Optometry....Best Profession?

[geronamo26]

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Lets face the truth. It's easy to see why EVERYONE wants to be an optometrist. I don't know whats going to happen five years from now, but I am keeping my options open. Physical therapy, SLP, and Audiologists seem to be more in demand. Physical Therapists IMO shoud be paid a lot more than they are. I don't know why their salaries have not gone up because there is a HUGE need....


Optometry
-good pay
-not much blood
-four years
-high cure rate

Dental
-pulling teech
-stinky breath
-very gory
-gross mouths

Podiatry
-pulling toenails
-stinky feet
-very gory
-gross feet

Pharmacy
-long hours
-standing all day
-too many of them
-low pay ceiling

Physical Therapy
-low pay?
-can get boring
-schooling is expensive
-causing pain

 

[thecgrblue]

Lets face the truth. It's easy to see why EVERYONE wants to be an optometrist. I don't know whats going to happen five years from now, but I am keeping my options open. Physical therapy, SLP, and Audiologists seem to be more in demand. Physical Therapists IMO shoud be paid a lot more than they are. I don't know why their salaries have not gone up because there is a HUGE need....


Optometry
-good pay
-not much blood
-four years
-high cure rate

Dental
-pulling teech
-stinky breath
-very gory
-gross mouths

Podiatry
-pulling toenails
-stinky feet
-very gory
-gross feet

Pharmacy
-long hours
-standing all day
-too many of them
-low pay ceiling

Physical Therapy
-low pay?
-can get boring
-schooling is expensive
-causing pain

What is the point of starting a thread like this?

You're just asking to be blasted by anybody that isn't (and a few that are) involved in optometry. I don't understand the point of your list...you pulled possible negatives for every profession. Then four points on optometry; two of which are opinion and one that is the same as all the other professions.

 

[blackhole2]

There really is no "best profession." It's just whatever is best for you.

 

[Bioflare]

Lets face the truth. It's easy to see why EVERYONE wants to be an optometrist. I don't know whats going to happen five years from now, but I am keeping my options open. Physical therapy, SLP, and Audiologists seem to be more in demand. Physical Therapists IMO shoud be paid a lot more than they are. I don't know why their salaries have not gone up because there is a HUGE need....


Optometry
-good pay Pay is less than what a pharmacist can make as they can own chains. But on average they would be comparable
-not much blood how does amount of blood affect the "BEST" profession criteria? seriously...
-four years
-high cure rate Cure isn't quite the word you should be using. Do you consider a prosthetic leg a cure?

Dental
-pulling teech ? How does this affect the best profession?
-stinky breath again?
-very gory I can see you're scared of blood...
-gross mouths and anything dealing with anything natural?

Podiatry
-pulling toenails From my understanding this isn't a common thing that is done everyday...
-stinky feet Sub-category of your last point...
-very gory How is this gory?!?
-gross feet lol...?

Pharmacy
-long hours Nope, 9-5 unless you're doing shifts in hospital. Pharmacists are the closest to the optometry profession in terms of pay and hours worked. Very flexible once you have your own "practice"
-standing all day ...no comment...
-too many of them This means you have to work harder, so that you can stand out... but you don't seem like you want to work at all.
-low pay ceiling Pharmacists can make a lot more than Optometrists once they have a good relationship with the chain store. Guess how much a Pharmacist who owns 5 pharmacies/drugstores make?

Physical Therapy
-low pay?
-can get boring
-schooling is expensive
-causing pain

First off your descriptions are all biased and we can tell what kind of person you are just from reading it. You shouldn't be in health care at all, as it seems you only care about money and how hard you'll be working. I don't see anything in there that might resemble wanting to help people?

Nothing really to say about PT, since I haven't experienced it or talked to anyone in it. But for the stuff they do, there are alternative medicines that work much better in certain instances. Acupuncture is one of them. General consensus among people i know is that they think PT's are trying to milk them with treatment, if it can be treated in a month, they'll take 2-3.

 

[MAdental]

😀 This made me laugh. Optometry is certainly not the best profession out there. Be sure of that.

