There is a particular moment I see quite often in recruitment.
Someone gets in touch and says they are ready for a change. They have been with the same practice for a few years, things have become repetitive and they are convinced there must be something better elsewhere.
So naturally, I ask the obvious question.
“What would better look like?”
And sometimes there is a long pause.
More money would be nice. Fewer Saturdays perhaps. A better atmosphere. More clinical work. A nicer practice.
All perfectly reasonable answers. But they don’t necessarily tell you whether somebody needs a new job.
Sometimes they simply tell you that somebody has become tired of their current one.
There is a difference.
The Grass Can Look Particularly Green After a Difficult Saturday
Anyone who has worked in optical practice knows the feeling.
Your clinic is 20 minutes behind. Someone has arrived late but still expects to be seen. Reception needs your help with a patient. A pre-reg has a question. The OCT has chosen today to become temperamental and you haven’t actually finished the coffee somebody made you an hour ago.
At that particular moment, another practice can sound wonderful.
Longer testing times. Better equipment. More money. A supportive director. No Saturdays. Perhaps even a magical dispensary where every frame is returned to the correct board.
You start imagining that changing jobs would solve everything.
Occasionally, it would.
But career decisions made at the point of maximum frustration are rarely the best ones.
Because when we become accustomed to a workplace, something interesting happens: we stop noticing the things that work.
Familiarity Makes Good Things Invisible
Think about everything you no longer consciously notice in your current practice.
You know how the diary works. You understand your colleagues. You know which dispenser is brilliant with a particular type of patient. You know who to ask when something goes wrong. You know the systems, the equipment and the slightly strange habits of the practice.
Patients know you too.
Some may specifically request appointments with you. You know their history without needing to rediscover it every time they walk through the door. You have watched families grow and patients return year after year.
None of this feels particularly exciting anymore.
It is simply normal.
And that’s the problem with stability. Once you have it, it stops feeling valuable.
You usually discover its value when it disappears.
Every Practice Has Problems. The Question Is Which Problems Matter.
This is something worth understanding before changing jobs.
There is no perfect optical practice.
An independent may offer fantastic clinical autonomy but have fewer opportunities for formal progression. A multiple might provide excellent training and technology but operate within tighter commercial structures. A smaller practice can feel wonderfully personal but become stretched when somebody is off sick.
Every environment involves compromises.
The important question isn’t:
“Does my current practice have problems?”
Of course it does.
The better question is:
“Are these problems significant enough to justify leaving?”
That requires considerably more thought.
If you are consistently being expected to practise in conditions you believe are unsafe, that matters.
If leadership repeatedly ignores reasonable concerns, that matters.
If there is genuinely nowhere for your career to develop, that matters.
If your working pattern has become incompatible with your life, that matters.
But if you have simply become irritated by things that have been irritating you for three weeks, changing employer may be a rather expensive solution to a temporary problem.
Get Specific About What Is Wrong
When candidates tell me they want “something better”, I often try to narrow that down.
What exactly isn’t working?
Sometimes the answer becomes surprisingly specific.
“I haven’t had a salary review in three years.”
“I want exposure to myopia management.”
“I’d like to supervise a pre-reg.”
“I need one Saturday off each month.”
“I want longer testing times.”
“I don’t feel there is a route into management.”
Now we have something useful.
Because some of those problems require a new employer.
Others require a conversation.
There is little point leaving a practice you broadly enjoy because you haven’t been offered something you have never actually asked for.
Your manager may not know that you want more responsibility. The owner may not realise you are interested in additional clinical services. Nobody may have considered changing your Saturdays because you have always worked them without complaint.
Give your current employer the opportunity to respond before assuming they won’t.
Their response will also tell you something important.
Take Inventory Before You Update Your CV
Before starting a job search, I think it is worth doing something incredibly simple.
Take a piece of paper and divide it in two.
On one side, write down what your current role genuinely gives you.
Not what you wish it gave you. What it actually gives you.
