Such a thing as too much work exp?

I'm going to apply for dentistry next year and I've been doing quite a lot of work exp... One day in the Glasgow dental hospital, 2 days in a practice, 2 days in another practice, 2 days in another practice, one day in another practice... And I have two more placements I am doing this week. Is this too much? I am really doing it now for a self-confidence boost, not to learn about dentistry but someone said that too much is a bad thing too. In her words they might think I'm a "psycho"?? Is this true or do the uni's want to see you out doing as much as possible? does this show my enthusiasm (which it truely is) or will they be scared off by this much?

Thanks,
Lesley

Reply 1

blissy

I know nothing about dentistry, but surely a longer placement (say, a day a week for a few weeks) would be better than 7 short placements? Will you not just be shown the basics over and over again? WHen you get to writing your PS I wouldn't suggest listing all the places, just say "7 work placements" otherwise you take up a lot of room that could be used for other, more important things.

Reply 2

Magnanimity

Hey thanks for the reply. About the placements thing... It's just the way it worked out. It's difficult with school and most practices don't open at weekends so iv mainly been doing it in my holidays. I'm just worried that the uni's see "7 work experience placement" they'll not like that or think it's a bit too over-keen, whether it's too much or not :confused:

Reply 3

loftx

Remember you arn't forced to put every placement you do on your personal stament. So seven should be fine if thats what you want to do. You can reword it to say you worked at a variaty of dental practices, youve done work experiance at both a dental hostpital and a dental practice, or spent 10 days shadowing dentists whichever sounds most impressive to you.

I do agree with Blissy that one longer placement may be more advantagous than 3 short ones though.

I can't see why anyone would think working at 3 different places would mean you were a phyco though, in fact, working at different places will allow you to compare and contract different methods of working.

Having only ever done one work experiance placement, organised for me by my school, I would be impressed by anyone who could organise 1 placement for themselves, let alone 7!

Tom

Reply 4

blissy

loftx

Having only ever done one work experiance placement, organised for me by my school, I would be impressed by anyone who could organise 1 placement for themselves, let alone 7!

Tom

Especially with something that seems to be so popular.... (plus, dentist surgeries seem few and far between)

Reply 5

sashh

You could always say something like "experience at a variety of practices" or "my work experience had to be carried out in school holidays, so I was forced to take several short experiences rather than continue at one practice, however I feel that this ............" obviously stick in loads of possitive stuff instead of the dots or they will think you ar a psycho, or at least a dork.

Reply 6

marabara

only working a couple of days at 10 different practices isn't going to look that good

people might question why such short periods of time - they might think you are completely incompetent and got the boot every time

much better to say that you've got so many weeks in total work experience, and mention a couple of places

can you not find anywhere that will take you on for 2 weeks or longer? this would be much better than a couple of days in 10 different places, both in terms of what you would learn and how your cv would look

Reply 7

Magnanimity

It's impossible with school. Why would they think I got the boot? Surely when my form teachers reference in my UCAS form says otherwise they'll see? I've had nothing but good reports from my work exp and the unis should know that??

Why is doing 10 days or so in one practice better? I feel that working short amounts of time in each practice stops me getting bored as hell (which is true if you're in a practice that doesn't let you do a lot.), I see the workings of different practices more, and I have to interact with a lot more people, which I love? Surely that's a better option?

Reply 8

marabara

generally, if you only work short periods, that will only give you a very limited opportunity to develop any relevant skills - on paper, you are basically starting from scratch 10 times over

if you are just watching what goes on, then it doesn't really matter about continuity, but then you won't be learning anything other than obvious differences between different practices - it is this that people might be concerned about

on the other hand, you might be lucky and are in fact learning different facts and skills at the different places - on paper however, people will just think you are doing the same two day introduction to animals over and over again

at the end of the day, it is better for you to say on your form that you have so many weeks experience at various places, rather than listing one day here, one day there, etc

then when you get to interview, you'll have a chance to explain your side of things

my point is that things can look very different on paper, and people can assume things that may not necessarily be true

Reply 9

Magnanimity

Well for example today, the dentist just asked me "have you aspirated before?" and I said yes, and that was me, I needed no instruction. Generally I have found you don't get the introduction. You're just thrown in at the deep end. I have been to a practice where I just had to observe the whole time, but at other ones they've had me doing loads. Charting, light curing, aspirating, mixing materials, assisting with amalgam fillings, sterilising... Had I gone to that one practice, I wouldn't have had those opportunities, right?

I see what you're saying though. I guess I could just say I've done X number of days in various practices or something.

Reply 10

Buzfvar

My school recommends that potential dentists should do at least 4 weeks dental wrk exp. It can be *that* competitive.

Reply 11

Bitewing

Its best to get as much work experience as you can, you can't have too much (that is unless it's affecting your studies). I don't see why having lots of short time placements would be a disadvantage, - surely it gives you an idea of the variation and enables you to compare and contrast between different dentists and their dental practises, for example their inter-personal skills (yes, I know they sounds stupid but dental school insist on them being 'taught' and often ask about them at interview!). The only problem I can see there being is a lack of space on your personal statement to write about them all, -its probably best to mention the total length of work experience that you've had, and then pick out a few more interesting ones to go into more detail about (remember whatever you write in your personal statement could be asked at interview).