Shining a light on Henry Schein

As patients, a trip to the dentist is often just about opening wide and having someone decide if you’ve been brushing well enough (and sometimes needing a scary procedure or two). But, behind the scenes, there’s a whole heap of technology that supports dentists to automate processes and help them determine the financial success of their dental practice. And that’s where Henry Schein One comes in…

HSO was started over 30 years ago by two NZ brothers, and after floating the company on the NZX, they were purchased by Henry Schein in 2007. A Fortune 500 Company, Henry Schein operates in 31 countries and has more than 1 million customers worldwide. HSO New Zealand is a global leader in providing dental practice management software and business coaching solutions.

Their innovative technology and dedicated business coaching empower dentists to run efficient, profitable practices while providing the highest quality patient care and improving health outcomes.

In the NZ office, there are 75 employees based out of Albany. Having always been based in Auckland, the team has grown significantly over the years, working across software development and business coaching to develop a suite of products, including enterprise and cloud-based solutions for NZ, Australia and the UK and Ireland.

Niels Grootscholten, Director of Product and Development at HSO tells us precisely what they are looking for in candidates, provides some insights into the recruitment process and why you should consider a career with them!

What type of roles does HSO recruit for and what traits do you look for in candidates?

We are looking for developers, testers and product graduates hungry to learn, who can show that they have gained life skills through part-time jobs, have played sport or been part of a club, play a musical instrument, or other career achievements. Software development is also a team sport, so we also look for good team players. When you watch a great sports team, you will notice that players communicate well and understand each other’s responsibilities, strengths, and skills – however, this does not always come easily to people interested in software development.

Why would students want to work for HSO?

At HSO we have a very clear ‘why?’. We believe we can elevate the health of the communities we serve if every dental practice runs a great business.

Clarity around our ‘why’ creates the context for innovation, allowing us to be confident that our people understand the problem space in which to operate. 

In 2020, those background conditions contributed to the fastest and most successful new product rollout in the company’s history, with over 50% of our customers choosing to purchase and subscribe to new product service.

Can you tell us more about your recruitment process and what students should expect?

Our recruitment process is pretty standard, involving interviews with HR and our hiring managers. We also ask candidates to complete a few assessments, including behavioural, cognitive, and coding tests.

We are interviewing a number of students who spoke with us at the expo, and we’re looking forward to hiring some great candidates

Cameron Smith and Lin Qiu studied at the University of Auckland and are now working for Henry Schein One. They were on the ground at our recent STEM expo running their popular coding competition, awarding the winning students with some very fancy noise-cancelling headphones! We caught up with them post expo to learn more about life at HSO and what they did during their time at University to help them become employable!

Starting out studying a BA with a mix of Japanese and Chinese, Cameron ended up switching to a BSC in Computer Science. Although he enjoyed learning language, he says, “I knew I had to change my path because of how much fun I had learning to program.” Although he didn’t let his passion for languages slide completely, he joined the Han Chinese Cultural Club in his last year and even went to the Philosophy club a few times too.

Cam’s first role out of University was as a Python/Django developer for a digital agency, Prismatic Digital, but he is now a mid-level DevOps engineer for HSO. When we asked him if his studies have helped support him in his roles, he told us “Immensely.”

So what is life like working for HSO? Cam told us, “Friday evening snacks, quiz and movie nights, and growing avocado trees” are just some of the weird and wonderful stuff the tight-knit team get up to; he also says, “As a company, we’re not afraid to try some new technologies.” Some of these technologies we got to witness at the STEM expo! If you missed the coding challenge, HSO ran a time-trial code challenge using online code runners (repl.it) - if you haven’t checked this tool out and you’re interested in coding, Cam suggests you take a look. HSO were super impressed with all the students that stopped by their booth, saying, “it was great to see students working together ‘in secret’ to help come up with solutions that were quick to type.”

Studying Computer Science at the University of Auckland, Lin graduated in 2017 going on to land a Junior Test Analyst role with Henry Schein One, where she has worked ever since. During her time at University, Lin was part of several clubs and undertook a 5-month internship with a small start-up company; she says;

However, Lin wasn’t always confident the IT industry was for her and was unsure what route she would take after graduating – however her current position at HSO changed that. As a female in STEM, Lin’s advice is to “make the most of all learning opportunities that come your way, put your hand up for as much as possible and don’t let your gender define your success. We are all equal.”

When asked what her plan for the next five years is, Lin said, “It’s hard to have a definitive plan, the IT industry is constantly changing and evolving, but learning is king. Roles can change and transform over time; a QA can change the role to a developer, a DevOps, or a Project Manager, but what matters most is learning and progressing, helping you find the areas you are most interested in.”