Best Jobs in America 2012 - Optometrist #12

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Optogal

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Median pay: $105,000
Top pay: $149,000
10-year job growth: 33.1%
Total jobs*: 34,200


http://money.cnn.com/pf/best-jobs/2012/snapshots/12.html

Here's the "latest" for 2012. For what it's worth, the general public thinks optometry is a pretty good career.

Where do they get these stats? How do they determine "Top pay"? Although some ODs are struggling to find work, I'm sure some ODs in established practice empires are making >300 hundred thousand K.

Is the 10 year job growth looking forward or the last 10 years?

Edit: Oops - my questions are answered in the notes at the bottom of the link (Top pay represents the 90th percentile. Job growth is estimated for 2010-20)

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Median pay: $105,000
Top pay: $149,000
10-year job growth: 33.1%
Total jobs*: 34,200


http://money.cnn.com/pf/best-jobs/2012/snapshots/12.html

Here's the "latest" for 2012. For what it's worth, the general public thinks optometry is a pretty good career.

Where do they get these stats? How do they determine "Top pay"? Although some ODs are struggling to find work, I'm sure some ODs in established practice empires are making >300 hundred thousand K.

Is the 10 year job growth looking forward or the last 10 years?

Edit: Oops - my questions are answered in the notes at the bottom of the link (Top pay represents the 90th percentile. Job growth is estimated for 2010-20)

300 hundred thousand K? 300x100000x1000 = 30000000000. Pretty sure no optometrist makes that much...:laugh::p
 
I doubt there is a more than a handful of ODs in America earning (netting) $300,000. There is simply no reason for anyone today to fantasize they will be making anywhere close to $300,000 or even $200,000 in the field of optometry in the future. There will be a few outliers but they will be/are very rare.

This article was written by a nobody who's editor told him to "go and find out what the best jobs are". He/She googled a little and randomly put down some professions. Took it to the editor and got his $200 paycheck.

There is absolutely no scientific method in determining these silly lists. Just whatever is on the author's mind.
 
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I meant to say >3 gajillion dollars. I mean, there's optometrists on every street corner making that. Either that, or there are 3 gajillion optometrists on every street corner.

As for >300K, there are optometrists making that, and I wouldn't say it's that "rare". Established practices where everyone gets glasses for themselves and their whole families using insurance, can rack up several thousand dollars in sales on a "good" day. I'm sure it's not as easy making big bucks today as it was 25 years ago (there was a recent post in another thread from I think tippytoe that referred to this), but established practices with multiple associates are probably doing it, with the owner taking home several hundred thousand dollars a year. This was doable 25 years ago and it still exists today in every city, but its just a lot less common probably impossible to "build from the ground up" today.

Of course, the other side of this is there are practices just struggling to keep the lights on, literally. There are practices that are opening today in saturated markets (why do they do this?) that is pretty much just a huge loss of capital from day one, and close down a few months/years later after being in the red for the entire duration.

What I'm saying is the top 5% in optometry are doing very well, but its extremely difficult and perhaps impossible for a new grad to get into that top 5%, particularly in saturated markets.

Anyways - the typo wasn't the point of the post - it was the CNN article.
 
As for >300K, there are optometrists making that, and I wouldn't say it's that "rare". Established practices where everyone gets glasses for themselves and their whole families using insurance, can rack up several thousand dollars in sales on a "good" day. I'm sure it's not as easy making big bucks today as it was 25 years ago (there was a recent post in another thread from I think tippytoe that referred to this), but established practices with multiple associates are probably doing it, with the owner taking home several hundred thousand dollars a year. This was doable 25 years ago and it still exists today in every city, but its just a lot less common probably impossible to "build from the ground up" today.

You guys really should stop thinking of OD career potential in the reference frame of the last 20 years. You're not a part of that profession, and you never will be. If there is a small percentage of current ODs making 300K (and there is), you will not be a part of that crowd. Sorry, but that's reality. You guys just don't get it - you might as well be looking at the income potential of neurosurgeons when you look at your income potential, using today's established ODs as a basis for judgement. The optometry of 15 years ago is a totally different profession than that of today.

If you think that because there are some ODs out there who make piles of cash, and that if you simply "figure it all out," you can do the same, you're setting yourself up for a massive career disappointment. The numbers do not support that line of thinking. What they do support is a profession that's highly over saturated, offering lower and lower income potential (regardless of practice mode), with lower and lower quality work.

If you don't like what's written above, you will very likely be disappointed with your career once you've shelled out a couple hundred thousand dollars and dedicated 8-10 years of study to your profession.

Like I always say, don't say someone didn't warn you.
 
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All this:

You guys really should stop thinking of OD career potential in the reference frame of the last 20 years. You're not a part of that profession, and you never will be. If there is a small percentage of current ODs making 300K (and there is), you will not be a part of that crowd. Sorry, but that's reality. You guys just don't get it - you might as well be looking at the income potential of neurosurgeons when you look at your income potential, using today's established ODs as a basis for judgement. The optometry of 15 years ago is a totally different profession than that of today.

