A rewarding career that really makes a difference - Mark's story

Mark Devlin may have started his career working in store at Specsavers as “a stepping stone” but 10 years later he’s Audiology Home Visits Director and Partner. He tells us why he’s got the best work life balance ever, and how working in domiciliary is different to working in store.

“As an audiology director, I make sure that our audiology clinics are structured and we're seeing as many people as possible and being efficient. We want to make sure people have the correct products and we’re fitting something that will last.

Support, freedom and flexibility

“There’s no such thing as a typical day as my patients vary hugely, but I might arrive at my first patient for 9:00 (with a courtesy call on the way), and then my audiology practitioner and I will leapfrog each other. So, I’ll start a test fit and then I'll leave her to teach the patient about the device whilst I write up my notes and move on to my next patient. We tend to start out the day at the furthest patient from where we’re based, and then work back towards “home camp”, which sounds a bit cheesy, but we all work out of our houses, so it makes sense!

“My work life balance is the best it’s ever been. My day is 9am-5.15pm and I usually power down at 6pm, after getting everything ready for the next day. I may check in on Teams or my emails in the evening, just so I can stay on top of everything, but you can do what works for you – if you’re the kind of person that likes to start the day at 6am, you can start your work then.

Out on the road

“It can be hard work, though. You’re travelling, packing the kit down, moving heavy equipment around – it can be quite a workout! We carry everything that an audiologist would use in a test room and its eye opening how much kit we need – my audiology practitioner was shocked!

“It’s up to you how you organise your equipment. Some people use an old school laptop bag with hundreds or pockets or a nurse trolley. I’ve repurposed a camera lens trunk, which I’ve modified to fit each part of the equipment, so it has its own space cut out in foam. It’s very well protected and I can walk in, open the lid, put power to it and get testing.

The human touch

“There's nothing better than putting a smile on someone's face and people are so thankful for you going to them, because it can be hard for them to get an appointment. When you put the hearing aids in and switch them on, it might be the first time they've heard properly in years. You just see that light come on in their face and you know you did a good job.

An opportunity to make a difference

“I really enjoy my role as a partner director. You can be really successful here and I love my team. We’re small and everything feels organic and less stressful than other roles I’ve had, which I really enjoy. “It’s not always easy. I can be hard work and a scary change if you’re used to working in store, but I would implore you to do it. Embrace it, run with it, and it will work.”