Ryan's Relocation: Optical Assistant to Retail Partner

Joining Specsavers with a personal milestone

Ryan joined Specsavers in 2017 as a Trainee Optical Assistant. Some negative experiences had left him in search of a new job. At the same time, he was battling with anxiety disorder. This meant he struggled with things like eating breakfast and felt unable to speak in front of people.

Getting through a job interview at Specsavers was a huge milestone. “I didn't care how it went. I just went home over the moon that I had been able to go and do a job interview and just, you know, get through it.” To then get the call that they would love to have you on board – “that was great”.

Starting the optics journey

Ryan was blown away with the level of training he received – “it was really cool to be in a business that actually gave a hoot about training their newbies”.

Once a fully-fledged OA, his mindset shifted to thinking optics could be a career. He explains he was excited by the idea of becoming a Dispensing Optician (DO), earning the accompanying letters after his name. It’s true, Ryan Turner FBDO looks pretty cool.

Partner discussions and the Oban question

After a solid year’s foundation as a DO (and welcoming a new little arrival to his family!), Ryan felt ready for his next step. So, with the support of Neil, the Optometrist Partner at Specsavers Kirkintilloch, he enrolled on the Specsavers Pathway programme, with the aspiration of becoming a partner.

Despite joking he thought he might ‘end his days’ in the Kirkintilloch store as he was “just part of the furniture” at that point, a call from our Partner Search team changed his path completely. It went something like: “I know when you first started Pathway, you said you wanted a commute that was less than an hour. How do you feel about Oban?” From where he was at the time, that's 2.5 hours’ drive.

Apprehensive about relocating his young family, Ryan met with his now business partner, Fiona, in Oban, and immediately sensed they could have a strong working relationship, plugging each other’s skill gaps. After thrashing out the pros and cons with his wife, the decision was made – “Ultimately, we're like, yeah, let's roll this dice. Let's do this.”

A few weeks into his new role as a Retail Director and reflecting on his journey thinking back to just being thrilled to complete an interview, Ryan says he’s so proud of himself. He adds that he “can get quite tearful about the difference seven years has made.”

Shoutout to Team Kirky

Ryan wanted to give a huge shoutout to the Kirkintilloch store, or ‘Team Kirky’. In his words, he headed to Oban “as the store director that Team Kirky built, because they are such a good team of people - incredible people.”

Why Specsavers? A Career for Everyone

Ryan believes one of the many special things about working at Specsavers is that it can suit anyone. It suits the high-fliers – “folk that come in being like, I want a career and I'm not going to rest until that's happened. They're great to have. They're so driven”. But also, people at the other end of the scale, who don’t need that, maybe because studying isn’t for them, or because they’re at a different stage of life. “Keep turning up and doing a good job? Great. That's what we want. You don't need to have that pressure either from yourself or from managers to say you need to be doing XY and Z."