Skills I Bring & Skills I’m Building
What skills have I developed, and where do I still have room to grow?
Precision
Photography gave me steady hands and real attention to detail. Dentistry asks for a different version of that same skill, working by feel, often through indirect vision. I've been building that specifically through typodont and suture kit practice, along with prepping for the Perceptual Ability Test.
Teamwork
Working well with others has been part of nearly everything I've done, coordinating with marketing teams, working chairside alongside a dentist and clinical staff, and collaborating on group projects and presentations in class. Whether it's aligning on a strategy, assisting during a procedure, or dividing up work with classmates, the same thing applies: knowing your role, communicating clearly, and trusting the people around you to do theirs.
Communication
Communication has been a constant thread, adjusting how I explain something depending on who I'm talking to, whether that meant briefing media, presenting a strategy to a partner team, or now, talking a patient through a procedure so it doesn't feel as overwhelming. It's less about talking a lot and more about reading what the other person actually needs to hear.
Composure
A decade in marketing meant staying calm and reliable no matter what a deadline demanded. Chairside, that composure has to hold up in real time, next to a dentist, mid-procedure, with a patient watching. That's exactly where I'm applying it now, working alongside the clinical team at Eastwood Dental.
Structure
Managing campaigns taught me to organize under constraints. Dentistry asks for something sharper: reasoning through what's in front of you instead of just memorizing it. My coursework in anatomy and physiology has been where I'm actively building that, along with how I approach DAT prep.
Work Ethic
Balancing a full course load, a part-time job, shadowing, and volunteering has meant getting comfortable with a packed schedule and just getting things done, without dropping any of it. That same drive is what got me through a decade-long career before I ever considered starting over, and it's what's carrying me through now.
