A week ago I went to the dentist. Because I hate having my mouth picked at, I always reach the edge and pray that it will pass.
I sat and waited patiently for my turn, and when the door opened and I entered the treatment room, there stood a woman with a neat black handkerchief and thick stockings. It turned out to be the hygienist herself.
The clinic in central Tel Aviv, right? A place where it's more natural to meet someone with platinum blonde hair, so I felt like I had found my lost sister and bombarded her with questions with great taste and tact. Where did she study, what's the profession like, and how much does it pay (what to do, I asked).
So it turns out that you study to be a hygienist for two years, you intern with dentists, and there is quite a bit of demand in the field.
I asked her if she enjoyed the job, and she said that while the hours are flexible and the pay is okay (from 45 NIS per hour and up, I know you're wondering), sometimes it's a little exhausting to spend the day picking at other people's teeth. How much can you drill?
I'm not writing this story because I have something against studying dentistry. God forbid. I think it's a great profession and it's a shame that the entrepreneur who will organize separate study groups for Haredi women hasn't arrived yet. Before you start studying, it's advisable to know all the details, and of course there should be a match between the expectations for employment from the profession and the person who studied it.
This is one of the reasons I founded 'Matzpen'.
I've heard too many stories in my life about those who spent precious time and money acquiring the wrong profession. Misguided expectations, negligent diagnosis, and some auntie in Bloom who assures you that in high-tech you make a minimum of twenty thousand a month, just to start!
I believe that every girl and woman has the duty and right to receive reliable professional advice when choosing a course of study. Just like hiring a designer when renovating, like hiring a lawyer when buying an apartment.
I see young, innocent girls who believe everything they are told around them, who waste the best years of their youth studying when it's doubtful that the certificate they worked for is worth the paper it's printed on.
Then they get married, and a child is born, fortunately, and they already have to make a living. Who can even dream of changing careers and re-studying? When they're broke, they put their house up for sale.
I hope that awareness of the issue will rise and become so strong that many more good institutes will be established, that the subsidized guidance centers in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem will explode with excess applicants, and that women and girls will also consider vocational guidance as an option for a future profession.
In a world where career and work are no longer dirty words, but another legitimate avenue for independence and self-fulfillment, it's time we did it right.
By the way, the girl who cleaned my teeth turned out to be a super professional.
Only one of these would be able to continue working with a patient who insists on continuing to speak with her mouth open and a section under her tongue. There's something about dentistry, no doubt.
The writer is a graduate of career counseling studies at Tel Aviv University. She owns the Matzpen Institute – an institute for counseling prior to studies, occupational guidance, and career development.
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