Questions to Ask an Optometrist When Shadowing
These are questions to ask an optometrist when shadowing, written for pre-optometry students and career explorers who are spending a day in a practice and talking between patients. They run in the order the day tends to go: why they chose the field, what happens in the exam room, the medical and retail sides of the work, school and boards, practice settings and pay, and a last group for the end of the day on what they would do differently and what you should do next. Each has a note on what a good or a worrying answer sounds like, or what to do with it.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Why optometry
Why did you choose optometry?
Why ask it
Many stories start with a first pair of glasses or a relative in the field. The part to listen for is what kept them in once they had seen the work up close, because a reason that still holds after years of practice is a better guide than the one that got them to apply. You will be asked this yourself at an admissions interview, so notice which of their reasons you could honestly give.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Why ask it
You are seeing one day, and this tells you whether it is a normal one. The mix is what to note: routine exams, contact lens checks, medical visits, phone calls and paperwork. If today is unusually quiet or unusually full, ask what the other kind of day feels like.
What do you like most about being an optometrist, and what do you like least?
Why ask it
Ask both halves together so you do not get only the brochure. A good answer to the second half is concrete, such as running behind, insurance paperwork or patients who expect glasses to fix everything. Then ask yourself whether you could live with that particular dislike for decades.
Did you consider ophthalmology or another health career, and what decided it?
Why ask it
Surgery, the length of training, hours and debt are the usual deciding points, and hearing which one tipped it helps you test your own choice. If you cannot yet explain how an optometrist, an ophthalmologist and an optician differ, ask them to lay it out as it works where they practice.
What surprised you about the job once you were actually practicing?
Why ask it
School teaches the eye. Practice adds the schedule, the staff and the patients who do not follow the script. Whatever surprised them is likely to surprise you too, so write it down, and if the answer is about business or managing people, ask how they learned that part.
What kind of person does well in this work, and who tends to struggle?
Why ask it
Expect to hear about patience with repetition, care over small measurements, and liking a long run of short conversations with strangers. Hold the description against yourself honestly. A trait you lack is not a verdict: find out whether they have watched people learn it.
What is the hardest part of the job that I will not see today?
Why ask it
A shadow day shows the exam room and hides the rest: the patient who complained, the staff member who quit, the claim that was turned down. If the answer is 'nothing really', try asking what last kept them late at the office.
The exam day
How would you like to introduce me to patients, and where should I stand during an exam?
Why ask it
Ask this before the first patient, not in front of one. Exam rooms are small and are dark for part of the test, so there is usually one spot where you are out of the way. Agree what happens if a patient would prefer you step out, and go without any fuss when it does.
How long is a standard exam slot here, and who decides that?
Why ask it
The length of the slot sets the pace of everything you watch today, and a short one and a long one are close to being different jobs. Who chose it matters as much: an owner sets their own, while an employed optometrist may be handed a number. The test of any slot is the patient who needs three times as long, so find out what happens to the afternoon then.
What does the technician do before you walk into the room?
Why ask it
In many practices a technician or assistant takes the history and runs the first measurements, and the optometrist arrives to a chart that is already half filled. How much is handed off differs by practice and by what local rules allow, so ask how it is divided here. If you can, spend half an hour with the technician: it is a job some students take before optometry school.
Can you talk me through what you were checking in that last exam, in order?
Why ask it
Save it for the hallway straight after the patient leaves. You will hear that an exam has a fixed backbone (history, vision, the prescription, the health of the eye) and that the judgment lies in what gets added. Do it for two very different patients and compare.
When you ask 'which is better, one or two', what are you listening for?
Why ask it
It looks as if the patient is doing the work, but the optometrist is reading hesitation, speed and contradictions as much as the words. A good answer explains what they do when a patient says both look the same or keeps changing their mind. You have probably sat through this part as a patient, which makes it an easy place to start a conversation.
What can you see through the slit lamp that a patient would never guess?
