Six Figures: Veronica Ruelas, O.D.

[VisionsFinest]

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Hello,

Here is a successful optometrist. Shows that if you want to be successful in life, you must be adventurous and a strong believer.

http://nbclatino.com/2012/08/13/six-figures-veronica-ruelas/

 

[Jason K]

Hello,

Here is a successful optometrist. Shows that if you want to be successful in life, you must be adventurous and a strong believer.

http://nbclatino.com/2012/08/13/six-figures-veronica-ruelas/

Sorry to stomp on your dreams, but here's the problem with your line of thinking - Veronica graduated over 14 years ago. No one (including myself) has ever put out the notion that there are no successful ODs in the US. I know quite a number of ODs who do well. A couple of them do extremely well. One characteristic of all of them? They all graduated 15 - 35 years ago. Optometry was a different profession back then. It had its issues, but it was not the ailing animal it is today. Another characteristic of all of them (and this one is key for you guys) is that they also all agree that there would be absolutely no way for them to achieve what they have achieved if they were to start optometry school today - no way in hell.

The issue today is that new grads see what those older, established ODs have, and they think they can have a shot at duplicating it. You guys can't do it. I wish you could, but you can't. There will be a very small percentage of future OD grads that, through family, luck, or some craftiness, will find their way into a decent landing position. The rest will just get sucked into the ever-growing trap that is commercial optometry.

Veronica's great, but she's a part of an extinct species that just hasn't died yet. It will, though - and with the way things are going, it's probably going to be sooner than later. The more adventurous and more strong your beliefs are in optometry's future, the more angry you'll be when you realize you sank a couple of hundred thousand dollars and 8 years of your life into a profession that is drastically different from what you envisioned - one that will have you working as a glorified refracting technician for as long as the profession lasts.

 

[Shnurek]

"She says she originally chose the field of optometry as arbitrarily as she was choosing what dress to wear. The only thing she says she was sure of was she wanted to be a professional."

That's also a huge problem and mistake that many students make. They might choose optometry b/c they did not get into medical school or a top tier law school or what have you. Choose optometry because you like optometry not because its what's left over. For example I myself was forced by my parents to take the GRE but my heart really wasn't in taking a Masters program. A professor told me to just do a Doctorate right away and not fiddle with Masters programs. But a PhD. just wasn't fully for me. I thought about Medical school but never took the MCAT because I realized around halfway through my college career that I wanted to be an optometrist. I love when the Medical students tell me that I got rejected from Medical schools that is why I am so adamant about promoting optometry. In fact its completely opposite and probably why I am so enamored by the field. Because I got what I wanted, I got into the school I wanted and I'm living exactly how I chose to live at least up to this point so far. We'll see what the future holds. Either good or bad. I welcome it because this was 100% my decision.

 

[Tippytoe]

Also, it appears, she decided not to (or can't) have a family (children). That certainly does give you a little more opportunity to drop everything and move to a 3rd world country teaching yoga, if you want, I guess. You wouldn't really have to worry about money much if you are happy living in a hut and eating what you grow or catch.

Many people would view her life as a horrible outcome at age 40. No family. No kids to take care of you when your get old. No grandkids. I love my kids, where I live and my wife. No way I'd give them up while I roamed around in some 3rd world country.

Also, from the original poster, how do you know she's successful? I see her walking around in a junked up county somewhere in the world selling ashrams (whatever they are?). How do you know she's not absolutely broke? How do you know she has not failed in 10 different practices she's tried. How do you know she's not divorced 4 times?

Sounds to me like she's given up and just going to ride out the rest of her life trying to scrape by volunteering here and there. Hopefully she's happy. But most people wouldn't be. ESPECIALLY someone trying to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars in school loans (or someone that enjoys air conditioning).

 

[xmattODx]

Many people would view her life as a horrible outcome at age 40. No family. No kids to take care of you when your get old. No grandkids. I love my kids, where I live and my wife. No way I'd give them up while I roamed around in some 3rd world country.

Who says you can't have both? I roamed around many "3rd world contr[ies]" during my career and have all that you declare as meaningful in life. Why can't we just be happy for her that she's reached a point in her career where she's happy and feels successful (however she defines success)? Must we always find a way to say that the current state of optometry will make everyone miserable (even if it always will)? She appears to have found contentment with her career after many years of discontent. Kudos to her.

 

[Tippytoe]

Who says you can't have both? I roamed around many "3rd world contr[ies]" during my career and have all that you declare as meaningful in life. Why can't we just be happy for her that she's reached a point in her career where she's happy and feels successful (however she defines success)? Must we always find a way to say that the current state of optometry will make everyone miserable (even if it always will)? She appears to have found contentment with her career after many years of discontent. Kudos to her.

Sure. I say good for her. I just found it odd that someone would post a couple paragraph article about a random woman that volunteers overseas to set up medical clinics and sell high priced clothing and say, "Here is a successful optometrist".

Success in what? Volunteering? Eye exams? Knitting? In life in general? In Yoga?

