Tips for job applications 4th year.

[Mittendork]

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Hi there,

Calling all hiring OD's! Im a 4th year OD student who will be practicing in CA. What tips do you all have for the application process? I am open as far as the modality. What things should I look out for (pay, hrs, benefits etc?). What would do recent grads wish they knew before applying?

 

[Ryan_eyeball]

My wife calls me as an pessimist on this but here goes. You are graduating at certainly unprecedented times. Just one month ago we were planning summer/fall vacations and seeing my income stable and great. Now we are shut down according to the CDC guidelines and the state boards for routine eyecare. I am lucky and worked hard over the years to have no debt now, and over 1 years worth of cash on hand to weather the storm. I'd be shocked if we were back to delivering routine eyecare by May 1st.

I see not only a recession among us but we might even slip into a depression. Offices that have low rent/mortgage/overhead will be able to survive since eventually we are an essential aspect of healthcare. Offices are going to be very hesitant to hire come May-August and maybe even rescinding offers made to new graduates. My advice is be open to moving and be thankful if you are able to land a job.

My thoughts and prayers are with this country and the American spirit to bounce back after all this.

 

[MattGellerOD]

@Ryan_eyeball is pretty accurate on the unprecedented difficult times although it's pretty clear we will not be entering a depression unless things get completely out of hand with COVID-19. 30 days ago we were in an extremely tight labor market for optometry—that means it was hard for employers to hire talent and there were long wait times to hire ODs because the demand for ODs outstripped supply. This is favorable for candidates but not for practices.

This market is now shifting because many practices are temporarily closing their doors but with the CARES Act now signed, many optometry practices will avoid firing their ODs in order to qualify for the loan forgiveness program offered by the $350 billion stimulus. What this means is that likely the labor market will still be fairly tight come summertime and this is even more likely in the fall (aka returning to the way things were 30 days.) With this being said, many practices are not hiring at all at this current moment and are quite scared of the prospect of increasing overhead expenses, but don't be fooled by this temporary storm. Although I am speculating, I believe this current climate will last 6-9 months at a maximum, should COVID-19 cases spike in the 2nd week of April as predicted by a few reputable statistical epidemiological models.

My suggestion is to start get your resume, cover letter, and all of that in order. Start practicing your interview skills and preparing ways that you can go above and beyond for the practice that you join. Practices will benefit more than ever from an OD who can do more then just see patients—marketing, advertising, blogging, bringing in a new modality of care, etc—all of this will be immensely valuable as practices attempt to recover from COVID-19.

Hope this helps.

- Matt Geller, OD