Where to look for associateships?

You'd be surprised what you can find on craigslist.org.  New ads appear almost every day for dentists around the SF Bay Area.  Just go to the "Medical/Health" section under "Jobs" and type in "dentist"... voila!  A neat trick you can do to find out where the office is located, in case they don't list their address, is to Google search their phone number or fax number!  Works every time!  It's also helpful to search for the doctor on Yelp.com so that you can find their practice website and try to see if that practice is something you'd find worth apply to!

Being a Californian, it's helpful to also look at CDA's list of Employment opportunities.  You don't need to be a paid member to browse their postings for Associateships, as well as Practices for Sale.

Pacific Dugoni Alumni's website also posts job positions and available practices.  Although, beware, many of these postings can be quickly outdated, as the ads are sometimes left there for months at a time.

Yelp is a very powerful tool.  If you know where you want to practice, one way you can get in touch with doctors is to seek out dentists working in the city you're looking, and send them your resume with a cover letter expressing interest in associateships.  As a mentor once told me, most dentists who are thinking of retiring are pretty wishy washy about it.  If they happen to see the opportunity to have an associate arise, they might be more willing to take it, than to actually go out of their way to post an ad and interview a bunch of candidates for an associate position. So I call this the mass mail approach.  Some dentists are actually more than happy to offer their two cents on how they got started as a new grad and even if they aren't looking for an associate, they might recommend someone they do know who is looking.

Go to your local dental society's websites and let the society know that you're looking for employment.  Whether it's San Mateo, Mid-Peninsula, San Francisco, Santa Clara, or others... many societies keep Employment Lists and may accept your resume, so there's a place for dentists to look first in case they're interested in an associate.  Go to the society meetings too, so you can start to get to know the dentists in your area! 

Another tried and true way is to simply spread the word by talking to your friends, family, even your own dentist, that you're looking for a job.  You'll need all the connections you can get. 

Another tip is to bring a copy of your production report to your interview, so that your potential future employer can see how many dentures you did, or extractions or implants... etc.

Any other suggestions for where you think you might find associateships?