Jordan Heron's Journey from the UK to New Zealand: Embracing New Beginnings at Lumino the Dentist and Navigating Professional Transitions

What drives someone to leave the familiarity of their home country and start afresh halfway across the globe? In our latest episode, we sit down with Jordan Heron from Lumino the Dentist in Wellington, New Zealand, as he shares his riveting journey from Hartlepool, UK, to the stunning landscapes of New Zealand. Jordan reveals the pivotal moments during the COVID-19 pandemic that spurred his decision to move, the obstacles he faced with paperwork and postal delays, and how he utilized YouTube videos to choose his new destination. His story is a testament to the resilience and adventurous spirit required to make such a bold life change and showcases the immensely rewarding outcomes of taking risks.

We also delve into his professional transition from the NHS to private healthcare in New Zealand, highlighting the increased flexibility, reduced risks, and lower indemnity costs that come with the move. Jordan provides a fascinating look at the differences in patient care and the overall impact of location on practice workload. Hear about his professional growth, the warm reception from his family who visited him, and his plans for the future. This episode offers invaluable insights for anyone contemplating a similar journey, and Jordan encourages listeners to reach out for guidance. Tune in next year to catch up on Jordan's ongoing adventure and future plans.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:01

Welcome to the Dental Job Stories podcast in association with DentalJobscom, a leading job board for dental professionals. Please sit back and relax and listen to some of the thought leaders across the dentistry sector. Hello everyone, I do hope you're keeping well. Welcome to a further episode of the Dental Job Stories in association with DentalJobscom Over the moon to have a new guest with us today, jordan Herron from Lumino the Dentist in Auckland, new Zealand. We've got up pretty early for this one Well, I have, and obviously quite late for Jordan. But, jordan, welcome to the show. First and foremost, how are you keeping?

Speaker 2 0:45

Thanks, horan. Yeah, how are you keeping Thanks? Yeah, great, thank you. Quick correction I'm in Wellington, not Auckland.

Speaker 1 0:50

Oh, okay, okay, I haven't done it this time. How far is Wellington from Auckland?

Speaker 2 0:57

About a seven hour drive.

Speaker 1 0:59

Okay, so not that far. A bit more.

Speaker 2 1:02

Yeah, so so not that far. Yeah, yeah, I suppose Kiwi doesn't seem like too much, but back home you wouldn't even consider ever driving that far.

Speaker 1 1:08

Oh, absolutely not, absolutely not. Listen, jordan, it's great to have you on the show. Originally from Newcastle, the UK, uh, now over in Wellington. Listen, let's, let's get into it. I mean, you know, let's get into your first and foremost, your career within dentistry. When it started and and when you you know maybe, what was the transition like?

Speaker 2 1:28

yeah. So I mean I qualified 2017 and done my foundation training, working primarily NHS jobs, like most new grads do. I was what? Three years out, doing a little bit of private, mainly NHSs, and was just fed up. To be honest, covid struck and it just seemed like the right time for us to be like right, do we consider just what it's going to be like overseas?

Speaker 2 1:53

And I'd seen a guy post actually it was on um, the for dentists, by the facebook page. There was a dentist. They posted a job advertised up in like the far north of auckland and it was like the most beautiful place you've ever seen, and I was working at the time in Hartlepool, which is like the least beautiful place, so that's it. So I dropped them an email. It was with a company called Luminor, which is like a corporate, but they've got quite like a thorough recruitment team to try and get UK dentists over. So they just sent us a big, massive email back with like essentially, he has the route to get over here and that was it. Really Never been to New Zealand before. How bad can it be?

Speaker 1 2:38

So you'd never been to New Zealand before you saw a post on Facebook. Obviously you worked in Hartlepool. It probably wasn't too much of a tricky decision to make. Um, I mean, wow, the transition then so from from application you know meetings online and documentation was that, was that taken care of?

Speaker 2 2:57

and you know what was it like, sort of going to a place where you've never been before yeah, so I've done a couple of video calls with some of the recruitment team and essentially just like spelled out right, this is what you need to get over here. This is the paperwork you've got to do, obviously, during covid like everything just took forever.

