pitfalls to avoid. I should know--within three years of graduating I had already worked in a variety of NHS and private settings in five different practices.