Optical technicians work in laboratories to produce prescription lenses for eyeglasses and contact lenses. They are also known as ophthalmic lab technicians. They produce optical instruments lenses, such as binoculars and telescopes. The optical technician uses a lensmeter to inspect completed lenses and then uses a protective coating to fit eyeglass frames, cameras, or telescopes before shaping the lenses. Optical technicians are also repairing damaged eyeglasses.
The production of lenses requires the use of machines that perform tasks such as cutting, grinding, cutting, and finishing. While many technicians are still grinding and edge lenses by hand, they are expected to know how to operate each machine. Optical technicians work with computer-based generators, automatic edgers, lens measurement instruments, and small hand tools.
A high school diploma or GED is the basic level of education required for a career as an optical technician. Many optical technicians gain knowledge and skills through on-the-job training. However, vocational, technical, and community colleges offer certificates or associate degree programs to become optical technicians.
How to Become an Optical Technician
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an optical technician. For example, did you know that they make an average of $16.85 an hour? That's $35,058 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 7% and produce 5,400 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does an Optical Technician Do
There are certain skills that many optical technicians have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed business skills, communication skills and customer-service skills.
How To Become an Optical Technician
If you're interested in becoming an optical technician, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 26.6% of optical technicians have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.2% of optical technicians have master's degrees. Even though some optical technicians have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an optical technician. When we researched the most common majors for an optical technician, we found that they most commonly earn associate degree degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on optical technician resumes include high school diploma degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an optical technician. In fact, many optical technician jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many optical technicians also have previous career experience in roles such as sales associate or customer service representative.
Optical Technician Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of optician you might progress to a role such as technician eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title senior technologist.
Average Salary for an Optical Technician
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Optical Technicians
1. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Private
2. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
3. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
4. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
5. Georgetown University
Washington, DC • Private
6. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
7. Maine Maritime Academy
Castine, ME • Private
8. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
9. California State University - Bakersfield
Bakersfield, CA • Private
10. Emory University
Atlanta, GA • Private
Top Skills For an Optical Technician
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 12.4% of optical technicians listed dexterity on their resume, but soft skills such as business skills and communication skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Optical Technician Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Optical Technician templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Optical Technician resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Optical Technician Demographics
Optical Technician Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among optical technicians, 63.2% of them are women, while 36.8% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among optical technicians is White, which makes up 68.4% of all optical technicians.
- The most common foreign language among optical technicians is Spanish at 59.6%.
Online Courses For Optical Technician That You May Like
The courses in this specialization can also be taken for academic credit as ECEA 5600-5602, part of CU Boulder's Master of Science in Electrical Engineering degree. Enroll here.\n\nOptical instruments are how we see the world, from corrective eyewear to medical endoscopes to cell phone cameras to orbiting telescopes. This course will teach you how to design such optical systems with simple graphical techniques, then transform those pencil and paper designs to include real optical components incl...
Welcome! This course is designed to give you a good understand of fiber optics and fiber data transmission...
This course can also be taken for academic credit as ECEA 5601, part of CU Boulder's Master of Science in Electrical Engineering degree. Optical instruments are how we see the world, from corrective eyewear to medical endoscopes to cell phone cameras to orbiting telescopes. This course will teach you how to design such optical systems with simple mathematical and graphical techniques. The first order optical system design covered in the previous course is useful for the initial design of an opti...
Best States For an Optical Technician
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an optical technician. The best states for people in this position are Oregon, Hawaii, Alaska, and Washington. Optical technicians make the most in Oregon with an average salary of $49,271. Whereas in Hawaii and Alaska, they would average $48,410 and $47,398, respectively. While optical technicians would only make an average of $43,847 in Washington, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Alaska
$47,398
Avg. Salary
2. Montana
$42,651
Avg. Salary
3. Oregon
$49,271
Avg. Salary
How Do Optical Technician Rate Their Jobs?
Top Optical Technician Employers
Most Common Employers For Optical Technician
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sears Holdings | $46,216 | $22.22 | 39 |
| 2 | Costco Wholesale | $43,428 | $20.88 | 14 |
| 3 | Corning Incorporated | $43,082 | $20.71 | 16 |
| 4 | JCPenney | $42,390 | $20.38 | 105 |
| 5 | Walmart | $41,586 | $19.99 | 119 |
| 6 | Raytheon Technologies | $39,700 | $19.09 | 10 |
| 7 | Sam's Club | $37,789 | $18.17 | 34 |
| 8 | Zayo Group | $36,668 | $17.63 | 13 |
| 9 | E Ink | $35,435 | $17.04 | 9 |
| 10 | United States Marine Corps | $35,058 | $16.85 | 57 |
Optical Technician Videos
