Mary Beth Hagen’s professional experience and personal passion make her uniquely qualified to discuss Medical Aesthetics careers. Here, she shares her 6 top tips for aspiring aesthetic providers looking to get their start in the industry.

Diving into a growing field.

In 2005, Mary Beth Hagen began working for one of the companies that sold dermal fillers. “It was an amazing time to come into the industry,” she explains. Her role helped her develop essential sales and marketing skills while learning about the aesthetics industry. She quickly discovered how important ongoing education was for both aesthetic providers and prospective patients.

Her career continued to grow, and one of her functions was to work with national organizations looking to expand across different states. “We had to look at different ways to adapt and how to meet the needs of their physicians, medical providers, and of course, their patients. When I looked at where the industry was going, I had the opportunity to get a little creative. There was no way to grow the industry without increasing the number of providers,” she says.

Throughout her almost 20 years of experience in the world of Medical Aesthetics sales and marketing, Mary Beth looked at the patchwork of trainings, the various licensing and certification requirements state by state, and saw her opportunity. “That's when I started my recruiting business. Now, I work not only with existing aesthetic specialists and with people who are looking to get into the field, but also with businesses and practices across the country, as well as manufacturers and vendors. It’s pretty humbling to support a lot of different aspects of the nonsurgical Medical Aesthetics industry.”

Mary Beth also understands that the field of Medical Aesthetics is challenging to codify into a one-size-fits-all training curriculum, but she’s optimistic about the future because of the tremendous growth happening. “We've got this gigantic, enormous opportunity, with no road map on where we should be going. It's got to be one of the fastest-growing areas of medicine. Yet, there's not one academic training program in the entire United States to train or retrain nurses, NPs, or PAs for becoming aesthetic specialists.”

1. A multifaceted field needs multitalented providers.

“As the number of aesthetic treatments and options for patients have grown, it means that we also need more people to come into the industry to provide treatments. And it also means those people need to have a wider range of skills that address different types of treatments, from facials that use new devices to complex medical procedures,” Mary Beth explains.

She points out the importance of staying on top of safely administering the wide array of products and procedures. In addition, she also emphasizes the key role that patient education plays in the overall experience. “It's not just using a syringe to inject product into the face. There’s an educational process that’s necessary. There's a psychological component where people need to understand the reasons why a patient’s seeking treatment and what they’re hoping it will achieve or what the outcome will be.”

2. Find a mutually satisfying niche.

All practices are different, and, to Mary Beth, finding a career is as much about the employer finding the right person to fit the role as it is for the job seeker landing somewhere they can flourish. “There may be people that are a better fit in different types of organizations,” she explains.

She highlights 3 key questions to ask when looking for a new career opportunity:

3. Polish up the Medical Aesthetics resume.

Mary Beth has a few tips when it comes to creating an aesthetic resume, but she begins by pointing out the difference between a traditional medical provider’s CV and an actual resume.

“Make sure you include a career objective and that the aesthetic industry’s the highlight of your resume,” she says.

She recommends prioritizing your relevant Medical Aesthetics expertise and experience at the top of your resume, including any education or training you’ve done.

"You want to present yourself appropriately to prospective employers. Show them what you’ve done to invest in yourself. Because if you aren't willing to invest in yourself, why should this clinic, med spa, or other Medical Aesthetics practice invest in you as a new employee?”

Mary Beth suggests putting a professional headshot at the top of your resume so prospective employers can get to know you visually. “It’s a highly visual field of medicine,” she says. “Your resume should help a potential employer remember you, and a picture will do that better than just words.”

4. Know the qualities that stand out.

Mary Beth sums up what stands out to her when looking across a field of candidates. Here are qualities that are often seen in successful aesthetic providers:

• Great communicator
• Good listener
• Happy to help others achieve their goals
• Protocol-driven and organized
• Able to visualize and have an aesthetic eye or point of view

5. Wait to take a hands-on injector training course.

Experts consistently share with Spark that succeeding in Medical Aesthetics is often linked to investing in continuing education and training. Mary Beth has a unique take on when to time hands-on training. Instead of jumping in, she advises aspiring aesthetic injectors to wait until they have a job to attend those hands-on training sessions.

"If you don’t have a place to practice the skills you learn, you’re likely going to lose those skills by the time you get a job,” she explains.

Instead, she recommends focusing on anatomy—especially facial anatomy. Understanding what happens to the body as it ages helps to provide foundational knowledge about the types of treatments and procedures offered in Medical Aesthetics.

“If you can go to a potential employer and say, ‘I learned the background information. I understand anatomy and the field of Medical Aesthetics; now I just need the training,’ they may be more willing to hire you and help start that hands-on training,” she says.

6. Be realistic.

Some people might be drawn to Medical Aesthetics for the flexibility, and the schedule can indeed be more flexible than traditional healthcare fields. But as someone familiar with so many aspects of the industry, Mary Beth encourages a realistic mindset about the amount of time spent working.

“You’ll often put in more hours because you’re not off when you’re off,” she explains. “You’re studying, learning, answering patient questions, updating your social media, going to conferences, and interacting with the Medical Aesthetics community. And as a new provider, you’re probably going to work some evenings or weekends because that’s when patients aren’t working and can schedule appointments.”

One of the positive sides of this off-the-clock commitment is that Medical Aesthetics often attracts professionals who enjoy sharing their knowledge with other members of the community.

“The people in the Medical Aesthetics community have taught me so much and have given me this opportunity to have such an amazing career,” Mary Beth says. “This is my way of being an advocate for aesthetic providers, for patient safety, and especially for learning and growing and sharing. I’m just really blessed.”