Building Our Portfolio & Networking!
Hey everyone,
I hope you have all had a great week once again! This has been a great eye-opening one for me, and I have had some time to reflect on my personal and career goals! Before we dive into it, I just want to wish every other Muslim reading this Ramadan Mubarak! I hope this first week and the coming ones will be of great spiritual benefit to us!
🦷 Dental Diary
This week at dental school we had our regular clinics replaced with a one-day implant course. (check out my latest Instagram post for more on this!) It was an interesting experience, and I really appreciate now that implantology is a fantastic career path to get into, perhaps not exclusively, but I understand now more than ever that being competent with implants should be a trait of any high-performing restorative dentist, so it’s a skill I would want to build once I’m out there in the real world of practice.
We still had our regular oral surgery clinic though, and I managed to extract my third tooth, with the help of my tutor at the end. This particular case was tricky because the root tips were very thin, curved, and spindly and this meant that when I was delivering with my forceps, one of the tips fractured and had to be fished out with the Cryers elevator. It was my first experience with the Cryers so I wasn’t very good with it and my tutor did have to step in towards the end and elevate that root tip out. I improved my surgery technique this time around, but in all honesty, it bruises my ego whenever a tutor steps in to help, and the challenge is accepting that more often than not, I do need their help and that it’s a part of their job, to help me when I put myself in a situation that’s not ideal!
I had a conversation with someone on Instagram afterwards about improving my surgical work, and they taught me something interesting; it is important to anticipate failure in some cases where it may be very likely and be prepared to deal with a complication, or in some cases, deliberately fracture a root, etc. and have a clear plan to remove the remaining root. This is in those tougher cases, but this mindset of planning, anticipating failure, and planning accordingly is so valuable, and if you explain it to patients, they may feel that they’re in good hands and that you are in control of the situation.
🧠 Insight of the Week
This week I was speaking to a friend about building our portfolios and networking, and I realised something interesting that I want to share; building your portfolio and networking are completely different!
This may seem obvious at first, but many students including myself, think that to progress in our career we need to attend conferences and seminars, do courses, and take lots of photos. This may be true, but to clarify with an example, saying you have been to a certain conference largely does nothing for your portfolio, because it doesn’t enable you to add any more value as a clinician.
Networking is just about who you know, that can offer you opportunities, and vice versa.
But you can’t network if you have nothing of value to offer. That is where your CV/portfolio comes in; it is your body of work, that showcases what you can offer an employer, a patient, and the profession at large.
Sure, rubbing shoulders with some top dentists is great, but if we have no skills to offer, then they wouldn’t want to offer us an opportunity. Think about it, would you if you were in their position?
The key then is not just to network, but to build up your skills and show your work. As the author Mark Manson writes, “Be so good they can’t ignore you”!
I know you’re thinking this is all nice and motivational, but how can someone build their portfolio? Here are just a few ideas I can think of, but I’m sure you can think of a few more!
Record and show your work online (like on Instagram, LinkedIn, or a professional website); although we are still students, I believe our reflections on our work are a telling sign of our potential!
Get involved with research and publications; this takes a lot of time and effort so make sure you enjoy what you are researching and learning about.
Read articles/papers and implement what you learn with patients provided it’s evidence-based.
Build or get involved with a society or organisation, that takes a variety of skills!
I’m sure there’s loads more you can think of!
Once again, if you can take a minute to fill out this survey for a project I am working on, that would be much appreciated! PLEASE CLICK HERE I am working on an educational product aimed at dental students and young dentists and I want to hear from you guys so I can give you as much value as I possibly could!
That's all for this week, I hope you guys have a great next week! If you are enjoying this weekly email thing I'm doing or if you have any suggestions, please let me know, my Instagram is always open if you'd like any advice! Talk to you guys next week!
Get Better Today!
Omar Tabaqchali :)