I started my career 28 years ago... I finished my GCSE exams and, despite doing well, felt that university was not for me. I had always been a more hands-on practical learner and enjoyed doing things far more than studying and reading about them.
Jamie Pullen Dispensing Optician
I left school at 16 with eight GCSEs and spent the rest of the summer as a lifeguard at a local swimming pool. I then started work at the end of the summer with D.J.Martin Optometrists in Burnham-on-Sea.
Danny Martin owned a well-established local independent practice in my hometown and was looking for a dispensing optician. He was prepared to invest time and money in someone in order to ‘grow his own’.
The role of a dispensing optician appealed to me when I spoke to him. It is incredibly varied, very hands-on, and requires you to use your brain. I didn’t want to go to uni but I knew I was smart and didn’t want to get the first job I saw. Above all, it appealed to me as I was helping people and potentially changing lives.
The role appealed because it was blended learning. I worked full-time in practice under the supervision of a registered optician while earning a wage and would study in my own time and then attend the City and Islington College in London for two weeks per year. This fitted well with my hands-on style of learning, and I took to it really quickly.
I quickly learned about the anatomy of the eye, optics and its effect on the eye, and how to minimise negative effects with lenses. Most of the study was done at home, but I had a tutor available, plus I could speak to my optical supervisor at work.
The whole process took three years, but I earned a wage and my course and exam fees were paid for by Danny, for which I will always be grateful.
Danny retired and sold the practice, just before I qualified. I did my last few months before qualification with a London-based chain of opticians, where I met my wife on an all-expense paid training course at Essilor University in Paris.
With this company, I was able to work in some very exclusive practices and I was able to dispense spectacles for quite a few famous people. I wouldn’t name-drop, but Lionel Ritchie was lovely...
When my son was born, we relocated back to Somerset and I took a job as a dispensing optician with my local Specsavers. This is when my career really took off! I was able to get involved in more and more regional-level things as time went on and I gained regard from my peers.
After a few promotions and different roles, I was asked if I had considered owning my own practice. I hadn’t really, but Specsavers helped and supported me to become stage one approved and I learned an understanding of business accounts and how to run a busy optical practice.
A year after stage one approval, I was contacted about a potential opportunity within Specsavers. All Specsavers practices are locally owned in a partnership with them. I was helped and guided with the purchase of 50% of Specsavers in Barry. I liked the idea that it was a partnership and that I had a well-established company supporting me.
My role now as a director of my own practice has changed again. I now own my own business, but I am still able to be very hands on and help people daily, which was what I always loved. It has also enabled me to give back and I have paid for and supervised numerous trainee dispensing opticians and optometrists with my business partner, optometrist and colleague Helen Hopgood.
In my 25 years so far, optics has changed dramatically and I have had to adapt with it. I really think that with advances in technology and with changes to NHS primary care services, optics is a really exciting place to be at the moment!