According to people in this career, the main tasks are...
| Task | Importance |
|---|---|
| Measure clients' bridge and eye size, temple length, vertex distance, pupillary distance, and optical centers of eyes, using measuring devices. | 99% |
| Verify that finished lenses are ground to specifications. | 97% |
| Evaluate prescriptions in conjunction with clients' vocational and avocational visual requirements. | 96% |
| Assist clients in selecting frames according to style and color, and ensure that frames are coordinated with facial and eye measurements and optical prescriptions. | 95% |
| Recommend specific lenses, lens coatings, and frames to suit client needs. | 95% |
| Maintain records of customer prescriptions, work orders, and payments. | 94% |
| Heat, shape, or bend plastic or metal frames to adjust eyeglasses to fit clients, using pliers and hands. | 94% |
| Show customers how to insert, remove, and care for their contact lenses. | 93% |
| Prepare work orders and instructions for grinding lenses and fabricating eyeglasses. | 92% |
| Determine clients' current lens prescriptions, when necessary, using lensometers or lens analyzers and clients' eyeglasses. | 92% |
| Obtain a customer's previous record, or verify a prescription with the examining optometrist or ophthalmologist. | 90% |
| Sell goods such as contact lenses, spectacles, sunglasses, and goods related to eyes, in general. | 90% |
| Fabricate lenses to meet prescription specifications. | 89% |
| Perform administrative duties, such as tracking inventory and sales, submitting patient insurance information, and performing simple bookkeeping. | 88% |
| Assemble eyeglasses by cutting and edging lenses, and fitting the lenses into frames. | 87% |
| Instruct clients in how to wear and care for eyeglasses. | 85% |
| Supervise the training of student opticians. | 84% |
| Order and purchase frames and lenses. | 84% |
| Grind lens edges, or apply coatings to lenses. | 76% |
| Repair damaged frames. | 73% |
| Arrange and maintain displays of optical merchandise. | 70% |