 

[SIUE optkid]

optometry: great profession? or the greatest profession? haha

i agree with everything bioflare said

 

[geronamo26]

I plan on opening a practice in my own town eventually. I can tell you I wont be sitting on my butt working at a Walmart. I love everything Optometry profession has to offer. None of the other medical professions speak to me as much. The aspects of surgery(future?), medication admin, therapy, management of diseases are really attractive to me. I also love being able to be an expert on ONE thing, the eye. The pay is important whether you think so or not and I don't need you to tell me otherwise. I want to make a good living for myself and I have the right to do so! And get off your high horse, Bioflare. You can pre-judge me all you want, but the reality is you know nothing about me.

 

[mintyjulep]

I plan on opening a practice in my own town eventually. I can tell you I wont be sitting on my butt working at a Walmart. I love everything Optometry profession has to offer. None of the other medical professions speak to me as much. The aspects of surgery(future?), medication admin, therapy, management of diseases are really attractive to me. I also love being able to be an expert on ONE thing, the eye. The pay is important whether you think so or not and I don't need you to tell me otherwise. I want to make a good living for myself and I have the right to do so! And get off your high horse, Bioflare. You can pre-judge me all you want, but the reality is you know nothing about me.

Just as an aside, you WILL have to cope with smelly breath when you're up close and working at the slit lamp as an optometrist.

 

[socal2014]

Good pay depends on what you think is good.

After 8 years of post-high school education + massive debt ($200k), would $80k/year, pretax income be justified? You could make more once you start your practice...but I would bet any other profession you listed would make A LOT more if they had their own practices. This is mainly due to managed care, oversupply, corporate entities, the AOA, and online companies. Other professions don't have these problems.

Not much blood....I think most people get used to it; unless you are one of those individuals who faints at the sight of blood.

High cure rate...there is nothing as "cure" in Optometry. OD's aren't MD's. You will spend the majority of your time examining and referring patients. The examination is almost always a simple refraction. There is however, patient interaction/consultation.

 

[geronamo26]

Well can you tell me why YOU decided to become an OD, Social? Are you?Optometry has a lot to offer the population. It is more than just refractions, interactions and consultations. If it were just about that, why even bother to become one?

 

[thecgrblue]

Well can you tell me why YOU decided to become an OD, Social? Are you?Optometry has a lot to offer the population. It is more than just refractions, interactions and consultations. If it were just about that, why even bother to become one?

Socal is one of the most useless posters in forums. Most have learned to just ignore the posts, welcome to SDN.

 

[JMU07]

Just as an aside, you WILL have to cope with smelly breath when you're up close and working at the slit lamp as an optometrist.

Yup. And when you're cooped up in a tiny exam room with a smoker, you get to smell like cigarettes the rest of the day too!

 

[IndianaOD]

Optometry is definitely not the best profession. Optometry has a lot to offer our patients but there are way too many negatives. Way too much school, cost, and hard work for the crap you have to deal with.

 

[KHE]

Optometry is definitely not the best profession. Optometry has a lot to offer our patients but there are way too many negatives. Way too much school, cost, and hard work for the crap you have to deal with.

You don't have to view optometry or any profession as being the "best" or not.

What you have to look at is is this the best profession/career FOR ME?

It's almost like college. People get all worked up over college rankings and Harvard and Yale and blah blah blah but what you want to do when considering a college is find not the one that's the "best" but the one that's the best FOR YOU.

Same thing with careers.

I've told this story many times on here. I know plenty of doctors who make unGodly amounts of money. Yet they're miserable.

The happiest person I know is a woman in her early 30s and guess what she does for a living?

She gives ballet and tap dancing lessons to little girls.

She probably doesn't make more than $25000 or at most $30000 a year, but she's the HAPPIEST PERSON I KNOW.

 

[DILLIGAF]

I would have to very emphatically agree with KHE...

Many times, I feel like the "best" career option for someone ends up being that which they were most passionate about to begin with. I have a cousin that is doing very well in the tech industry, and I can't help but notice that it probably has something to do with the passion he had for it as a little kid. (He once made a computer program to remind my Aunt to feed the dogs) I am sure there are more qualified people, smarter people, etc...but passion breeds hard work, and hard work breeds success at something.

