Of all three job shadows that I experienced, my day with my optometrist was my favorite. For a small amount of time, becoming an optometrist was something I wanted to do. When I went to my yearly check-up and glasses change, I thought an optometrist' job was easy. Little did I know. I shadowed my optometrist, Dr. Andrew Sokolik, who owns his own private practice in a building located in Wethersfield, CT.
I came to Dr. Sokolik's office one day in the summer, and it was a "regular day", as he put it. I was pretty comfortable, even though I only saw him once a year. Him and the ladies who worked at the front desk were very friendly. They were interested because they never had anyone come and do a job shadow. I stayed for about 4 hours, and observed what he did with about 10 patients. Everything was usually the same, he'd check their eyes and see if their vision had changed or not, and gave them the option to get new eyeglasses. I helped people choose theirs because they asked me what I thought, and they enjoyed my opinion. I love working with people, but would I want to do this all day for all my life? That's what I had in mind the whole time I was there. In the middle of seeing his patients, Dr. Sokolik showed me some machines he only had to use in rare cases, like when the patient complains of blurriness or repetitive headaches that might be affected by the part of the brain that deals with vision, the cerebral cortex. It was really cool, but also really complicated and scary.
When he had the time, I asked him specific questions such as the education needed and the time he has committed to this practice. When he started speaking numbers, I was shocked. Dr. Sokolik did not know he wanted to be an optometrist as soon as he started college. He started pre-med at UCONN, was a math major, and finally started exploring optometry his senior year. He took additional job training after college at the University of New York which was a total of 72 hours and 120 hours at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacology. He told me that the average salary for an optometrist was $100,000 and even though that's a beautiful number to look at, it didn't convince me.
I came in thinking the job was easy, but at the end, I knew it was not. It required many many years of practice and internships, and I don't think I have the ability to see myself as an optometrist. My number one choice is now what was one of my career choices, which is being an elementary school teacher. I can see myself becoming one mainly because of my capstone and my past experiences.
I came to Dr. Sokolik's office one day in the summer, and it was a "regular day", as he put it. I was pretty comfortable, even though I only saw him once a year. Him and the ladies who worked at the front desk were very friendly. They were interested because they never had anyone come and do a job shadow. I stayed for about 4 hours, and observed what he did with about 10 patients. Everything was usually the same, he'd check their eyes and see if their vision had changed or not, and gave them the option to get new eyeglasses. I helped people choose theirs because they asked me what I thought, and they enjoyed my opinion. I love working with people, but would I want to do this all day for all my life? That's what I had in mind the whole time I was there. In the middle of seeing his patients, Dr. Sokolik showed me some machines he only had to use in rare cases, like when the patient complains of blurriness or repetitive headaches that might be affected by the part of the brain that deals with vision, the cerebral cortex. It was really cool, but also really complicated and scary.
When he had the time, I asked him specific questions such as the education needed and the time he has committed to this practice. When he started speaking numbers, I was shocked. Dr. Sokolik did not know he wanted to be an optometrist as soon as he started college. He started pre-med at UCONN, was a math major, and finally started exploring optometry his senior year. He took additional job training after college at the University of New York which was a total of 72 hours and 120 hours at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacology. He told me that the average salary for an optometrist was $100,000 and even though that's a beautiful number to look at, it didn't convince me.
I came in thinking the job was easy, but at the end, I knew it was not. It required many many years of practice and internships, and I don't think I have the ability to see myself as an optometrist. My number one choice is now what was one of my career choices, which is being an elementary school teacher. I can see myself becoming one mainly because of my capstone and my past experiences.