“Oh no! You don’t buy stuff online,” chided Anthony Generoso, Licensed Optician and recent graduate from Stenberg College’s Licensed Optician program, after I confessed that I had bought my glasses online.
Standing next to a neatly organized display of glasses, he picked a frame, handed it to me and explained, “you don’t get fitted properly online, so it’s better to go to an optical store.” His expertise in eye care and customer service shone through in the brief frame fitting session.
Generoso has built his opticianry career on perseverance. He graduated from the Stenberg program with a high grade point average while working 40 hours a week at a home improvement store. His hard work got him hired at IRIS even before completing his six-week practicum.
According to Generoso, completing the Stenberg program has propelled his personal and professional life to new heights. “You can work in retail or a laboratory, you can have your own business, or you can work with an optometrist,” he said with a twinkle of optimism in his eyes.
An Eye for Fashion
Stylish is an understatement for the chic Impressive Eyewear store run by a savvy mother-daughter duo, Gisele Klein and Megan Johnson.
“I love what I do,” said Johnson, a recent graduate of Stenberg’s program. She has been working with her mother in the store for many years and admitted that having formal education through Stenberg has helped her assist her customers better. “There’s a huge difference between being trained and being educated. My education has been advantageous to my customers.”
Klein, a Licensed Optician with more than three decades of experience and an instructor at Stenberg College, said that she trains her students to feel comfortable with picking up a thousand-dollar frame and selling it. “If people are looking for a career that combines sales with medical technology, this is an ideal career. You can make what you want of it,” Klein explained.
Bringing Fantasy to Life
If you have ambition, you can carve your own niche in the industry, just like Rajbinder Mann, Licensed Optician and Stenberg instructor, who brings demons to life.
Mann has expertise in fitting specialty contact lenses on Hollywood stars. Mann says that the eye care industry has job possibilities for every personality type. “If you’re a social person and you like fashion, you can end up going into retail and working with high-end brands or work in boutiques. If you’re a shy person, you can work in a lab or you can work with an Ophthalmologist.”
If you consider yourself to be an eye-wear aficionado and have a passion for helping others, you would excel in this growing profession.
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