Career profile Dispensing Optician

Table of Contents

• What does a Dispensing Optician do?
• What is a typical salary for a Dispensing Optician?
• What personality traits are common among Dispensing Opticians?
  • Career Interests
  • Values
  • Psychological Demands
• What education and training do Dispensing Opticians need?
  • Typical educational degrees
  • Required knowledge and expertise
  • Important abilities
  • Critical skills

What does a Dispensing Optician do?

Dispensing Opticians design, measure, fit, and adapt lenses and frames for client according to written optical prescription or specification.

In addition, Dispensing Opticians

• assist client with inserting, removing, and caring for contact lenses,
• assist client with selecting frames,
• measure customer for size of eyeglasses and coordinate frames with facial and eye measurements and optical prescription,
• prepare work order for optical laboratory containing instructions for grinding and mounting lenses in frames,
• verify exactness of finished lens spectacles,
• adjust frame and lens position to fit client,
• may shape or reshape frames,
• includes contact lens opticians.

What kind of tasks does a Dispensing Optician perform regularly?

Dispensing Opticians are often responsible for overseeing or executing some or all of the following tasks:

• Evaluate prescriptions in conjunction with clients' vocational and avocational visual requirements.
• Recommend specific lenses, lens coatings, and frames to suit client needs.
• Verify that finished lenses are ground to specifications.
• Measure clients' bridge and eye size, temple length, vertex distance, pupillary distance, and optical centers of eyes, using measuring devices.
• Sell goods such as contact lenses, spectacles, sunglasses, and goods related to eyes, in general.
• Assist clients in selecting frames according to style and color, and ensure that frames are coordinated with facial and eye measurements and optical prescriptions.
• Heat, shape, or bend plastic or metal frames to adjust eyeglasses to fit clients, using pliers and hands.
• Show customers how to insert, remove, and care for their contact lenses.
• Determine clients' current lens prescriptions, when necessary, using lensometers or lens analyzers and clients' eyeglasses.
• Maintain records of customer prescriptions, work orders, and payments.
• Fabricate lenses to meet prescription specifications.
• Instruct clients in how to wear and care for eyeglasses.
• Prepare work orders and instructions for grinding lenses and fabricating eyeglasses.
• Assemble eyeglasses by cutting and edging lenses, and fitting the lenses into frames.
• Obtain a customer's previous record, or verify a prescription with the examining optometrist or ophthalmologist.
• Order and purchase frames and lenses.
• Repair damaged frames.
• Perform administrative duties, such as tracking inventory and sales, submitting patient insurance information, and performing simple bookkeeping.
• Supervise the training of student opticians.
• Arrange and maintain displays of optical merchandise.

The above responsibilities are specific to Dispensing Opticians. More generally, Dispensing Opticians are involved in several broader types of activities:

What is a Dispensing Optician salary?

What personality traits are common among Dispensing Opticians?

Interests

Career interests describe a person's preferences for different types of working environments and activities. When a person's interest match the demands of an occupation, people are usually more engaged and satisfied in that role.

Compared to most occupations, those who work as a Dispensing Optician are usually higher in their Enterprising, Conventional, and Realistic interests.

Dispensing Opticians typically have very strong Enterprising interests. Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.

Also, Dispensing Opticians typically have strong Conventional interests. Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.

Lastly, Dispensing Opticians typically have moderate Realistic interests. Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.

Dispensing Opticians typically have moderate Social interests. Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

Values

People differ in their values, or what is most important to them for building job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Compared to most people, those working as a Dispensing Optician tend to value Independence, Relationships, and Support.

Most importantly, Dispensing Opticians strongly value Independence. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to work on their own and make decisions.

Second, Dispensing Opticians strongly value Relationships. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment.

Lastly, Dispensing Opticians moderately value Support. Occupations that satisfy this work value offer supportive management that stands behind employees.

Psychological Demands

Each occupation brings its own set of psychological demands, which describe the characteristics necessary to perform the job well.

In order to perform their job successfully, people who work as Dispensing Opticians must consistently demonstrate qualities such as attention to detail, integrity, and self-control.

Below, you'll find a list of qualities typically required of Dispensing Opticians, ranked by importance:

What education and training do Dispensing Opticians need?

Dispensing Opticians often have training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Dispensing Opticians usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with this occupation.

Educational degrees among Dispensing Opticians

• 2.3% did not complete high school or secondary school
• 25.2% completed high school or secondary school
• 32.1% completed some college coursework
• 17.5% earned a Associate's degree
• 19.5% earned a Bachelor's degree
• 1.8% earned a Master's degree
• 1.6% earned a doctorate or professional degree

Knowledge and expertise required by Dispensing Opticians

Important Abilities needed by Dispensing Opticians

Dispensing Opticians must develop a particular set of abilities to perform their job well. Abilities are individual capacities that influence a person's information processing, sensory perception, motor coordination, and physical strength or endurance. Individuals may naturally have certain abilities without explicit training, but most abilities can be sharpened somewhat through practice.

For example, Dispensing Opticians need abilities such as oral comprehension, oral expression, and near vision in order to perform their job at a high level. The list below shows several important abilities for Dispensing Opticians, ranked by their relative importance.

Critical Skills needed by Dispensing Opticians

Skills are developed capacities that enable people to function effectively in real-world settings. Unlike abilities, skills are typically easier to build through practice and experience. Skills influence effectiveness in areas such as learning, working with others, design, troubleshooting, and more.

Dispensing Opticians frequently use skills like speaking, active listening, and reading comprehension to perform their job effectively. The list below shows several critical skills for Dispensing Opticians, ranked by their relative importance.

What is the source of this information?

The information provided on this page is adapted from data and descriptions published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration under the CC BY 4.0 license. TraitLab has modified some information for ease of use and reading, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment, and Training Administration has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

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