Things New Optometry Graduates Want Employers To Know

If you have an opening at your practice, and you are looking for help, we would love for you to consider us. However, we do not know you are looking for help unless you advertise that online! A lot of word-of-mouth opportunities exist; however, as new graduates, we do not know anyone yet, and thus, we do not know that you have openings at your practice! So if you are looking for help and are wondering why no one has approached you, make sure you have listed your opportunity online with the following resources and companies:

With education costs skyrocketing and unforgiving interest rates, the mountains of debt weigh on us new optometry graduates like a noose around our necks. If you are wondering why no one has entertained your job offer, what kind of pay are you offering? While we understand that as practice owners, you often lose money initially upon hiring a new optometrist, and you may want to help mitigate those losses by offering production-based pay, be aware, we cannot survive on that unless we are walking into a packed schedule. There are various methods of pay which can include: salaries, production based, base salary and production, among other methods. Please know that we need stable and steady income. We want to grow your practice, and as a practice owner, we understand you have everything to lose, but be reasonable with expectations! We will help you grow, but do not price us out of that opportunity!

We are not taught in school, that after graduation, we need to begin getting credentialed on insurance panels! When we present to your office to interview for that opportunity, please be aware that we likely are not even credentialed with Medicare! One of our goals at NGO is to better prepare new graduate optometrists for this issue. So, if you are considering us for an opportunity, please be prepared to help assist us in that process.

Once again, we have very few courses on billing and coding in school, and we do not know much when it comes to proper coding and billing. Please sit down with us, and give us a quick overview on how to code and bill properly, even if it is just the basics. The growth of your practice depends on it!

We all leave school with great clinical acumen. However, that does not mean we know everything. Please be inviting, make us feel comfortable asking your opinion or help managing a complicated patient. Even though we've worked hard to earn our freedom to provide care independently, we are still very nervous, and afraid to make mistakes! We are more than happy to have a seasoned veteran backing us up, and would love to learn about providing proper care and management that is acquired with experience!