Want to know my best tip for finding alternative careers for dentists? Stop asking everyone else what they do outside of dentistry! I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but the truth is, the question never works. Instead, you end up with a list of ideas, none of which sound good at all. I see this happen all the time in my Facebook group and with my clients. Plus, that used to be me when Google was the only resource available. I would find myself on the endless roller coaster, vacillating between obsessive googling of other career options and deciding to settle...
Dentistry is a great career, isn’t it? Or at least it has that reputation. You get to help people and change lives and be a respected member of society. Plus, everyone needs dentistry and always will. It’s not going anywhere, so you can collect a steady paycheck forever, really. The stability of dentistry makes this career a no brainer for many. That’s the great part about this career and a main reason many of us chose it. But is dentistry really as stable as we think? I talk to a lot of dentists who tell me that this stability and...
I originally wrote this blog post on November 15, 2013. It was 2 years after I had officially quit dentistry. After blogging for some time, I met the first of many other dentists who had also experienced life after dentistry. I was so excited to meet Rick, a dentist and fellow blogger. A lot has changed since then. I no longer hide behind the screen name, Lolabees, and Rick has also evolved his own career. That is the great thing about taking that leap the first time– once you do it, you never fear changing again. Check out his guest...
Don’t you just love a good overnight success story? It could involve the dumb luck of getting “discovered” by a talent agent while being featured on a Jumbotron at a football game (yes, I’m actually referencing Pamela Anderson here on my blog.) Or it might be like the recent story of the nurse whose TikTok video lead her to a new career. After her interior design transformation of her sister’s college dorm room went viral, she decided to leave nursing to become an interior designer. No matter how it happens, when we look in from the outside, these huge leaps...
Please welcome my next guest blogger. This dentist has a great story to share and, for now, wishes to stay anonymous. Which experiences described below do you relate to most? People often ask, “did you always know you wanted to be a dentist?” My answer is usually something like, “No, I did it on a whim”. Although I haven’t heard many such admissions, I think there are dentists out there who relate. We essentially winged it, or chose dentistry for some trivial reason, owing in part to limited life experience. Add to this the inability to truly gauge how much...
In 2018 I wanted to highlight more stories of dentists and hygienists leaving dentistry to create more happiness in their careers. I came up with a series of blog interviews sharing others’ amazing stories, so that you could see that change is possible for all of us. Then it dawned on me that the interviews may have been glossing over the real work involved in career change. I wrote this article to keep it real, as yet another reminder that this process can feel really complicated when you’re going through it. I hope you enjoy. I recently had a conversation...
What is your wake-up call for change? I originally wrote this blog post, The Wake-up Call for Change, on March 30, 2021. It has since allowed me to form a beautiful friendship with Parul Dua Makkar, the sister of Manu Dua. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because we all knew Manu. Manu had started blogging and had dreams and plans to turn his writings into a book. He never had the chance to see it to fruition, so in big-sisterly fashion, Parul jumped in to keep her brother’s legacy alive. She worked hard to create and publish Manu’s book,...
In 2018 I began connecting with other dental professionals who made career changes after becoming unhappy in their dental careers. I began an interview series I called Celebrating New Beginnings and wanted to showcase real people like you and me who were able to shift. Mark was one of the first dentists I interviewed. As an unhappy dentist, career change became the only option for him. I hope you enjoy Mark’s story and find inspiration in it. This week we showcase a wonderful dentist who went for it! He knew it was time to change when he found himself wishing...
I wrote this blog post on March 14, 2013. At the time, I reflected on what worked for myself in creating change. Despite having no experience coaching at the time, these are some of the principles I use today to help others create their own path and design their career on their terms. If you’ve followed my blog over the past 11 years, you’ve had a front row seat to witness my huge and daunting career change. “Huge and daunting…” Hmm. Today I read that and am intrigued by that description from 11 years ago. Indeed, that was exactly how...
In December of 2012, one year after having quit dentistry, I wrote this follow-up post to clarify why I compared leaving dentistry to leaving a cult. I’ve added a few updates to the post. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this! If you’ve ever wanted to quit dentistry, you probably felt like leaving your career was like leaving a cult. I recently broached this oh-so-controversial topic of whether dentistry is like a cult or not, and luckily for my ego, there wasn’t a huge backlash. Not everyone loved my analogy, but that’s okay. It sparked some interesting discussions in...