Speaker 2 3:16

So I was trying to apply for the dental council license online, whatnot, and I was having to post some paperwork over here.

Speaker 2 3:23

So normally nowadays you can normally post something about 10 to 14 days to get from here to the UK or vice versa, but at the time it was taking like five, six weeks, so I kind of dragged on the process a little bit. Once the application was all through, unfortunately that like job by the beach in the far North had gone because it took like about nine months for me first applying to like being in the far North had gone because it took me like about nine months for me first applying to like being in the position where I'm ready to go. So I got sent like a list of practices across the country and then said, essentially, where do you fancy? So I was just sitting at home with my partner watching YouTube videos yeah, it's looks quite nice. I thought you know what? At the end of the day, if we absolutely hate it there, it is a huge culprit. We'll request to move somewhere else. And so we thought right, let's go Wellington, capital city, middle of the country, give it a go. And it fortunately worked out really well.

Speaker 1 4:20

That's fantastic. So, jordan, what was the emotions like, sort of leaving the UK, going to the airport, you know not, not ever been somewhere before. What was the what was the support like in terms of, you know, literally upping up in sticks and cracking on. What was? What was the support like?

Speaker 2 4:39

yeah, it was weird having to condense everything pretty much down to a suitcase and go right, we had some stuff getting shipped over and the practice I was going to would offer to like use the practice as an address so I could ship things early, so I could arrive there and have some boxes of possessions there. But I didn't even take it up. I just put a big, massive, massive duffel bag, packed it up. It was actually quite a nice way to do things because you realise how much stuff you just don't need.

Speaker 2 5:08

Yeah, and at first it kind of felt like it was just like right, we're going on just an extended holiday. Of course, if you're doing this sort of move, at first it's a bit stressful, like I'm thinking about right, I've got to find a place to live, but I don't know any of the neighborhoods. I've got to find a car when I get here and it's just going back to basic and have nothing setting up a mobile phone, setting up banking. It is a little bit like work. And for the first couple of weeks you're like right, why am I doing this? And you've got to get to that point where you start to settle down and you can actually appreciate being somewhere else. But it's bizarre because even like nine months, one year in, still sometimes sitting there thinking, am I really on the other side of the world? It takes a long time to get used to that's, that's incredible.

Speaker 1 5:56

So we've not touched on this just yet. Obviously you've trained in the UK, qualified, qualified in the UK, et cetera, and then obviously you're now you're over in Wellington, new Zealand. What's it been like, sort of transferring from the UK to New Zealand in terms of laws and dentistry, and how's the support network been? You know, practicing dentistry, what's that been like?

Speaker 2 6:22

Yeah, again, pretty lucky in my position being because I know corporates are a bit of like a taboo word in the uk. Everyone hates them. But luminos genuine is really helpful. So I first got over here. I went into my practice a couple of days early before I started work and they'd sent me some resources online about like the difference in paperwork and there's some like government schemes that we won't be used to. But at the end of the day the job framework is the same. You just go in, do what you normally do, but you've got a lot more time with it again because I'm out the NHS side. It's all private, but there's a few things when I got here like some subtle differences like dentists here have a lot more expectation to kind of do a bit more implant work and that might just be restoring implants. But but in the UK if you don't place implants you don't really touch them because it involves indemnity and all that sort of side of things.

Speaker 2 7:23

So I reached out to the company and said, right, I've got no exposure to this, it's something I'd like to get a bit more familiar with. And they essentially signed me up with another practice nearby. So I started working between two practices just to get a little bit more exposure. And that was they. They want you to be comfortable, they want you to enjoy your time here. So if you've got things where you're struggling or you're like, right, this is kind of the side of dentistry I want to focus on they'll try and match you up in a practice where there could be someone who's senior in that kind of speciality. So yeah, I've. Actually, since I've got here, I've stayed with Lumina but I've worked in a few practices. I've kind of changed my mindset on how I want to work, pretty helpful yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 8:11

I mean listen, I mean it's just, it's just amazing that you've managed to go from there, well, one part of the world, to the other part of the world and you know, sort of crack on and do the same role. But obviously it appears that you're learning different things as well, which is great. What would you say to people seriously considering, you know, an opportunity in New Zealand? You know, with your experience, would there be any advice?