Why ask it
The microscope the patient rests their chin on is where a large part of the eye health check happens. Some optometrists will pull up a photo on screen, or let you look through a teaching eyepiece if the practice has one. Wait to be offered, and do not ask to examine a patient yourself.
How do you decide whether to dilate a patient's eyes or rely on imaging?
Why ask it
You are asking for their reasoning, and practices differ on it. Listen for what each method shows and misses, and for how the patient's age, history and symptoms change the choice. It also opens the business side, since imaging is charged separately in some offices: ask how that is handled here.
How do you examine a small child or someone who cannot answer the questions?
Why ask it
An exam that does not depend on the patient's answers shows how much can be measured without them. If they see children, ask what age they start at and what they do differently. If they send young children elsewhere, you have learned a limit of this practice and found a specialty to go and watch.
What do you say when glasses cannot give a patient the vision they were hoping for?
Why ask it
Not every eye corrects to a sharp line on the chart, and telling someone so is one of the harder conversations in the job. A thoughtful answer covers what they offer next, whether that is a referral, low vision help or simply time. Should they wave it away as rare, the last time it happened is still worth hearing about.
How do you tell a patient you have found something that needs a specialist?
Why ask it
A routine exam sometimes turns up signs of a problem the patient had no idea about. The skill is in the wording: enough to make sure they go, not so much that they panic in the chair. Who books the appointment, and how the practice finds out whether the patient went, shows how far their responsibility runs.
What counts as an eye emergency here, and what happens when one calls in?
Why ask it
Red eyes, something stuck in the eye and sudden changes in vision are the kinds of thing a practice gets calls about. Whether this office treats them, fits them in the same day or sends them elsewhere depends on the optometrist's training, the local rules and the setting, so ask how it works here. The answer shows how medical this particular practice is.
How much of each visit goes to the chart, and when do you finish your notes?
Why ask it
Watch where the optometrist looks during an exam: at the patient or at the screen. Some finish every record before the next person comes in, some have a scribe, and some catch up after closing. If the notes regularly go home with them, add that time to the hours they quote you.
Medical and retail
How much of your week is eye disease and how much is glasses and contact lenses?
Why ask it
This is the question that separates one optometry job from another. Some practices are mostly prescriptions and some manage long-term conditions all day, and students often picture only the first kind. Decide which mix appeals to you, then ask what a new graduate has to do to get it.
What are the most common problems people come in with?
Why ask it
Expect ordinary answers: distance vision that has gone blurry, trouble reading in middle age, dry or tired eyes, a contact lens that stopped being comfortable. That is the bulk of the work, and liking it counts for more than liking the rare case. Which of the everyday ones they still enjoy solving makes a good second question.
Which conditions do you diagnose and treat yourself, and which do you send on?
Why ask it
What an optometrist may prescribe or perform is set by law and differs from one state or country to the next, so treat the answer as true for this place only. Ask whether the rules have changed during their career and whether they expect more change. If you plan to practice somewhere else, look up that region's rules before you assume the job is the same.
What is the most interesting case you have seen lately?
Why ask it
Asking for a recent one gets a real patient, where 'ever' gets the story they have told for years. Notice what made it interesting to them: the detective work, the person, or catching something early. They will leave out whatever identifies the patient, and you should not ask for it.
How do you work with the ophthalmologists you refer to?
Why ask it
Listen for a relationship and not just a referral form: who they call, how fast a patient is seen, whether the patient comes back to them afterwards. Some optometrists share the care around eye surgery and some never see the patient again. A warm answer suggests a settled place in the local system. A tense one is worth a gentle 'why is that?'
Who runs the optical, and how involved are you in what patients buy?
Why ask it
In some practices the optometrist owns the frames on the wall, in others a separate company does, and that changes the job. An owner may tell you roughly how much of the practice's income comes from glasses and contact lenses, and it is fine if they would rather not. Where the optical is theirs, choosing frames and dealing with lens labs is a second business inside the first.
