How To Become An Optometrist Assistant: What It Is and Career Path

What is an optometrist assistant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Eve Leija AAS, NCMA

The average optometrist assistant salary is $122,813. The most common degree is a bachelor's degree degree with an business major. It usually takes 6-12 months of experience to become an optometrist assistant. Optometrist assistants with a Medical Assistant certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 16% and produce 117,800 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to an optometrist assistant?

Eve Leija AAS, NCMA

Medical Assistant Program Director, Website

To maximize salary for a medical assistant obtaining certification from one of the credentialing organizations such as American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA) can make a new hire more competitive. Continuing educations along with developing any specialized skills such as phlebotomy. Demonstrating professionalism initiative and reliability, along with gaining a strong reference from previous employers.

ScoreOptometrist AssistantUS Average

Salary

8.2

Avg. Salary $122,813

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.9

Growth rate 16%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.83%

Asian 9.88%

Black or African American 9.82%

Hispanic or Latino 24.69%

Unknown 4.76%

White 50.03%

Gender

female 88.17%

male 11.83%

Age - 35

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 35

Stress level

7.9

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.4

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

8.6

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an optometrist assistant

Explore optometrist assistant education requirements

Most common optometrist assistant degrees

Bachelor's

31.4 %

Associate

24.5 %

High School Diploma

22.7 %

Start to develop specific optometrist assistant skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	36.83%
Appointment Scheduling	6.56%
Exam Rooms	5.72%
Customer Service	5.33%
Eye Exams	3.05%

Complete relevant optometrist assistant training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New optometrist assistants learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an optometrist assistant based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real optometrist assistant resumes.

Research optometrist assistant duties and responsibilities

Adhere to OSHA guidelines while performing instrument sterilization in addition to managing medical inventory.
Pretest patients on NCT, OCT, refractomotor, visual field machine, and retinal camera.
Check in and work up patients for eye exam, assist optometrist with retinal photos, glaucoma testing and basic refraction.
Perform require pretests for the Dr's.

Prepare your optometrist assistant resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your optometrist assistant resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an optometrist assistant resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable optometrist assistant resume templates

Build a professional optometrist assistant resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your optometrist assistant resume.