Tell me about yourself - ✔✔Sure, it's been a year since I graduated from Loyola, as a
biology major, and a neuroscience and psychology minor. I was a pre-med student
trying to go to ophthalmology, up until the beginning of this year until I switched to
optometry. I'd say I'm a moderately experienced optician, since last year I worked at J.C
Penny Optical and Meijer Optical, just to get used to the retail side of either profession.
That was a much-needed experience because I learned about myself as a person, and
the job really brought out traits in me that I guess I didn't pay attention to before.
Patience, being persistent. If I don't know the answer to a question the customer asks, I
try my hardest to find out the answer myself instead of waiting for the manager who is
busy with someone else. I also found that doing the little things, like helping choose the
right frame or adjusting their glasses, or even just cleaning their glasses make people
so happy, I feel a certain satisfaction seeing that. This is why I'm here at Walmart, in a
somewhat different setting, and hopefully, I'll be able to gain more experience and learn
more about why I like this profession as well as optometry.
What is an optician? - ✔✔someone who takes eye measurements and distributes
eyewear according to a patient's needs/prescription
• Assisted clients in choosing their frames
• Made adjustments to glasses to ensure proper vision
also educates first-time contact lens users on how to properly put on and take off their
contacts and how to take care of them
How do you adjust a manual lensometer for your eye? - ✔✔When I have the
prescription in front of me
adjust the axis
sphere first, skinny lines (3)
cylinder; add to the sphere; the fat lines should come into focus
I have trouble when i given a pair of glasses and need to find the prescription
, Why optometry? - ✔✔had started losing interest, optometry held more potential for me
because of more person to person contact, more time spent with patients;
Tell me about your education. - ✔✔Loyola University as Biology major, Neruosicence
and Psychology Minor
take prereqs
What kinds of people are the most difficult to work with or help? - ✔✔If someone is
dissatisfied with something, if it's not having their products on time, or even it's
completely unrelated to something, like they had problems throughout the day, they can
be a little difficult to work with. But then you just have to make them happy and reassure
them, and it becomes easier
those with language barriers, or someone who can't hear too well, that can be difficult,
but you have to make them comfortable in the best way possible
What are your career goals? - ✔✔Optometry
When did you realize you wanted to become an Optician? - ✔✔optometry
Describe a deadline situation when you had several tasks to do at once, and how you
coped. - ✔✔It was the firsr day i was along at j.c. i was realtively new at that point. i was
getting calls every 3 minutes, and i was with a customer helping him choose the perfect
frame, and people came in to pick up their glasses and ask questions. All sorts of things
going on. just have to do thing one at a time, as they come up. i had a contacts sale
going on on the phone, so it did help that I had done 2 or 3 contacts sales that day, so it
was an easy adjustment of the boxes. So it helps if you apologize to person in the store
that your running around, but mostly their nice and supportive.
What continued education have you received? - ✔✔pre-reqs
What are your experiences using a lensometer? - ✔✔see above
What is your greatest weakness? What are you doing to improve it? - ✔✔I am a little
hard on myself, whether it be during school or at the optical. If something doesn't go the
way that I had hoped, or even if a customer is a little disappointed if I give them bad
news, I sometimes feel that I could have done something different, anything to make the
situation better, even if really I have no control over it.