The take home from her story is that fact that she had to basically LEAVE optometry to find happiness. She's selling high price clothing to make a living.She could have done that without going to school really. That is what I took from it. Hey, she works part time for an optical store that doesn't even have her name or image on their website. Check out the website in the article.

You might can call her a successful person. But you can't call her a successful optometrist because, well, she's not really doing anything in optometry except refracting a little for an optician.

 

[xmattODx]

The take home from her story is that fact that she had to basically LEAVE optometry to find happiness.

This is the most interesting part of the article to me. "She says she didn’t always love her job as an optometrist."

I think, like any profession, it is important to realize that you can't let the profession define your life. You need to find outside interests to make life interesting. She wasn't satisfied with her career until she added to it. Optometry has the potential, given our colleagues, our reimbursement levels, the realities of commercial practice, etc, to suck the life out of anyone.

Find outside interests, be they family, volunteering (but don't provide volunteer eye care in developing countries without also being a part of the local health and training system - a soap box for another day) or alternative businesses.

Although I take issue with the way a lot of things are presented by the more vocal members of this forum it is important for students and potential students to take note that much of what they say has some nugget of important truth to it. This example shows that some of what they say is true:
1. This example of success wasn't thrilled with optometry for many years and didn't deem herself content until adding to optometry
2. An anecdote of one successful optometrist does not guarantee the success of all optometrists.

Make sure you have defined what you consider success before going into $150,000 of debt. I suspect that most of you will include take-home income among other more personal things in your definition of success. Carefully consider if the $150,000 hurdle will hinder you reaching your definition of success.

 

[KHE]

I too took some time away from optometry a few years back and returned to the profession much happier than before my hiatus.

I think what that hiatus did for me was that it allowed me to come to grips with what optometry WAS and what it wasn't and what I could and could not control. Once I got that through my head, optometry became much more fun.

It also allowed me to find the practice that I bought because prior to the hiatus, I found that I was jumping from one bad situation to another. I would get frustrated with some aspect of some situation and I would just jump at the next thing that came along. This was obviously a mistake but at the time, you just act in a somewhat desparate manner. Being outside the profession allowed me to see the opportunity I had with the practice for what it was. Had I been in the bad place I was, I likely would have not seen it through.

 

[Tippytoe]

I too took some time away from optometry a few years back and returned to the profession much happier than before my hiatus.

I think what that hiatus did for me was that it allowed me to come to grips with what optometry WAS and what it wasn't and what I could and could not control. Once I got that through my head, optometry became much more fun.

It also allowed me to find the practice that I bought because prior to the hiatus, I found that I was jumping from one bad situation to another. I would get frustrated with some aspect of some situation and I would just jump at the next thing that came along. This was obviously a mistake but at the time, you just act in a somewhat desparate manner. Being outside the profession allowed me to see the opportunity I had with the practice for what it was. Had I been in the bad place I was, I likely would have not seen it through.

All this is true. I do remember you saying you got a good high school teaching position for something like $70,000 (being in CT I guess) back then. That's a great salary for a teacher. Unfortunately, we all know that a student with so much debt nowadays likely won't be able to just walk away from optometry to do a 'fun' job for a few years while they gather their thoughts. Most places in the country, teachers are paid like $30,000 (of course from my other posts, it might be what future ODs end up netting anyway so it might not be that hard to do 😛 ).

 

[KHE]

All this is true. I do remember you saying you got a good high school teaching position for something like $70,000 (being in CT I guess) back then. That's a great salary for a teacher. Unfortunately, we all know that a student with so much debt nowadays likely won't be able to just walk away from optometry to do a 'fun' job for a few years while they gather their thoughts. Most places in the country, teachers are paid like $30,000 (of course from my other posts, it might be what future ODs end up netting anyway so it might not be that hard to do 😛 ).

It is true that when I did what I did, I had a number of things in my favor.

First, CT has one of the higher teacher salaries in the nation.

Secondly, the way that the contract worked at that time was that because I had so many science credits above and beyond undergraduate, I could be certified in more than one discipline and I also started at the second highest pay scale. They considered me the same as having a PhD.

So it worked out well and truth be told, if the situation I'm in now hadn't come along, it is highly likely that I would still not be practicing.

People have said that optometry is "what you make of it." I've never been comfortable with that notion because there are lots of things outside your control that you never really consider when you're a student.

Someone's success in optometry is to me, more dependent not on what you make of it but how comfortable you are with what it makes of you.

 

[Tippytoe]

Someone's success in optometry is to me, more dependent not on what you make of it but how comfortable you are with what it makes of you.

Ha, ha.........sorry I can't resist. If you substitue the word "optometry'" with "prison", it makes even more sense.

"Someone's success in '"prison" is to me, more dependent not on what you make of it but how comfortable you are with what it makes of you". Like, if you don't mind picking up Bubba's soap when he drops it, you'll be okay.😀 I guess there is always some way to look on the bright side.