Should I be scared/worried?

[mupreopt]

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I am an undergraduate. I want to become an optometrist but I've been doing lots of research for the past few days and I'm reading a lot of negative things regarding optometry.

As I have mentioned before in previous posts, I can't see myself doing anything other than optometry. Let me clarify that. There are two things that I would love to do: commercial pilot and an espresso coffee shop owner. However, being a pilot is out of the question because I don't think the risk of dying in crash is worth it, even though it's rare. I would like to own a espresso coffee shop. However, they say that the majority of businesses fail within the first 3 years. Plus with Starbucks, the business will probably fail. So those two career choices are out of the question.

I really don't think I can enjoy other "normal" careers such as accounting, manager, etc. It sounds boring and you don't get paid as much. So I'm left with optometry. However, I am reading all these negative things with optometry such as corporate, insurances, over saturation, less respect for OD, etc.

Should I be worried if I choose optometry?

 

[gochi]

To say that I would be EXTREMELY worried is an understatement.

Most of what you claim is correct to a certain degree. As you may have heard, more schools are opening up, which further diminishes macro success for future OD's.

OD's will most definelty be needed. Its just the issue that most graduating OD's will not be receiving the respect that they thought they were going to receive prior to enrolling into OD school, i.e. discrimination from insurance panels, having a boss with minimal education, going to school for 8 years and getting paid 60k when AOA states 200k+ is avg salary, general public not knowing who optometrists are.........

Its pretty obvious what will happen to the optometry profession after MORE schools open in an already saturated nation.

Optometrists will inevitably be self-made doctors, working twice as harder as an average doctor.

[other thread]
If you like teeth go into dentistry. I wouldn't go into pharmacy though- too boring.

 

[mupreopt]

I have considered dentistry. In fact, there is a dentistry school at the opposite end of my state (there's a med school 3 minutes from me visible on a mountain from my bedroom). However, I don't think I can stand pulling someone's teeth, performing root canal, etc. and hearing the child crying/screaming due to fear or pain.
I really like the optometry work environment from what I have observed from multiple visits.

 

[paintballdoc]

Have you ever considered medical school.? I admit I am biased, but there are definitely more options if you get a M.D./D.O. degree. I feel optometry would be a great field, but their scope of practice is not as large as an ophthalmologist (if you choose ophtho after med school). You would also have the opportunity to choose other fields, if you decide. That being said, I feel medicine is changing, and not for the better. Talk to optometry docs and ophtho docs personally--most people are very open to talking about their careers. You would then be able to ask what each field offers and the cons.

 

[quad32]

im in the same boat as mupreopt.
ive been steadily strong in pursuing a career in optometry and ever since getting on here the last 2 weeks and reading the negative aspects of the profession has really really freaked me out. dentistry is an option for me, my grandad was a dentist and LOVED it, yet i dont know about everything that goes a long with it...my back up is a Medical Representative and that increases as a better choice everyday after reading all this ! Help!

 

[mupreopt]

I'm glad I'm not alone.

Let me provide more background as to why I am freaked/panicking/worried/scared.

I'm 24. At the beginning of high school I made a choice to become an architect. Throughout high school I took classes to prepare me: art, drafting, etc. Throughtout high school, I was sure that I was going to college to be an architect until I contacted architects and found out that job security was not great. So at the end of my senior year, I made a very difficult choice to change what I wanted to be. I took a year off before going to college to decide what I wanted to be (also to get a break before goign to college). I hated this because I already had a goal in mind and I had to discontinue it, which was dissapointing. After research, I found out that I wanted to be an optometrist. Any good career you go into is going to be difficult so I set a goal to become an optometrist and not let any distractions make me change my mind. Now I am finding out all this negative stuff about optometry. I would hate to make a career choice change again because I already have in my mind to go for it. Right now it just feels like my life is moving nowhere and if I change my major after 4 years in college, I would have to start college all over and I feel like I'm just not moving foward in life.

 

[zyg0te]

I am an undergraduate. I want to become an optometrist but I've been doing lots of research for the past few days and I'm reading a lot of negative things regarding optometry.

As I have mentioned before in previous posts, I can't see myself doing anything other than optometry. Let me clarify that. There are two things that I would love to do: commercial pilot and an espresso coffee shop owner. However, being a pilot is out of the question because I don't think the risk of dying in crash is worth it, even though it's rare. I would like to own a espresso coffee shop. However, they say that the majority of businesses fail within the first 3 years. Plus with Starbucks, the business will probably fail. So those two career choices are out of the question.

I really don't think I can enjoy other "normal" careers such as accounting, manager, etc. It sounds boring and you don't get paid as much. So I'm left with optometry. However, I am reading all these negative things with optometry such as corporate, insurances, over saturation, less respect for OD, etc.

Should I be worried if I choose optometry?

PP Optometry is also a business.

From what I have observed, Optometry is pretty boring as well. Typically we get 16 patient days, all boring healthy people and all we do is refract and send them on their way until next year. We may get a glaucoma suspect every now and then, but most days it is very repetitive.

