With an aging population and changing healthcare laws, the need for more people to pursue a career as a health professional is constantly being discussed. From physicians to physical therapists and nurses to dentists, several fields are expected to grow rapidly between 2010 and 2020 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.[1] The growing need for healthcare professionals includes optometrists, with employment of optometrists expected to grow 33% from 2010 to 2020. While opportunity for employment can certainly be enticing on its own, there are several more reasons why you might want to look into optometry.
Optometrists earned the #8 spot in CareerCast’s “Jobs Rated 2013 Report”. This report considers ratings on several attributes such as the physical and emotional job environment, income including growth potential, outlook including employment growth and unemployment statistics, and eleven different stress factors.[2] With a high average salary of $109,8101 and the opportunity for additional growth, the income can be appealing. Pair that with the fact that most optometrists are self-employed, receive relatively few emergency calls, and can establish a flexible working schedule, and it’s easy to see that optometry can be a great option to combine a prestigious professional career with a very satisfying personal life. CNNMoney agrees that optometry has a ton of great benefits, ranking the profession #12 on its “100 Best Jobs in America” list in 2012.3 According to their rankings, another reason to consider optometry is that “patients typically aren’t in pain or afraid, so visits tend to be low-key, and many stay with the same optometrist for years.”
The field of optometry also allows for specialization. Optometrists can specialize by age group, for example, focusing on geriatric or pediatric optometry. Behavioral optometry is another specialty option; it focuses on holistically treating problems resulting from the stress of sustained, close-range, visual tasks that are more common in today’s culture through ocular training and special lenses. An optometrist with a neuro specialty might work in hospital settings and help patients after traumatic brain injuries, strokes, or loss of an eye to manage symptoms related to double vision, dizziness, focus, or visual hallucinations. Finally, one could specialize as a low-vision optometrist, examining and diagnosing conditions that affect eyesight but cannot be corrected by conventional means like glasses or contact lenses or even surgery. While specializing requires additional education, it can help yield more earning potential and secure better employment opportunities.
So how do you pursue a career in optometry? To become a licensed optometrist, you’ll have to complete your Doctor in Optometry, which typically takes four years at one of the 21 schools of optometry in the US and pass the boards. If you choose to specialize or complete a residency, that will add more time. And even to get into optometry school, you’ll need your bachelor’s degree, a strong application, and an Optometry Admissions Test (OAT®) score. It’s a path that certainly takes a lot of dedication, but once you finish it, you can reap the benefits of one of the best jobs in the country.
