The life of an optometry student is far from glamorous, but if you follow @prettyeyez_mel on her popular Instagram account (734 followers and counting!) you can understand why so many of us love optometry and the 4 years we spend in optometry school studying this profession. Melissa McLean is currently a student at NOVA, and her obsession with everything eyes started when she...

You probably didn't see this one coming, but one of the biggest challenges new optometrists face is having an income for the first time. Living on loans for so many years of school, your first paycheck is an amazing luxury. And then every 2 weeks you get another one. But having an income can be a serious trap; we've all worked hard to...

Negotiation can be so intimidating for new doctors, so I was thrilled to get a chance to pick the brain of optometrist Mark Phebus, the expert behind 20/20 Consulting.  Wouldn't it be great if you had your own personal coach with years of negotiating experience to guide you through your contract and help find ways to maximize your offer? That's Mark.  He's a...

Why do men make so much more than women in our profession, even in our very first jobs where experience is on a level playing field?  Negotiating the initial salary offer is the most important thing female optometrists can do to close the gender pay gulf (gap is kind of an understatement after Review of Optometry reported a 68% gender pay difference across full-time...

Eyedolaty celebrates its 5th birthday next month, and it's been amazing how much has changed in the world of optometry in the short time since I began blogging.  We've grown from the days of a free blogspot domain posting pictures of conjunctival cysts and bad NBA glasses fashion, to a trusted optometric resource where thousands of readers around the world turn to find...

For those that don't know, I have a wonderful sister who I stole the idea of going to optometry school from.  She is fixing to take National Boards Part 1 next week.  By the way, I know it is extremely southern to say "fixing to" but I am doing it anyway.  It seems like decades since I sat down for the grueling Part...

A question for the ages.  As an optometrist, I answer a lot of questions about vision and ocular health every day, but this particular question pops up more frequently than I would have suspected.  The simplest answer is this: if your glasses are the correct prescription, wearing them will in NO way hurt your vision. To be more thorough with this answer though, we...