How an OD Built a Multi-Million Dollar Practice Hiring New Grads

Interestingly, I was the only doctor in my class that started a job the first day after graduation. It was with an ophthalmologist doing his patient workups. He didn’t care that I didn’t have a license, and he didn’t care that I was a new graduate. He just wanted me to be able to see 30-40 patients per day.

From there, I took a job with a private optician who actually taught me a lot about the business of eye care and eyewear. I was, for all intents and purposes, a new graduate, and he was able to hire me at a rock-bottom salary. That was okay with me as I was there to learn the eye care business and gain as much experience as I could seeing patients.

Four years later, I opened my own practice, using the business knowledge developed over those four years. It was many years until my practice was thriving enough to take on an associate. Going through the tedious process of, placing ads, scanning resumes, and interviewing was not fun. My mindset was that I only wanted to hire doctors that had almost as much experience or more than me. That worked for a while but none of these doctors had a drive to be better. One day I was contacted by an OD student attending NOVA Southeastern University. She kept in touch with me while she was going through the program and as it turned out, when she graduated, I needed a new associate.

And then I remembered that someone gave me a chance and I proved to be an asset to the practice even though I too looked very young.

I quickly learned that new graduate OD’s have a lot to offer in both their skills and their willingness to learn how to practice in the real world outside of school clinics. This young OD was confident in her skills and was well accepted by my patient population. She was driven, as I was when I graduated and she was willing and able to practice in some ways that I was unable to handle. I had not had the training or the experience and she was able to jump right in and bring a new level of expertise to the practice.

Two years later, another new OD from SUNY contacted me and I did not hesitate to hire her. She came highly recommended from a colleague for whom she worked as a student. Perhaps I am getting wiser in my old age as I have learned that new grads are motivated and smart and can add so much to an otherwise thriving practice. Surprisingly I have found that many new grads are very confident in their skills right out of the gate.