This is my advice to you. Quit wasting your time on SDN and go to the career center at school and take their career placement test, and be honest with yourself, your desires, and your abilities.

 

[ddown]

Unfortunately, optometry is shooting itself in the foot in several arenas, not the least of which is scarring away prospective, qualified students. The concerns you have been reading about are real, and serious. Had I dug a little a deeper during my career researching days I might not have chosen this profession. I do enjoy optometry, but I may not get the anticipated returns for the time and large sums of money invested. My only advice is to do your due diligence before choosing this profession. There are very happy ODs and there are very unhappy ODs and the number of the latter seems to be growing.

 

[mupreopt]

Financial wise, as long as I make $80,000+, I'm happy. But my reasons are not all due to money. I have other reasons.

 

[quad32]

venting or not, the things that actual optometrists are saying are facts, or at least projected facts of the future. before i am in too deep, they are good things to know - although they arent entirely positive, yet they are informative and i appreciate the honesty of everyone that has responded.

yet it still is really scarry getting yourself into a profession that could be primarily corporate, oversaturated, blah blah and whatever everybody else is saying... just makes me nervous and start to think about what to do!

 

[quad32]

plus the idea of going to school for an additional 4 years and making 80-100k is not appealing. i know its not all about money and such, but you could be doing that with almost any other decent profession, or even better!

 

[opt]

I know it's easy to get worried about choosing optometry. But..optometry will only be boring if you think it's boring. Yeah, you're going to be doing lots and lots of refractions. But, you'll also use the slit lamp...and other instruments lots and lots of times. ANYTHING can be boring...it's all based on perspective. I can think of many jobs I'd get bored with right away. Can optometry be boring? Sure, why not. But...that's when you need to start being creative to change things up a little. I'd bet even rearranging an exam room would make it less boring.

Another thing, there seems to be a lot of negative talk here. But the bottom line is, lots of people love to talk about the negative side to things nonstop. Every career has its negatives. Get over it...and learn to minimize the effects.

If you love optometry, then go for it. If you are motivated, ambitious, and want to be successful...then you most likely will be. If you want to work corporate and make 80k forever, you will. If you want to make 200k...I bet you could. But, if you want to look at things from the negative side, then you will find optometry boring and non fulfilling. There are PLENTY of optometrists that love their jobs. And for those that don't...maybe it just wasn't the right career choice for them. Or maybe OTHER factors in their lives have an effect on their career. And don't forget that optometry is a career that will allow you help people every day. Vision is important.

 

[mupreopt]

I think that I am going to take a risk and stick with optometry school.
I have thought about changing majors but the classes for the major that I have considered sounds boring and it's the type of class that I feel that I would fall asleep in lecture. At least the science/medical field will keep me up and is more interesting.

 

[prettygreeneyes]

I'm glad I'm not alone.

Let me provide more background as to why I am freaked/panicking/worried/scared.

Right now it just feels like my life is moving nowhere and if I change my major after 4 years in college, I would have to start college all over and I feel like I'm just not moving foward in life.

First off, you really and truly should NOT be basing all of your opinions on the future of optometry on this forum. While we are fortunate enough to have some very helpful and successful ODs participating in this forum, I also get the feeling that we have several ODs who regret the career choice they have made, and view this student forum as a chance to talk others out of making the mistake they made (and for whatever reason are unwilling or unable to fix.)

Second - you are still an undergraduate. The fact that you are worried and scared about this profession is good - because right now you are in an excellent position to do something about it. If you were in your 3rd year of optometry school, or even worse - 5 years into a cold start practice - perhaps then you would have something to worry about. In the scheme of life - we are talking 80+ years now, is 4 years really that much time? If you really did pick the wrong career (which again - you shouldn't come to that conclusion based on this website alone), the worse thing that can happen is that you go back to college and pick something else. If you've already completed all of your core classes - I doubt that a new major would take 4 more years. Even if it did, if you were happy in the end the time would have been well spent.

Finally - my personal advice to you - RELAX!!! I can feel your stress oozing through my computer screen when I read your posts. Take a deep breath, have a drink, and enjoy your last year of college. You'll have plenty of time to stress - no need to get an early start.

 

[mupreopt]

First off, you really and truly should NOT be basing all of your opinions on the future of optometry on this forum.

Is this a reply to me? When did I ever bash the future optometry? - if you meant to quote someone else, I apologize.

 

[mupreopt]

Finally - my personal advice to you - RELAX!!! I can feel your stress oozing through my computer screen when I read your posts. Take a deep breath, have a drink, and enjoy your last year of college. You'll have plenty of time to stress - no need to get an early start.

relaxing is something I definitely need to do right now. I am going to try not to worry anymore. I just had all these question built up and when I found this website, I just released it all.

 

[Ben Chudner]

Is this a reply to me? When did I ever bash the future optometry? - if you meant to quote someone else, I apologize.

Base, not bash. You should not base your opinion of optometry on the posts here.

 

[mupreopt]

oops. I should not be posting when I'm sleepy.

 

[prettygreeneyes]

Base, not bash. You should not base your opinion of optometry on the posts here.

