For new graduates
Your licence is new. Your experience does not have to stay that way.
Newly registered hygienists, assistants, and dentists use WORKFORCE to work across real practices from the start, build the experience every posting asks for, and find out what kind of office actually suits them.
Where you have worked
First few months- 9
General practice
Recall and scaling
An example of how a first few months can add up. Shifts available depend on your area and your availability.
Every posting wants experience. Nobody explains where the first two years come from.
It is the most demoralising part of finishing a program, and it is not a reflection of your ability. Offices asking for experience are usually asking whether you can walk into an unfamiliar operatory and be useful by the second patient. That is a skill, and it is one temping builds faster than a first permanent job does.
01
Variety you cannot get from one job
A first permanent role teaches you one office very well. A few months of temping puts you in general practice, pediatric, ortho, and community clinics, and you learn faster because nothing is ever quite the same twice.
02
You find out what suits you
Most new graduates do not actually know whether they want a busy general practice or a specialty chair, because they have never worked in either. Temping is how you find out before committing to a contract.
03
The rate is set before you claim
You are not negotiating your first pay rate against someone who has done it a hundred times. Rates are set by category and city and shown up front, so a new graduate sees the same number as everyone else.
The part nobody says out loud
The first shift at an office you have never seen is nerve wracking for everyone, and worse when your registration is three weeks old. Here is the honest version.
What to expect on your first temp shift- Will I be thrown in alone?
- You are covering a defined role for a defined day, and the office knows you are new to them. Ask for a walkthrough of sterilization, your operatory, and their charting software before the first patient. Every reasonable office expects this.
- What if I am slow at first?
- You will be, in an office you have never seen. That is normal and it improves quickly, because by your fifth unfamiliar operatory you have a routine for orienting yourself.
- What if a shift goes badly?
- Tell us. Offices are reviewed after shifts, and the ones that treat professionals poorly lose access to the network. You are not obliged to go back somewhere that was not right.
When you find the right one
A lot of first permanent jobs start as a temp shift
Practices hire people they have already worked with, and after a few months you will know exactly which office you would go back to. Nothing moves without your say-so, and you can keep temping while you decide.
Start with one shift
Set up your profile, add your registration, and pick the days you are free. You are not committing to anything by looking at what is available in your area.