The College of Optometrists

what salary should be expected for a recent qualified?

Depends who and where you are...generally £25K and dropping further.

salaries are NOT great and getting worse. u can try for about 26 - 29k. u will have to push it though!

i doubt we could even get that! Optical Express offereing less than 25k!

Guys...

Look for experience and oportunities in your first job, worry about salary after all that.

Your job market is only going to get more competitive, you need to gain USPs on your cvs for the future

Get multiple experience for comercial awareness, great marketing/advertising and generally a good middle ground in healthcare

Get HES experience for a filtered concentrated view a more complicated patient. You'll find it is just as money orientated but you wan't get the experience anywhere else

Get Good Indie experience with a well respected Optom and learn from them about Pathology schemes, dyslexia, sports vision or whatever tickles you.

Then you will get a great career and salary

By the way £25k is a great salary for a newly qualified, already above the national average.

hey xavier thanks for ur reply u prob put all us newly qualifieds in our places :( ur supposed to make us feel happy we jus finished our PQE's! (jus kiddin!) i tink what happens is you work so hard up to finishin pqe's and jus expect a better salary then whats stated above... but i gues we will hav to earn that.

why do people assume thst when someone asks about salary, that people are just init for the money??

The old salary debate. Thing is 25k is a good salary for most graduates but for the hard work knowledge and training an optom has to endure they certainly deserve a lot more.

A lot of established optoms will say you are mercenary but then ask them what they earned as a NQ optom. and what are they getting now for doing exactly the same job as you?

also when you consider us oldies actually got paid to go to university (true) whereas the nq's are in a lohot of debt, you realise there's a lot to moan about.

cheers dogface - a collegue that see's both sides of the debate

in my experience over the last 2 years, i ve employed three nq's with excellent packages and with the hope that they can grow within the business. sadly all have left and as an employer am very hesitant to take on any more nq's unless they have proven their worth. all my previous nq's had ideas of locuming which we all now know isn't a guaranteed source of income,hence they have shot themselves in the foot. you might be lucky during holiday periods. so my advice would be to give your potential employers like myself a bit of confidence that we are not going to be used as stepping stones and that you have a genuine interest in developing your career.

the way the industry is going, i would advise nq's to stay put and establish themselves and start making an impact with your testing times, confidence and ofcourse your conversion rates. Then your salaries will increase naturally. you must be aware that the multinationals have put caps on nq's salaries and the use of locums as have we the independants. And now you also have the added competition for f/time jobs from older established optoms too as the locum market is not what it used to be.

I hope that my concerns about nq's are seen as constructive rather than a complaint.

by the way the current rates of pay can be between 25k to 32k depending on how much confidence your interview gives the potential employer.

goodluck

I would say get the highest paid job as soon as you can and if anything comes along that pays more then take it. Wages are not going up. If its 25K this year you can bet you life it will be closer to 20K next year. And I can tell you there is nothing worse then you working in one room getting paid 30K and the git who qualified 10 years before you getting paid 55K. Especially when you work harder, sort all the crap out, and do more to grow the business.

This is a very interesting Convo.

Sadly the situation is changing very fast and is going to change faster still.

A previouse comment was so relevant, the older Optoms are o high salaries, but not for much longer as those businesses start to become unviable.

On the other hand if you aare hard working and conscientious you will have agood future.

I am taking on a pre reg, who is tied into a three year contract.

At the end of this period I hope the optom will stay, be a usefull memeber of staff and I will pay them well

ie £400000.

The difference guys is you now have to prove to us employers of your dedication and sincerity, which is how it is in most other jobs.

Finkle

I disagree although you may well be an exception. With the majority of employers is doesn't matter how hard you work or how dedicated you are. They will always pay you the smallest amount they can and if they can get someone cheaper they will do.

In my area one of the multiples that I know well has managed to force out 2 of its longstanding high earning optoms. One they paid off the other got messed around so much that they left.

I also heard (2nd hand reliable source) of a multiple in my area that unfairly dismissed a high earning optom knowing full well that they would loose in court (and they did). However in the long term they where financially better off as they replaced them with a 25K newly qualified.

I have a lot of concerns about the profession particularly for those coming into it. I also feel that those already in it don't do much (anything) about it. (Particularly FODO who have actively encouraged the present state of affairs (OO course at Anglia etc)). However the reduced wages and limited job prospects will in time effect all areas of the profession including those who have been qualified for some time.