Thanks! 😀

 

[mtrlOATgal]

seriously, if you were so worried, then you should ask some optometrists these questions. you say that you have found passion in optometry through what you observed but in another post you worry that you cannot even shadow the three optometrists near you.... that is a little confusing

and btw if you do do another major, given that its not a specialty like nursing or architecture, then it should take you prob another year and a half at most if not two years.....

stop worrying so much! lol focus more on your studies and applications. if you seriously think you cant get any optometry experience in your community then let your drive to learn more about the profession to take your shadowing experience further- go on a VOSH trip, see ODs outside of your state, I think there is this optocamp at Berkeley in the summer, as well you can do research in vision science and sometimes you might find an optometrist doing research there

btw I don't support Starbucks ( I;m Canandian) but definitely you should consider opening up a coffee shop if you are into that- anything is bound to fail if you dont give it your all and hey so what if it closes = open another one!!! pick up when you fall down right? well i think it would be soo cool if you could open a coffee shop and have an optometry clinic upstairs- great clientele and you could raise awareness about visual health!

 

[Eyedoc1999]

Fellas, I'll try hard to make this short.

I love my job. It is one of the most unique professional positions in which you will ever find yourself. I will outline a list of the great things about optometry, because you aren't likely to hear the good stuff on a forum most of the time.

1) There are very few OD jobs that don't make considerably better than average money. Even if you work in a corporate setting, you are still making six figures.
2) Optometry is one of the cleanest medical professions, very little blood and fluids and little exposure to bad pathogens.
3) Your work directly affects every minute of every day of your patient's lives. By virtue of correcting their visual problems (or treating their diseases), you make them able to work, play, read, watch their children grow and even make them able to post on forums.
4) Your patients leave fixed immediately. They come in with a fixable problem that only you are able to take care of and they leave better than they walked in.
5) You get to build a rapport with your patients because they aren't coming in feeling sick or at their worst so they are mostly in really good moods. You actually get to build a relationship with the people you are helping and grow with them.
6) You have the flexibility to practice as simply or as complicated as you wish. You can work in disease, refractive surgery, primary care or even hospital settings...so if you're bored, try something different because you graduate with the tools to do mostly anything.
7) At the end of the day, you can go home with a clear head. You don't have much after hours calls, no life-threatening issues waiting to wake you at 4AM. If you want to go on vacation, you go without hoping that someone in your charge won't die in your absence.
8) You can practice with as much initial investment as you choose to make. You can open a practice or you can take a corporate lease and become an immediate earner w/o large practice loans.
9) You have the opportunity to save peoples vision and sometimes their lives. Many folks that won't get physicals WILL get their eyes checked. You get to head off diabetic and hypertensive complications (on folks that don't even know they have it) and even catch exotic things like brain tumors (more often than you would think).
10) People will ALWAYS need vision care. Regardless of the number of ODs there will always be an area that needs doctors.

So there it is, my top ten list. There are probably more reasons, but you get the idea. Not everyone dislikes optometry and you shouldn't let a few burnouts discourage you from something great. Good luck!

 

[ItalianBliss]

Fellas, I'll try hard to make this short.

I love my job. It is one of the most unique professional positions in which you will ever find yourself. I will outline a list of the great things about optometry, because you aren't likely to hear the good stuff on a forum most of the time.

1) There are very few OD jobs that don't make considerably better than average money. Even if you work in a corporate setting, you are still making six figures.
2) Optometry is one of the cleanest medical professions, very little blood and fluids and little exposure to bad pathogens.
3) Your work directly affects every minute of every day of your patient's lives. By virtue of correcting their visual problems (or treating their diseases), you make them able to work, play, read, watch their children grow and even make them able to post on forums.
4) Your patients leave fixed immediately. They come in with a fixable problem that only you are able to take care of and they leave better than they walked in.
5) You get to build a rapport with your patients because they aren't coming in feeling sick or at their worst so they are mostly in really good moods. You actually get to build a relationship with the people you are helping and grow with them.
6) You have the flexibility to practice as simply or as complicated as you wish. You can work in disease, refractive surgery, primary care or even hospital settings...so if you're bored, try something different because you graduate with the tools to do mostly anything.
7) At the end of the day, you can go home with a clear head. You don't have much after hours calls, no life-threatening issues waiting to wake you at 4AM. If you want to go on vacation, you go without hoping that someone in your charge won't die in your absence.
8) You can practice with as much initial investment as you choose to make. You can open a practice or you can take a corporate lease and become an immediate earner w/o large practice loans.
9) You have the opportunity to save peoples vision and sometimes their lives. Many folks that won't get physicals WILL get their eyes checked. You get to head off diabetic and hypertensive complications (on folks that don't even know they have it) and even catch exotic things like brain tumors (more often than you would think).
10) People will ALWAYS need vision care. Regardless of the number of ODs there will always be an area that needs doctors.

So there it is, my top ten list. There are probably more reasons, but you get the idea. Not everyone dislikes optometry and you shouldn't let a few burnouts discourage you from something great. Good luck!

👍🙂

 

[JAZZEYE]

👍🙂

I'll second that
👍🙂