If you think that because there are some ODs out there who make piles of cash, and that if you simply "figure it all out," you can do the same, you're setting yourself up for a massive career disappointment. The numbers do not support that line of thinking. What they do support is a profession that's highly over saturated, offering lower and lower income potential (regardless of practice mode), with lower and lower quality work.

If you don't like what's written above, you will very likely be disappointed with your career once you've shelled out a couple hundred thousand dollars and dedicated 8-10 years of study to your profession.

Like I always say, don't say someone didn't warn you.

was addressed here, (which you selectively snippeted-out)

What I'm saying is the top 5% in optometry are doing very well, but its extremely difficult and perhaps impossible for a new grad to get into that top 5%, particularly in saturated markets.

What's missing in all your doom and gloom posts is what you concede in your post, that "there is a small percentage of current ODs making 300K". The segment of my post that you replied to and snippeted into your post seems to disagree with your position simply because you chose to selectively truncate my position. Nowhere do I suggest that current grads can conveniently aspire to >300K, nor do I say that the current market is similar to that of 25 years ago. In fact, I imply much of the opposite.

So I'm not trying to challenge your position, but it would be nice if you made an attempt to contradict posts based on what they actually say, not based on what you want them to say. Otherwise I could do the same.

Hey Jason K says you can make 300K a year! He says it right here!!

there is a small percentage of current ODs making 300K (and there is)
 
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As for >300K, there are optometrists making that, and I wouldn't say it's that "rare". Established practices where everyone gets glasses for themselves and their whole families using insurance, can rack up several thousand dollars in sales on a "good" day.

What I'm saying is the top 5% in optometry are doing very well, but its extremely difficult and perhaps impossible for a new grad to get into that top 5%, particularly in saturated markets.

Is this better? You missed my point, and perhaps that's partially my fault for "truncating" your post. My point is, even when you guys concede to a bit of reality, you all seem to somehow zone in on the possibility of reaching the top of current optometry, based on the fact that it is there. My point is, you can't reach that place. Put it out of your mind because it's not there for you attain. It's like saying you can build a space ship that could take you to the moon, in your dorm room, since NASA figured it out in 1969.

What's missing in all your doom and gloom posts is what you concede in your post, that "there is a small percentage of current ODs making 300K".

You quote above proves my point perfectly. You basically say, "Well, all you ever talk about is gloom and doom, and yet you concede there ARE, in fact, ODs out there making the big bucks." It doesn't matter - you won't be there.....ever. That's my point.

My message to all of you on here is, if you base your career expectations on what you see out there in today's most successful practices, you're going to get burned....horribly.
 
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I doubt there is a more than a handful of ODs in America earning (netting) $300,000. There is simply no reason for anyone today to fantasize they will be making anywhere close to $300,000 or even $200,000 in the field of optometry in the future. There will be a few outliers but they will be/are very rare.

I actually know of a good number that fall in this category.
 
i know a couple in my area that make that much too. they are both old though, lol. well, not too old but 1 owns a huge clinic and the other does commercial optometry surprisingly enough. i "know" this becasue i did financing for one (at a furniture i used to work at) and i added up the numbers for the other one based on what his overhead is and how many patients he sees per day. of course, i agree i will never make anywhere near that amount, but i'm cool with that :)
 
i know a couple in my area that make that much too. they are both old though, lol. well, not too old but 1 owns a huge clinic and the other does commercial optometry surprisingly enough. i "know" this becasue i did financing for one (at a furniture i used to work at) and i added up the numbers for the other one based on what his overhead is and how many patients he sees per day. of course, i agree i will never make anywhere near that amount, but i'm cool with that :)

For everything in my life like that that I've ever financed, I have lied about my income.

Reverse engineering overhead means nothing. He could well make much much less. He could well make much much more.

Bottom line....unless you see tax returns or pay stubs, you have NO IDEA how much someone makes. The only people who know what I make are my wife and my accountant. That's it.
 
For everything in my life like that that I've ever financed, I have lied about my income.

Reverse engineering overhead means nothing. He could well make much much less. He could well make much much more.

Bottom line....unless you see tax returns or pay stubs, you have NO IDEA how much someone makes. The only people who know what I make are my wife and my accountant. That's it.

You tell your wife what you make???
 
For everything in my life like that that I've ever financed, I have lied about my income.

Reverse engineering overhead means nothing. He could well make much much less. He could well make much much more.

Bottom line....unless you see tax returns or pay stubs, you have NO IDEA how much someone makes. The only people who know what I make are my wife and my accountant. That's it.


I agree. Which is why income surveys are totally fake.
 
I actually know of a few ODs who make over 200k.... they just don't work at walmart. ;)
 
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