I'll work for the guy who's paying £400,000!!

I assume that's a typo

Whilst I understand your feelings it is important to see both sides of an argument.

Over the years I have had to employ Optoms who thought they were doctors, who always had to have a full hour for lunch and no way would they squeeze in a walk in.

All the time they preached about the clinical nature of the job, but wanted more and more money.

The fact is we make our living from the sale of specs, and the unit profit is dropping at the moment.

This past history is making some multiples appear harsh.

However when you consider that some OO are on £60000 and cant even prescribe a change when they find it is not surprising that we have the current state of affairs.

All that is happening at present is the job market is sorting itself out.

I want my OO to feel happy and wellpaid, as long as they do a fair days work for the money.

But we all have to face up to the fact that the old days are gone and times have changed.

I am approaching retirement and have been in a small independant partnership for nearly thirty years. I would advise a couple of years working for a multiple to get experience etc but become an independant as soon as poss.

It is a well kept secret but it may be a surprise how few eye exams/ dispensings are required to achieve the salaries quoted above. If you work for a multi then you are probably going to spend half your week earning money to pay for your firms administration, advertising and fancy rents etc

I'm with you David, I hate being told what to do and would love being in control of my own practice.

I am a mature student who has just qualified. I'm finding it difficult to get a full time position in my area. I am thinking of locuming for a while before I open a practice. How do you recommend i learn all the practical aspects of running a business? viz taz, suppliers, employment law etc

I would spend a couple of years working and closely observing with a multi.

Running a business is not exactly rocket science - the right location, premises etc(to make sure you are not spending half the week earning the rent) are obviously important.

Accountant for Tax planning of course. Employment law - probably AOP would advise here.

With less job security anyway, it makes more sense to go independant. I think a small partnership of two to four is best - probaly be a bit lonely as a sole practitioner.

partnerships have definite benefits though can be fraught for other reasons. Small business federation can help you with employment law .. a must nowadays (I have an unfair dismiss case even though guilt admitted). Speak to collegues re accountants - you want one with experience of VAT. Some have no idea as a friend of mine discovered recently when 18k of overpayment was discovered. Ouch! And yes it can be a bit lonely as a sole trader.

Can you earn enough in a partnership?

Typical turnover for practices advertised on myers la roche is around 150k. If gross profit is 71% minus wages (12k) minus rent and rates(10k)minus bills(5k) minus loan repayment (10k) you're left with 69.5k which is a good salary for one but not so good for two.

Also, anyone any comments on the work life balance of independant practitioners, is it better, worse or just the same as a full time employed optom?

godzilla

Hopefully your maturity allows you a broad overview of Optometry.

Our example: I was a mature student also. We have had a practice for 5 years. I locummed full time while my wife worked in our practice for 2 years. We have since gradually integrated me to the extent that I am now there 4 days while she is on materntiy leave. We have a locum to cover my HES day and alternate Saturdays. Withour giving exact figures our income is just fine. If I worked harder I'd earn more but the balance is the key for me.

The practice we bought had a turnover around the level you've described with worse gross profit. It was barely breaking even. In my experience profitable practices are snapped up but you can add value to unprofitable business sometimes

I had no business experience and I still wonder if I have any business acumen at times.

So go for it...one day! First get experience in different practices. You can do this locumming. Do lots of CET. If you are going into partnership find an experienced one and ask questions

Hope this is helpful

I don't think it matters if you earn 25K or 50k to begin with,if you don't enjoy your work you'll be bored rigid.

I've had 4 pre-regs (now on my fifth) and the one before last was more interested in the salary he would earn once registered.One year on he's bored and is looking for another career.

Things are different and I have a friend working for Boots who's feeling uncomfortable with recent changes but we do have to adapt and we can't think were gods who have some right to employment for the rest of our lives.

Lots of hard working graduates have been made redundant in other jobs.

The days of unearning mega bucks on registration have gone and remember we're all affected by lower wages(ie my pay rise this year was negligible)

There are still enough bucks coming in to optics but a lot of it is going on advertising campaigns, high rents and head office costs.

Comparing it to dentists - there's not many of them wasting their fees on advertising, extortionate shopping centre rents etc