Job seekers: Don't be afraid to ask!

Do not wait for a personal invitation to apply for a job.  Yes, you should check  various online web resources for job hunters and visit IHE’s Career Services Department, but you may not see every job posting this way.   Don’t be afraid to learn what job postings medical or dental offices have by contacting them directly (using your best telephone or email etiquette) or visiting their websites.  For example, some hospitals post their job opening on bulletin boards somewhere on the premises and online on their websites.  Look up their websites on a search engine like Yahoo! or Google.

If you want to find the names and websites of all the hospitals in New Jersey—or in just one county, such as Hudson County—visit the New Jersey Hospital Association’s directories at http://www.njha.com/directories/.  From there, you can see lists of hospitals.  Click on the name of a hospital to visit its website.  Once there, search for information on careers.  (As always, your librarian can help you navigate the website.)

Which hospitals should you apply to?  Obviously, you should consider ones that you know you will be able to commute to, but you also may prefer to work at one with a good reputation.  Every year, the news magazine U. S. News and World Report determines the best hospitals in the country.  You can find out about this year’s ranking at http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals.  The best scoring New Jersey hospitals are listed at http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/nj; the best scorers in the New York City area (including northern New Jersey) are at http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/new-york-ny.

Similarly, you can find a listing of the dental clinics in New Jersey (organized by county) at http://www.nj.gov/health/fhs/oral/documents/dental_directory.pdf or federally qualified health centers in the state at http://web.doh.state.nj.us/apps2/fhs/cphc/cphcSearch.aspx. 

You also can look up medical and dental offices using Google maps (http://maps.google.com/).  Try a search term such as “doctors near 600 Pavonia Avenue, Jersey City, NJ”—or perhaps better yet, use your own address instead of IHE’s.  (For a dental assisting job, try “dentists” or “dental” instead of “doctors”.)  Why not find out if any of the doctors listed are hiring, or at least accepting résumés?