I would say that optometry does have some very marked advantages to most careers. The skill set will always be in demand, and there are very few fields which give you the autonomy that optometry can potentially give you. I would again agree with KHE on this point; I know several doctors in other fields that make much more money than most OD's, but their schedules are 100% set for them, they are constantly in fear of being sued, and the idea of a "vacation" is out of the question....I.E. One of the favorite (heard it too many times now myself though!) jokes of a few guys I play golf with is: "Ready to go to work tomorrow and make a bunch of money you will never have the time to spend?"

I do not deal with this problem, and most OD's do not either. Yes, the laws squeeze us unfairly (when have they not?), there are areas with 3x as many OD's as they need (and others where we are scarce), and it doesn't get some people the full dose of their "prestige fix"....but it can provide a great life, and one that you largely are in charge of. It is all about what makes you as an individual happy though. I love my job, but can totally see how someone else would not see it the same way. That is alright. Just do what makes you want to get up in the morning the best you can.

 

[thecgrblue]

You find your priorities in life and then you find a career that fits them. If prestige and $ make you happy, then don't go into optometry.

 

[NDESTRUKT]

I've told this story many times on here. I know plenty of doctors who make unGodly amounts of money. Yet they're miserable.

I agree with this statement.

But also know I'm a resident physician making 55K a year working 80 hours a week and I'm incredibly happy. When I make 300K a year as a cardiologist, I'll still be incredibly happy.

It's all about personality and the nontangibles in life.

 

[DILLIGAF]

"But also know I'm a resident physician making 55K a year working 80 hours a week and I'm incredibly happy. When I make 300K a year as a cardiologist, I'll still be incredibly happy."

^^^^^ This above, gives me hope!

I am pretty good friends with a several doctors. (I live in a small town. You kind of know everyone) And with all of their different personalities, specialties, family situations, etc; I feel I am able to put them all into one of 2 groups:

1) Those that survive going to work.
2) Those that feel alive going to work.

I know how cliched that is, but I still find it to be true. I worked as a resident years ago, put in 80+ hours a week, and made 38k doing it....and I must tell you it was the some of the happiest times I've ever had. Even today, I literally do pop out of bed in the morning. (I am 40, this counts for something!) If you are someone that is in group #1, no amount of "prestige" or bank account number will make you feel any better. The best thing of optometry is not either of those two: it is autonomy and patient contact. I do feel that this business allows for a high degree of flexibility, more so than most of such high training level. I went on a vacation for a month last winter, and outside of looking at some spreadsheets while I was gone, I was able to completely walk away. For many other docs I know, they must retire to do that. If this, along with the amount of accessibility you are expected to have as an eye doc, do NOT make you happy, then do something else....

But anytime I see another doc that loves what they do like I do, it makes me happy.

 

[Shnurek]

I worked as a resident years ago, put in 80+ hours a week, and made 38k doing it....and I must tell you it was the some of the happiest times I've ever had. Even today, I literally do pop out of bed in the morning. (I am 40, this counts for something!)

That's very interesting. What kind of resident were you?

 

[socal2014]

Optometry is definitely not the best profession. Optometry has a lot to offer our patients but there are way too many negatives. Way too much school, cost, and hard work for the crap you have to deal with.

I would have to agree with these facts.

All other opinions on these boards are effectively lies or personal anecdotes.

I don't get it, why paint a picture?

 

[DellGirl]

The best thing of optometry is not either of those two: it is autonomy and patient contact. I do feel that this business allows for a high degree of flexibility, more so than most of such high training level. I went on a vacation for a month last winter, and outside of looking at some spreadsheets while I was gone, I was able to completely walk away. For many other docs I know, they must retire to do that.

😍

 

[nc2tarheels]

I would have to agree with these facts.

All other opinions on these boards are effectively lies or personal anecdotes.

I don't get it, why paint a picture?

funny that a person with such a low level of education can make this statement.