Do you ever feel pressure to sell, and how do you handle it?
Why ask it
Ask it kindly and in private, because it touches on how they see themselves. A reassuring answer draws a clear line between recommending what a patient needs and hitting a target. If they describe sales goals set by someone else, ask how those sit with them, since you may one day work under the same arrangement.
What do you do when a patient comes back unhappy with their new glasses?
Why ask it
The cause can be a prescription that needs adjusting, lenses made wrong, a frame that sits badly, or eyes that need a week to adapt. A good answer describes a routine for working out which it is and does not blame the patient. Who pays for a remake is the practice's own policy, so ask what it is here.
How is a contact lens fitting different from a regular exam?
Why ask it
A fitting adds measurements, trial lenses, a lesson for a nervous first-time wearer and a follow-up visit. Some optometrists call it the most satisfying part of the week and others the most fiddly. If one is booked today, ask to watch the lesson on putting lenses in and taking them out, which staff often teach.
Do you have a special interest, such as dry eye, children's vision, low vision or specialty contact lenses?
Why ask it
Optometry has more corners than a routine exam suggests, and a practitioner with a niche can tell you how they found it and what extra training it took. If they have none, ask which one they would pick now. Either way you leave with a list of things to go and see.
How do vision plans and medical insurance shape what you can do in a visit?
Why ask it
How eye care is paid for differs widely by country, insurer and plan, so ask how it works in this office and do not generalize from it. Listen for whether billing changes how long they can spend or what they can check in one appointment. Some frustration is normal. What matters is whether they have found a way of practicing that they are content with.
School and boards
What was your path from college to a license, and how long did it take?
Why ask it
Get the whole timeline in one go: undergraduate courses, the admissions test, the application, the degree, the licensing exams. Requirements differ by country and change over time, so use their story as a map and confirm each step with the schools and the licensing body where you plan to train. Ask where they lost time, because that is the part you can plan around.
What did you major in, and which undergraduate classes helped you most?
Why ask it
Where optometry is a graduate degree, schools usually set prerequisite courses and do not insist on one major, so you may hear biology or something unrelated with the sciences added on. The second half is the part to write down: which classes they still lean on and which were only a hurdle. Prerequisite lists differ between schools and change, so check the current one for each program you are considering.
How did you prepare for the admissions test, and what would you change?
Why ask it
For schools in the United States that test is the OAT, and elsewhere the way in may be different. If they qualified a long time ago it may have changed, so the study habits are worth more than the details. Ask how many months they gave it and whether they sat it more than once. For the current format, ask whether the practice ever hosts students on rotation or knows a recent graduate you could talk to.
How did you choose your optometry school, and what should I compare between programs?
Why ask it
Good answers go beyond reputation to cost, location, how early students see patients and where the clinical placements are. Ask what they would weigh differently now that they know what the debt felt like. One person's loyalty to their own school is not a ranking.
Which year of optometry school was the hardest, and why?
Why ask it
Some will name the early science load and others the year clinic started or boards came due. The 'why' matters more than the year: sheer volume, hands-on skills, or juggling both. Match it against how you handled your own hardest semester so far.
When did you first examine real patients, and how ready did you feel?
Why ask it
Nearly everyone remembers their first patient and how slow they were. Hearing that the speed came later is useful if today's pace looked impossible to you. The comparison to get is how long an exam took them then and how long it takes now.
What were the board exams like, and how did you study for them?
Why ask it
Licensing exams and their parts depend on where you qualify, so ask what they sat and check what applies to you. The useful detail is how the exams fitted around school: when each part fell and what they would start earlier. If the memory is hazy it has simply been a long time, and a newer colleague will remember more.
Did you do a residency, and who do you think should?
Why ask it
Where a residency after the degree is optional, optometrists disagree on its value. Someone who did one can tell you what doors it opened, and someone who did not can tell you whether they ever missed it. Which jobs in this area expect one is the local fact to take away.
What do you think makes an applicant stand out to an admissions committee?
