Photo Credit: Nataliia Nesterenko/Getty Images
By Andrawis Zada, OD
March 5, 2026
The first few years after graduation are a maze of choices: where to live, which job to take, how you’ll be paid, what specialties to pursue and how to protect yourself contractually. Those decisions shape not just your income but your daily stresses, professional development and long-term fulfillment. After earning my doctor of optometry from Western University College of Optometry, I navigated that maze by trial and error, making mistakes I could have avoided. Here’s the practical advice I wish I’d had.
LET LOCATION GUIDE YOUR JOB SEARCH
When I started my job search, I did what many students do. I chased job listings without thinking about geography. This was until a mentor urged me to first choose where I wanted to live, then find work around it. That advice proved far more valuable than chasing the first attractive job posting I found.
Job location affects more than commute time. Some markets, like the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles, are saturated with optometrists, which drives down starting pay and could mean juggling several part-time jobs. Think about family, cost of living and whether you want to build a long-term career or use the role as a stepping-stone. If living close to family or working a predictable schedule matters to you, confirm the job meets those needs before signing any contract.
UNDERSTAND PAY STRUCTURES
Pay structure is not just a number on a job posting. It changes how you work and what you value. I compared guaranteed salaries, loan-repayment offers and production pay early on to assess which made the most sense for my goals.
Production pay means you earn a percentage of the revenue you generate. It rewards clinical productivity and providing higher-value services like specialty contact lenses or dry eye treatments. In many cases, production outperforms a flat salary over time. But production only works when the practice generates sufficient revenue, the owner transparently shares collections data and supports you during ramp-up. This model aligns your success with the success of the practice, for better or worse.
Ask employers for metrics: What is the average revenue per patient for other associates at the practice? How many patients does an associate typically see in a day? Is there a guaranteed minimum during ramp-up? Also evaluate the practice’s service mix. A clinic that sells primarily low-margin products won’t produce the income you might expect from a production model.
In some practices, a per-patient bonus may make more sense. Many employers offer a base salary plus a set amount for each patient seen beyond a threshold, rewarding higher patient volume without tying compensation to sales.
FIND YOUR FIT IN THE CLINIC, NOT IN CLASS
School is your chance to experiment. By third year, you’re in clinic, and by fourth year, rotations offer real-world exposure. Take advantage of this time to explore different paths, especially if you hope to develop skills in a specific area of focus. Fitting specialty contacts, managing ocular surface disease or doing low-vision work in real clinics helps you build skills and confidence you can’t get in class.
I chose rotation sites deliberately. One heavy on specialty contact lenses, another focused on ocular disease in a Spanish-speaking community and a third with a low-vision emphasis. Those experiences revealed what fit and what didn’t—my low vision rotation made clear it didn’t. That clarity was valuable redirection, not wasted time.
VET PRACTICES LIKE YOU’RE A PATIENT
Searching for optometry jobs on LinkedIn or Indeed yields thousands of listings. How do you choose which to apply to? When I was searching for an associate role, I evaluated practices the way a patient would. Look at the website. Is it active and up to date? Read Google reviews. Do they reflect consistent care and patient satisfaction, or recurring complaints? These are surface clues about professionalism and practice culture.
During interviews, ask questions to dig deeper: How will you build your patient base? Will the owner proactively transfer patients to you while your schedule ramps up? What is the expected daily patient load and revenue per patient if you’re on production? How are appointment slots allocated? How many technicians will support you? Is the owner willing to let you develop new services?
Be honest about your timeline. If you don’t plan to stay at a practice long-term, say so. Good owners will appreciate the transparency, and poor matches are easier to avoid when expectations are clear from both parties.
DON’T SIGN WITHOUT A PROFESSIONAL REVIEW
Contracts contain terms that matter both short-term and long-term: production formulas, guarantees, loan repayment conditions, noncompete clauses and more. I recommend paying for a professional contract review. The fee is small compared with the cost of signing terms you don’t understand. A review can clarify what is standard, what is negotiable and which clauses could limit your options later.
There is no single right path to a fulfilling optometry career right out of school. I have tried corporate optometry, filled in at an ophthalmology clinic and then settled into a full-time associate role that fits my goals. Each stop taught me something. Bottom line: decide where you want to call home before choosing a job, understand your compensation, use rotations to identify what energizes you and vet employers the way patients vet clinics. Do that and your early years of practice will be far more manageable and a lot more rewarding.
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Andrawis Zada, OD, is an associate optometrist at Helmus Optometry in Davis, Calif. To contact him: drzada@helmusoptometry.com |