Perhaps that includes a reasonable commute, good testing times, clinical autonomy, familiar patients, supportive colleagues, predictable income, flexibility around family commitments or a manager who trusts you to get on with your job.
Then write down what is missing.
Be equally honest.
Perhaps your salary has fallen behind the market. Maybe development has stalled. You could be doing the same clinics you were doing five years ago and genuinely need a new challenge.
Once those two lists are sitting beside each other, the decision often becomes much clearer.
You may discover you don’t need another job at all.
You need one or two things in your existing job to change.
Or you may look at the second list and realise you have been compromising for far too long.
Both conclusions are useful.
Stability Has a Value That Doesn’t Appear on Your Payslip
Salary matters. Of course it does.
But one of the mistakes people occasionally make when comparing optical jobs is comparing the headline salary while ignoring everything surrounding it.
Imagine another practice offers you several thousand pounds more.
Sounds straightforward.
But what happens if the commute adds another hour to your day? What if you lose a Saturday you currently have free? What if testing times are shorter? What if the team changes constantly? What if the additional salary comes with targets that make you uncomfortable?
Suddenly the calculation becomes more complicated.
Likewise, somebody earning slightly less may have a ten-minute commute, a supportive director, patients they genuinely enjoy seeing and considerable autonomy over their clinic.
You cannot put all of that neatly into a salary comparison.
But you certainly notice it when it’s gone.
Don’t Confuse Somebody Else’s Career With Your Own
Comparison has made career dissatisfaction much easier.
You see somebody announce a new role online. Someone becomes a director. Another person moves into specialist practice. Someone posts about their four-day week.
It can create the impression that everybody else’s career is moving while yours is standing still.
But you are seeing the announcement, not the trade-offs.
You don’t know their commute. Their targets. Their Saturday rota. Their management structure. Their financial pressures or whether they will actually enjoy the role six months from now.
More importantly, none of those things tells you what you need.
A good optical career doesn’t have to look impressive from the outside.
It has to work for the person living it.
Sometimes Leaving Absolutely Is the Right Answer
None of this is an argument for staying somewhere that is clearly wrong for you.
I would never suggest that somebody should manufacture gratitude for a working environment that is damaging their career or compromising their standards.
There are times when moving is exactly the right thing to do.
Perhaps you have raised the same concerns repeatedly and nothing changes. Maybe your ambitions have simply outgrown what the practice can offer. Your circumstances may have changed. Or perhaps you have realised that the kind of optics you want to practise is fundamentally different from the environment you are in.
In those situations, looking elsewhere isn’t running away.
It is progression.
But there is a huge difference between leaving because you understand exactly what you need next and leaving because you hope somewhere else will somehow feel better.
The first is a career decision.
The second is a gamble.
Leave Towards Something, Not Just Away From Something
If you decide to explore the optical jobs market, define your non-negotiables before you start interviewing.
How much clinical autonomy do you need?
What testing times allow you to work comfortably?
How many Saturdays are realistic?
How important is progression?
Do you want independent practice, a multiple, domiciliary work or something more specialist?
What kind of manager brings out your best?
What salary actually makes moving worthwhile?
Once you understand those things, recruitment becomes much more productive.
You stop being attracted by every vacancy that sounds different from your current job and start recognising opportunities that are genuinely better for you.
That distinction can save you from making a move you regret.
Sometimes You Need to Look Again
Optics is an interesting profession because our entire working lives revolve around helping other people see more clearly.
Yet we can become remarkably unclear about our own careers.
Sometimes the answer genuinely is another practice.
Sometimes it is another conversation.
Sometimes it is a qualification, a boundary, a salary review or a different responsibility within the job you already have.
And occasionally, it is simply recognising that something you have become accustomed to is actually pretty good.
You don’t have to convince yourself to love a job that isn’t working.
But before walking away from one, make sure you understand its true value as well as its frustrations.
Don’t leave because the grass looks greener. Leave because you’ve looked carefully at both sides of the fence and know exactly what you’re looking for next.
That is a much stronger way to build a career.
