I’m Anne Budenberg, and I’m a dentist with over 30- years’ experience in NHS and private practice, including roles in secondary care, dental education, risk management and mentoring. 

I started this podcast to show the diversity of views, and choices dentists and dental care professionals can, and do make, on their career paths, and about creating a fulfilling career. This is for anyone interested in UK dental careers - for those working, or planning to work as a

dentist or dental care professional in the UK. Dental careers are no longer simply linear, or binary choices, but we have many possibilities for hopping on and off whichever career path, or ‘squiggly career,’ you chose to take.

Sometimes the path is planned; at other times, it takes unexpected twists and turns, and you end up at a place you did not expect to find yourself.

‘Squiggly careers’ is a phrase coined by career development consultants, Helen Tupper & Sarah Ellis, and I love this concept, and the fact that every ‘squiggly career’ will be drawn differently, and is unique.

We’ll be exploring some of the opportunities, challenges, and adapting to change throughout your career, as the landscape changes.

In this episode I'm speaking to Josh Jackson, who qualified from Liverpool Dental School in 2020. After Dental Foundation Training, he took up an Academic Clinical Fellowship (ACT) post in Newcastle. We chatted about his thoughts during the early part of his ACF post.

Resources:

• Academic Clinical Fellowships

https://dental.hee.nhs.uk/dental-trainee-recruitment/academic-clinical-fellowships-acfs

• British Endodontic Society Early Career Group

https://britishendodonticsociety.org.uk/professionals/bes_early_career_group.aspx

• British Endodontic Society - Early Careers Guide

https://britishendodonticsociety.org.uk/_userfiles/pages/files/earlycareersguidev12.pdf

• Career Pathways in Dentistry

https://cgdent.uk/career-pathways/

• COPDEND - Postgraduate Training

https://www.copdend.org/postgraduate-training/

• Dental Core Training (DCT) Recruitment

https://dental.hee.nhs.uk/dental-trainee-recruitment/dental-core-training-dct

•  Integrated Academic Training

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/explore-nihr/academy-programmes/integrated-academic-training.htm