Why ask it
Take it as one informed opinion and not the rule, unless they have sat on a committee themselves. Expect grades, the test, time spent in real practices and being able to say why optometry and not something nearby. Ask whether working as a technician or optical assistant would count for more than extra shadow days.
Settings and pay
Which settings have you worked in, and how do private practice, retail and hospital work compare?
Why ask it
Many optometrists have tried more than one, and the comparison is the point of asking. The differences that matter are who sets the schedule, how medical the cases are and who owns the equipment. If they have only known one setting, ask what they hear from classmates who went another way.
Do you own this practice or work for it, and would you choose the same arrangement again?
Why ask it
Owners trade a steady paycheck for control and a second job as a manager, and employed optometrists trade the other way. An honest answer admits what they envy on the other side. If ownership interests you, ask how they bought in or started, and what they did not know about running a business.
How are optometrists paid in a setting like this: salary, a share of what they bring in, or something else?
Why ask it
Asking about the structure is easier than asking for a figure, and it explains a lot about the pace you watched. Pay tied to patient numbers or to sales pulls the day one way and a flat salary pulls it another. Arrangements differ by employer and contract, so ask what is common locally.
How did you handle the debt from school, and how long did it shape your choices?
Why ask it
Some will tell you the amount unprompted. If they do not, leave it. What you want is what the debt decided for them: where they lived, which job they took, when they could buy into a practice. Tuition and loan terms change, so price your own path from current school figures and not from their memory.
What can a new graduate realistically expect to earn around here, and how does it grow?
Why ask it
Asking about new graduates in this area is polite where asking what they earn is not. Take the answer as a local estimate, since income depends on region, setting and hours, and compare it with figures published by schools or professional associations. Then set it beside the debt and see whether the sum still works for you.
What are your hours like, and do you work evenings or weekends?
Why ask it
Predictable hours are one of the reasons people give for choosing optometry, and this checks the claim against one real schedule. A practice inside a store may keep the store's hours, and some optometrists take patients' calls after closing, so get both halves of the answer for this office.
What does the job market look like for new optometrists in this area?
Why ask it
They may have hired recently or know who is hiring, which is better information than a national headline. The detail to get is where the openings are: which settings, and whether they are full time or pieced together from several offices. If the answer is that the city is crowded, ask where they would go instead.
How has optometry changed since you started, and where do you think it is heading?
Why ask it
Online glasses sellers, new imaging, corporate ownership and changes to what optometrists may treat are the usual subjects, and the one they reach for first shows what worries or excites them. It is one person's forecast of the decades you would work through, so collect more than one. If theirs is all gloom, ask what they would build a career around if they were graduating now.
End of the day
What would you do differently if you were starting over?
Why ask it
Give them a moment, because the first answer is often a joke. The real ones tend to be specific: a different first job, borrowing less, a residency taken or skipped, buying a practice sooner. Each is a decision you have not made yet.
Would you choose optometry again?
Why ask it
Ask near the end of the day, when they have stopped presenting the job to you. A quick yes with reasons is encouraging, and a yes with conditions is more useful still. A long pause is not a no, but it is a reason to shadow a second optometrist before you decide anything.
What do you know now that you wish someone had told you at my stage?
Why ask it
Tell them your stage first: which year you are in and what you have done so far. Then the advice fits you and not a generic student. Write the answer down in their words the same evening.
Who else should I shadow to see a different side of optometry?
Why ask it
One practice is one version of the job. Ask for a name and whether you may say who sent you, which turns a cold email into a warm one. Aim for a setting unlike this one.
Is there anything I should do differently the next time I shadow someone?
Why ask it
Few students ask, and the answer is usually small: stand further back, put the notebook away in the exam room, speak up more between patients. Take it without defending yourself. Asking also marks you as someone worth having back.
Could I come back for another day, or contact you when I am applying?
