Self Fulfilling Prophecy

My first resumé, fresh out of Loma Linda, was pretty basic. I had zero real world experience, a wicked expensive fancy education, four sets of blue scrubs, and a need for monies. Once I landed my first job largely based on the grace of a doctor who hated interviewing, I was looking to update my resumé to add all my real world awesome experience. I was working two days a week and hoping for four.
I wanted to have a resumé that dazzled. I wanted everyone to be like, 'Whoa, what a great resumé. I don't care what position, I want to hire this person.' After a few weeks, I realized I had no patience for formatting, no money for software, very little helpful creativity and I didn't like being criticized. So my resumé took an interesting turn. I decided to use language to make me seem more interesting and awesome. My resumé then included the phrases, "To engage in the practice of fulfilling dental needs," and "Seamlessly integrate quality hygiene care with modern technology," and finally, "Gently and thoroughly approach the topic of oral health care for patients." I wanted to be engaging – well CHECK! Anyone who read my resumé would walk away remembering the word engage, and maybe they would be confused and think, “I was engaged by that resumé!” I don’t really know why I put seamlessly integrate. But that sounded a little mathy. I live near Boston. Boston is a little mathy. Maybe that would make me seem local (in case Loma Linda didn’t give it away that I wasn’t). Plus dentists always like to think their office is ‘modern’ even if the last update happened in 1974. Apparently having a single computer in the office makes the office ‘modern’ and ‘high-tech.’

But the funniest one to me was the gentle and thorough approach. I don’t know where I got that. No one has ever said to me after a cleaning – Wow! I feel like you did a thorough job! That is until I got my new job. The one with this resumé. I think people tell me I did a thorough job about 90% of the time. I hear this often (like 6 times a day), “Doctor, that hygienist of yours did a great job! Very thorough! I don’t think I have had such a thorough cleaning in years!” At first I thought this was a backhanded compliment saying I was rough, or not very gentle. So I toned it down – considerably. I asked patients if they were comfortable throughout the entire cleaning. I warned them before any deep scaling, and made sure they didn’t wince a single time during a cleaning. And guess what, everyone still tells me I am a ‘thorough’ hygienist. Everyone. The 81 year old lady with 9 teeth, the 24 year old man with immaculate hygiene. Sometimes I wonder if they peeked at my resumé before coming in, or if the last hygienist was just terrible. I don’t know. But I guess it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. I said I was, “gentle and thorough’ and now I know that I definitely am.