INTRODUCTION: The evaluation of the perception of graduates is an essential strategy to support the political project educational in universities. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to verify the perception of dentists which are working in the labor market, about the difficulties of professional insertion after the graduation, positives and negatives aspects and suggestions regarding the training received. METHODOLOGY: This is a qualitative survey conducted with graduates of the years 2000 to 2010, of dentistry course from a Brazilian Public University. A self-administered questionnaire was sent by mail/email to all graduates in the period. The data were transcribed and subjected to content analysis, divided into pre-analysis, characterized by carefully reading floating, material exploration, guidelines for finding the analysis itself. RESULT: The categories related to the difficulties in early life were: getting a job/workplace, adequate working conditions and low pay, insecurity and confrontation obtained the academic and lack of administrative experience. The perceived positive aspects for the training were: good infrastructure and reputation of the university, integrating teaching-research, teacher-student relationship. The negative aspects comprised the following categories: administrative preparation, lack of integration between content theoretical/practical, concepts used in the labor market. The suggestions presented are consistent with the difficulties to the beginning of professional life and the negative aspects. CONCLUSION: The professionals have faced the saturation of the labor market and different reality from those found in academic life. Despite the positive aspects, graduates suggest changes in the course conducted.
Dentistry; education higher; human resources