Why ask it
Ask as you thank them, and make it easy to say yes by suggesting something specific. Some programs want shadowing hours recorded or a letter from an optometrist, so check what the schools you are considering ask for before you raise it. A letter means more from someone who has seen you more than once.
How to get the most from a day shadowing an optometrist
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the day
Ask what the practice needs from you
A few days ahead, ask the office what to wear, when to arrive and whether there is a confidentiality form to sign. Rules on patient privacy and on who may be in an exam room differ by country and by employer, so follow what this office tells you. Whatever the rules, never write down a patient's name or anything that could identify them.
Learn the three job titles first
Optometrist, ophthalmologist and optician are three different jobs with different training. Look up how they differ where you live before you go, so you do not spend the optometrist's time on a definition. The question about ophthalmology under Why optometry then becomes a conversation about their choice and yours.
Pick two or three from each group
You will not get through the whole list in one day and should not try. Mark the five you most need answered and keep the rest as spares. The questions under The exam day are for the hallway straight after a patient. School and boards and Settings and pay need a longer stretch, such as lunch, and the ones under End of the day are for when the last patient has gone.
Remember your own last eye exam
If you have sat in the chair as a patient, run through what happened in order: the pretesting, the letters, the lens choices, the bright light. Knowing the sequence lets you spend the day watching the optometrist's decisions and not working out which machine is which.
Between patients
Keep questions out of the exam room
In the room, stay quiet, keep your phone away and let the patient forget you are there. A question about what the optometrist found, asked in front of the person it was found in, can frighten them. Hold everything for the hallway unless the optometrist turns and invites you in.
Tie the question to what you just saw
'Why did that patient need a second set of measurements?' gets a better answer than 'What is a typical exam like?' The questions about the slit lamp, the lens choices and the exam sequence all work best when you name the patient you both just saw, by the time of the appointment and never by name.
Watch the whole office
The optometrist is one part of the visit. Ask whether you can spend twenty minutes each with the technician, the optician and the front desk. You will see where patients wait, where money changes hands and which jobs you could do yourself before optometry school.
Give a reason for the money questions
Debt, pay and regrets are fair to ask about, and they land better with a sentence of context: 'I am trying to work out whether the loans make sense for me.' Ask about new graduates and about how pay is structured. Do not ask what they personally take home.
After the day
Write it up that evening
Record the date, the hours, the practice, the kind of setting and three things you learned, with no patient details. Some applications ask for a log of shadowing and what you took from it, and requirements differ between programs, so check what each school you are considering wants.
Send a thank-you within a day or two
A short note that mentions one specific thing you saw or were told is remembered far longer than a general thanks. If they offered a name to contact or a return visit, take it up in the same message while the day is fresh for both of you.
Check anything that depends on place
Admission requirements, licensing exams, what optometrists may treat and what they earn all differ by country or state and change over the years. Treat what you heard as one person's experience and confirm the parts you will rely on with the schools, the licensing body and the professional association where you plan to train.
See a second setting
A private practice, an office inside a retail store and a hospital or community clinic can feel like three different careers. Put the same handful of questions to an optometrist in each and compare the answers on pace, the medical share of the work and who makes the decisions. One host's enthusiasm or weariness also reflects their own debt and stage of life, so decide nothing on a single day.
Mistakes to avoid
Touching the instruments
The lenses, the microscope and the imaging machines are delicate and are set up for the next patient. Do not lean on them, move them or try them out, even in an empty room. If the optometrist or a technician offers to run a test on you between patients, say yes: it is the quickest way to learn what each one does.
Reading from the list
A page of questions worked through in order feels like a survey. Know your five by heart, ask one, then follow what they say. The best material of the day usually comes from the follow-up.
Using clinical words to impress
Nobody expects a student to know the vocabulary, and guessing at it wastes time. Plain questions about what you saw show more attention than a term you looked up the night before.
Asking for a letter on the first day
A letter of recommendation is worth little from someone who met you for six hours. Ask to come back, be useful and reliable when you do, and raise the letter once they have something to write about.