Every so often, a question comes along that sounds simple but is anything but.
If you could go back to the beginning of your career, knowing everything you know now, would you choose the same job again?
For anyone working in optics, that can be surprisingly difficult to answer.
It isn’t necessarily a question about whether you like your job. It doesn’t mean you’re unhappy, ungrateful or thinking about leaving. Sometimes it’s simply a useful way of taking stock of a career that may look very different today from the one you originally signed up for.
Because careers change. Practices change. The profession changes.
And we change too.
Remember Why You Chose Optics in the First Place
Think back to when you first entered the profession.
Perhaps you were attracted to the clinical side of optics and the opportunity to make a genuine difference to people’s sight. Maybe you enjoyed the combination of healthcare and human interaction. Perhaps you liked the idea of becoming an optometrist, dispensing optician, optical assistant or practice manager and building a stable, respected career.
Whatever the reason, there was probably something that drew you towards it.
The interesting question is whether that part of the job is still there.
For many people, it is. It’s just harder to see beneath everything that’s accumulated around it.
A busy clinic doesn’t leave much time for career reflection. You’ve got patients waiting, phones ringing, dispensing problems to solve, a team trying to keep the diary moving and perhaps commercial targets sitting quietly in the background.
You can spend years concentrating on getting through the working week without ever stopping to ask whether you’re still getting what you originally wanted from your career.
The Job You Started Isn’t Necessarily the Job You Have Now
One thing I’ve seen repeatedly over the years is how gradually dissatisfaction can develop.
There isn’t always one dramatic moment.
Instead, little things change.
Testing times become tighter. Saturdays begin to feel heavier. Staffing levels change. Targets increase. A manager leaves. The practice is acquired. Development opportunities become less frequent.
Or perhaps nothing around you changes at all.
Perhaps you change.
What mattered to you at 25 might not matter quite as much at 35 or 45.
Early in your career, salary and progression might have been the priority. Later, flexibility, autonomy, clinical freedom or simply having more time outside work may become far more important.
That isn’t losing ambition.
It’s understanding yourself better.
Are You Tired, or Has Something Fundamentally Changed?
This distinction matters.
We’ve all had weeks where, if somebody asked whether we’d choose our career again, the answer might not be printable.
A difficult clinic, several patient complaints, staffing problems and a Saturday that seemed to last approximately three days can distort anyone’s perspective.
Sometimes you don’t need a new career.
You need a weekend.
But there is a difference between temporary frustration and something deeper.
If you take annual leave, switch off properly and return feeling refreshed, you were probably exhausted.
If you return and the same sense of disconnection appears almost immediately, it may be worth paying attention.
Because occasionally the problem isn’t optics.
It’s the version of optics you’re currently experiencing.
Don’t Confuse the Employer With the Profession
This is particularly important in our sector.
An optometrist working back-to-back appointments in a high-volume environment is experiencing a very different career from somebody working in an independent practice with longer testing times.
A dispensing optician working somewhere that values clinical dispensing and professional development may feel completely differently about their career from somebody whose role has gradually become almost entirely target-driven.
Practice managers can experience the same thing. One employer gives them genuine autonomy to build a team and develop the business. Another gives them responsibility for everything but authority over very little.
Same qualification.
Same profession.
Completely different working life.
I’ve spoken to plenty of people in recruitment who initially believed they wanted to leave optics when what they actually needed was to leave one particular environment.
Once they found somewhere better aligned with how they wanted to work, their enthusiasm returned remarkably quickly.
Look at the Parts You’d Still Choose
Rather than asking only, “Would I choose this career again?”, try breaking the question down.
What would you definitely choose again?
Perhaps it’s helping a nervous patient who hasn’t had their eyes examined for years.
Maybe it’s spotting something clinically significant that could genuinely affect somebody’s health.
It could be finding the right solution for a difficult prescription, watching a child put on their first pair of glasses, developing a junior member of the team or simply becoming the practitioner patients specifically ask to see.
Those moments matter.
They’re often the reason people remain in optics for decades.
Unfortunately, they’re also easily forgotten because the difficult parts of work tend to make considerably more noise.
Now Look at What You Wouldn’t Choose Again
This part requires a little more honesty.
If you could redesign your career today, what would you remove?
Every Saturday?
An unreasonable commute?
Constantly shortened testing times?
A lack of clinical autonomy?
Limited progression?
A management culture that doesn’t listen?
Pressure that follows you home?
Be specific.
Saying “I don’t like my job anymore” doesn’t give you much to work with.
Saying “I still enjoy patient care, but I no longer want to work every Saturday and I need greater clinical autonomy” gives you something entirely different.
Now you have information.
And information gives you options.
Your Career Doesn’t Have to Be All or Nothing
One of the biggest mistakes people make when they’re unhappy at work is assuming there are only two choices.
Stay exactly where you are.
Or leave everything behind.
There is usually an enormous amount of ground between those two options.
Optics offers independents, multiples, hospital environments, domiciliary work, specialist services, management, training, contact lenses, myopia management, enhanced clinical services and numerous other directions.
Sometimes a career doesn’t need abandoning.
It needs adjusting.
That might mean having a conversation with your current employer. It might mean changing your working pattern, developing another area of expertise or looking at what other employers can offer.
And yes, occasionally it means deciding that you’ve reached the end of one chapter.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with that either.
The Question I’d Ask Instead
After decades speaking to people about their careers, I think there’s a slightly more useful question than:
“Would I choose this job again?”
I’d ask:
“Knowing what I know about myself today, what would I choose next?”
That’s a very different question.
You can’t go back and advise the younger version of yourself. You made the best decisions you could with the information you had at the time.
But you can make decisions for the person you are now.
Perhaps you’ll realise that, despite the difficult days, you’d choose optics all over again.
Perhaps you’ll realise you still love the profession but need a different environment.
Or perhaps the question will reveal that something you’ve been ignoring for quite a while deserves your attention.
Any of those answers is useful.
Careers aren’t contracts we sign with our younger selves. We’re allowed to reassess them.
So forget whether you would make exactly the same choices again.
Look at where you are today.
Look at what still gives you satisfaction, what drains you, what you’ve outgrown and what you’d like more of.
Then ask yourself the question that actually matters:
If I were choosing the next five years of my optical career today, what would I choose?
That answer might tell you far more than looking backwards ever will.