New Life in New Zealand

Speaker 2 8:35

I've seen because the nature of it. We get a lot of uk dentists come over here and it doesn't have to be some full lifelong commitment. I've had a colleague that came over on a 10-month contract and he's like, right, this is what I can do. This what kind of fits in with my timeline. I want to come over here work and then I'm going to spend a few months traveling and go back to kind of uk lifestyle.

Speaker 2 8:57

And if my advice would be, if you're like massively on the fence about it and you're not sure whether to kind of make the leap, doing something that kind of takes the edge off. I know people who own a house back in the UK and they're just renting out for a year or two, coming over yesterday. They've still got that backup option where if they're late and all goes wrong, it's all right. They just book a flight and they go back. They've still got that kind of lifeline there. You don't have to just throw everything away. So yeah, if someone was committing it and they're kind of on the fence, that would normally be my kind of go-to. It's just, you know what, what it doesn't have to be some big three-year contract signed.

Speaker 1 9:37

Just do what works with you so when, when, when you you know when you relocated, was it? Was it for a set time, because you've been there now for uh, well, how long you've been there for just over what a couple of years two and a half years, yeah so did you think you'd be still now, are you? You? I mean, how's it all?

Speaker 2 9:55

so my initial deal was two years. I was like, right, two years, then I'm done. Um, so all the family are like, oh god, two years of the ages. I was like, right, no, it'll fly over. Um. And then it got the two-year mark. I'm like, yeah, I'm not quite done. Um, because, as it goes on, because I still keep in touch with all my friends there's like four of my friends from university. We'll still jump on PlayStation together every now and then and catch up and I can't remember the last time I've heard a positive story coming back from something. Right, do I really want to go back to that at the moment? So I've got a nice kind of cush chilled lifestyle over here, so I'm just putting off any thoughts of going back at the moment. I might do In about six months time. My visa will count as like a permanent resident and that's kind of. I can go back to the UK for as long as I want and I'll always have that access back. So that's my aim at the moment.

Speaker 1 10:57

That's amazing. I mean, look, you know we touched on the positivity about the UK. I mean the weather. It's taken, you know, a good six months to have the sun come out. So I mean I know the weather's always pretty nice where you are. Obviously it's your winter at the moment, isn't it? Is it your winter?

Speaker 2 11:19

yeah, it does get a little bit chilly, but honestly, in comparison it's nothing. It's the same. Wherever you go around the world, though, everyone will complain about the weather. It's just what they do. Yeah, in Wellington, everyone well across New Zealand, everyone well across New Zealand, everyone thinks Wellington's like the most miserable weather, but in comparison to the UK, it's far better. You can't go wrong, to be honest.

Speaker 1 11:44

Let's talk about kind of like you know patient care and everything else. Obviously you know you've had to start, you know, with patients et cetera and relationships and stuff. How has that transferred?

Speaker 2 11:58

with patients etc. And relationships and stuff. How's that transferred? Honestly it's slightly different because I mean it's essentially the biggest job is going from nhs to private. So the patients are taking you spend a lot more time on them. They're paying a lot more money.

Speaker 2 12:11

But I found the biggest difference is essentially indemnity in New Zealand is barely needed. You pay probably. Well, I paid about $500 when I first got here, like 250 pounds. I was paying three and a half thousand pounds back in the UK Because essentially that suit culture just doesn't exist and to be honest, it's why I've seen a lot of dentists at a similar point to me when I first moved here, who had graduated in New Zealand, trained in New Zealand, were a lot more competent doing some more risky treatments like surgical extractions and impacted wisdom teeth and things like that. Because essentially that suit culture doesn't exist, you don't feel as scared to just say to the patient look, these are the risks, let's give it a go. A lot of the time back in the UK like right, if something goes wrong. Here are my notes, completely bulletproof, that I'm not going to get sued and something not worth the stress. So I found that's been the big thing where there's been a lot more expectation to like take on more than you normally would in comparison to the UK system.

