I’m from Brisbane, originally from Asia. I graduated from Queensland University of Technology in 2014. I didn’t have a specific reason to become an optometrist. I just did. But I’m glad that I did choose this job. Every day is a different day. You get to meet different people and to face different challenges. Your life never gets boring. This job also has a pretty good work life balance, which suits my mojo – work hard and play hard!!
I’m glad to work as a graduate Optometrist at Palmerston. I have an experienced mentor, Tony, to help me develop my skills in Optometry, assist me with difficult cases and also deal with different pathologies. Also the optometry partner Teagan is supportive as well while Tony is away. Not just the optometry side, Luke the Retail Director is being really supportive throughout the transition from university to real world Optometry. He helped me develop business retail knowledge which you don’t get to learn in university.
Dry season certainly has much more things to do compare with the wet season. There are lots of national parks to go to, such as Litchfield and even Kakadu. Also about 3hrs drive from Darwin will get you to see the beautiful Katherine Gorge. On the other hand, as Darwin is pretty close to Bali, airlines do run promotions quite often to Bali, and flight schedules are quite nice, spending a few days in Bali is nice too!
Specsavers Palmerston is a good place to start work as a graduate. They give you enough time to work your way down to 20 minutes appointments. Also, the clinic is well managed, when possible they will try spreading the appointments out so you aren’t constantly battling with difficult patients and running behind. I’m glad that I have designated time to spend on contact lenses and to deal with any contact lenses related issues. The pathologies you will see are a lot more compared to working in Metro area. In just three years out I have personally seen many retinal tears and detachments. Also get to see 5 tumour cases which for people who work in metro cases don’t even see one at all!
As a therapeutic qualified optometrist, you get to use your therapeutic skills in managing keratitis, uveitis even foreign body removal too. By managing more and more therapeutic cases is the only way to develop your skills and make yourself comfortable when dealing with these cases. Teagan and Tony are all experienced therapeutic endorse Optometrists, so by having them in store with you, you aren’t alone fighting against hard cases yourself.
As mentioned previously I received supports from all my directors on optometry side and business retail side as well. Specsavers has an online portal iLearn which contains optometry related materials for self-learning purposes and they come with CPD points too. More over graduate program offered inductions, workshops and tutorials that help to understand the culture of business better and grow with your fellow graduates in the same region like a big family.