Speaker 1 13:21

Yeah, and I suppose you'd probably feel a bit more relaxed right Doing the job that you train for, as opposed to being a bit stiff and a bit nervous doing the role yeah yeah. But the variation in cost as well is huge, isn't it £3,000?, £3,500?

Speaker 2 13:40

£3,500 I was spending on indemnity before I left and, yeah, now, first year I got here it was 250 pounds. It's like 500 pound now, but in comparison, yeah that's.

Speaker 1 13:53

That's ridiculous, isn't it? And and what about patients? I mean sort of you know, if you, if you had to build up the patients over time, or are you going to take patients sort of over? You know, what does that look like for people coming in?

Speaker 2 14:06

Yeah, look, that's just a practice to practice thing. It's it feels like at the moment and it might be similar in the UK is that the city centers, like right in the city center practices aren't necessarily as busy as they once were, with more people kind of working from home and things like that. So one of my practices I moved to was city centre, quite high end, seven dentists like five, hygiene or something like that. But I was going in there and starting a new list and it was a little bit slower new list and it was a little bit slower, whilst the most suburban practice I was working at two, three days a week had like a nine week waiting list. So I just made the move to that and again that was like no harm done, like I just emailed the area manager.

Speaker 2 14:54

I mean, look, I'm so much busier, can I just dedicate my time there? Like, yeah, sure, go for it. I just dedicate my time there. They're like yeah, sure, go for it. But I had a colleague out in Marston which is like two hours out of Wellington, a bit more rural, and he has like a nine-month waiting list. So the demand is there, similar to UK. There is a shortage of dentists.

Speaker 1 15:15

Nine months. Nine months, yeah, it's absolutely ridiculous. It's ridiculous. Yeah, it's too much. I suppose another thing that you know, relocated to the part of the world, jordan. Obviously you catch up your friends and your buddies over playstation, uh, xbox, but what is it like? You know? Sort of building a new network of friends. You know what's that been like? Because that's that's equally important, isn't it? When you move?

Speaker 2 15:39

yeah, look, it's an effort at first, like you've got to put yourself out there. If you're more a homebird like myself, you don't really want to start going out on all these meetups and drinks with like people you've never met, because after a while it can get a bit tedious. But you end up very quickly finding like a small social group and it's normally other expats do you know everyone in the same situation, just kind of bundles together. Um, I was lucky that my partner will chat all day to anyone. So she like came back after a week and was like oh, I've made a friend, um, and we've been invited to a barbecue tonight. All right, all right, and then actually some of them friends from tonight. I'm like all right, and then actually some of them friends from that meet up like one week into being in new zealand. We'll still have over all the time. So we got lucky in that sense yeah, I mean it is.

Speaker 1 16:30

It is an effort, isn't it?

Speaker 2 16:31

I mean, um, look me and my wife, we, we were over in the middle east for a number of years, so we, we know what it's like to you get it yeah, yeah and then your friendship changes as well, because you'll have friends of a friend's move over here and you get a link there and then some of your friends will move back or they'll travel somewhere else. So it's this weird thing where, like, your friendship network does change. But it would be a strange situation. If I went back to the uk now I would have essentially friends all over the uk I've kind of met whilst I'm here, which is a good thing just before we get on this um, on this podcast.

Speaker 1 17:09

Jordan, you mentioned that you're doing some um I can't remember the term, apologies. Are you shadowing a dentist now? So that's kind of another, another element to your role no.

Speaker 2 17:20

So I'm uh, I'm mentoring in new grad. So similar okay. Well, it's not as formal as the upa system where first qualify, you do your foundation. Yeah, lumino is offering a contract to new grads where they'll be given a little bit of like a cushion salary. They get put in a practice where there's a more experienced dentist just to kind of have that, uh, fallback in case they are a bit more complex. So I agree to do that and I had a new grad join my place, which is quite interesting. I enjoy it, it's brilliant, it's brilliant.

Speaker 1 17:53

So what does the future hold for you, buddy? I mean what? Uh, you know two years. It's now two and a half years, maybe another two years, I mean. Well, I mean, what are we thinking?

Speaker 2 18:05

that's the hard part. I don't know, um, like my company now is currently, they've put me on this. It's like a post-grad, like mini implants course, so I'm doing that over the next few months here. So I write do I steal it for a while and put this into practice? Do I wait until I've got permanent residency and consider moving back? Honestly, we end up having this conversation, me and my partner, about every two, three weeks and we don't know. We don't know. I think we're happy here, but it sometimes feels like we're still just putting everything off, like we're just on this really long-term holiday. I'm like, right, do we have to go to real life now? Do we need to go back home?

Speaker 1 18:48

No, I mean listen at the end of the day. I mean, you know, I'm aware that you know your firm puts contracts in place for people to come over. You know gap years, et cetera, but those gap years can extend into, ie, what's going to be residency and stuff. But what an opportunity though. What an opportunity, and I think there's an opportunity. If you look back on that in five years time, you're going to be so, so glad that you've done it right. Um, we've all been. Absolutely you have now.

Speaker 2 19:14

It's phenomenal I would never have got the chance to travel all the places I have. I I mean, you could come on holiday in New Zealand and spend three weeks here and you probably wouldn't touch the surface of what there is to see. And even then like when you're here and you're like, right, okay, I've got a long weekend or I've got a week off, the option is to travel kind of around Australia and lots of people fly to Bali or the Fiji or the Cook Islands. It's just like it's good being able to take off some aspects like the opposite side of the world whilst you're here?

Speaker 1 19:44

Absolutely no, it's phenomenal. It's phenomenal. So what advice would you give to dentists considering coming out from the UK working for Lumino, and what are the key things that you love about Lumino? What have they done?

Speaker 2 19:58

Yeah, Honestly, if someone was considering it, my first thing would be to say, right, email the recruitment team, just get kind of a foot in the door that way, because, honestly, they really spell it out. I'm terrible with visas and paperwork and all that side of things, but it was just essentially, essentially right just do as we say and it'll get done, because the registration process actually, when you look back at it, really is quite straightforward. And I said earlier, if you're really stuck on, like it's a huge commitment, you can get short of contracts. I don't know anyone who's done it and then thought I'm glad I'm going home, yeah. Most people are like I'm going to stay a bit longer, yeah. Or they're like, oh good, I'm coming back, maybe I'll plan another trip. It's just getting with the recruitment. Let them kind of spell it out, let them show you what the options are and just go from there are and just go from there.

Success in New Zealand Dental Practice

Speaker 1 20:59

That's brilliant. That's absolutely brilliant. Listen, jordan, the amount of information you've given has been brilliant and it's been quite inspiring hearing what you've achieved as well. Literally getting over to Wellington and cracking on, it sounds to me. I reckon you could be there another two years. Maybe we should put some back before we do another one.

Speaker 2 21:19

Yeah, I know my family's terrified, but yeah.

Speaker 1 21:23

I bet they're not terrified when they come over, though I mean, oh yeah they understand straight away.

Speaker 2 21:29

As soon as they came over, they're like oh yeah, I can see why you're here now but yeah, but listen, jordan, it's been absolutely brilliant to have you sort of share your experience.

Speaker 1 21:36

you know from where you've been to where you are now with Lumino and anybody listening to this podcast considering an opportunity, I'm sure you won't mind. They can reach out to you directly.

Speaker 2 21:49

Yeah, not at all.

Speaker 1 21:51

Right by the recruitment team at Lumino. But yeah, it's been absolutely fantastic to have you on and I look forward to welcoming you back in about a year's time so you can discuss with us where you are now and what other locations you could be visiting. But no, it's been fantastic to have you on the show it really has. Thanks so much.