Support – Advice & Insights

How to Answer the “Greatest Weakness” Question in an Optical Interview

Turning a Difficult Interview Moment into a Professional Advantage

How to Talk About Your Strengths and Weaknesses in an Optical Job Interview

A Practical Guide for Optical Professionals Who Want to Stand Out

INSPIRED INTERVIEW PREP CALL FOR PRACTICE MANAGER ROLES

Career Traps Keeping You Stuck

A practical training to help you spot-and break-the invisible habits that quietly stall your career.

The Questions That Can Change a Career

Most people think career growth comes from having the right answers. In my experience, it often starts with asking better questions. I have seen this many times in recruitment. The people who make the strongest progress are not always the most technically gifted or the most confident in the room. Very often, they are the ones who have learned how to use conversations wisely. They understand that time with an experienced leader is not just a chance to impress. It is a chance to learn how good judgement is formed.

Inspired Recruitment - Practice Manager Interview Cheat Sheet (60 Second Refresher Before You Walk In)

Before you walk into the practice, take a moment to reset your mindset.

Practice Manager Interview Edge Guide - How to Stand Out in an Optical Practice Interview

If you have been invited to interview for a Practice Manager role, you have already done something right. The practice believes you could be a good fit.

Inspired Recruitment Practice Manager Interview Guide How to Stand Out and Show You Can Run the Practice

The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork

INSPIRED RECRUITMENT TRAINING - The 5-Minute Interview Prep Call

The 8 Traits That Make You Mentally Stronger at Work

How to build resilience, confidence, and clarity in your career

The Many Directions an Optometry Career Can Take

When most people think about optometry, they picture a professional sitting behind a phoropter asking a familiar question: “Which is clearer, one or two?” It is a small moment that represents an entire profession dedicated to improving how people see the world.

The Real Skill Behind Motivating People at Work

Every so often I come across lists that claim to explain motivation in simple terms. They usually include ideas like setting goals, recognising effort, empowering people, or maintaining a positive attitude. On the surface these points seem obvious, almost like common sense. But after decades in recruitment and working with employers and candidates across countless organisations, I have learned that motivation in the workplace is rarely about slogans or checklists.

The Three Things Every Exceptional Practice Manager Understands

Running an optical practice is not just about managing clinics, rotas, and targets. The best practice managers know that success comes from something deeper. It comes from how well they lead people.

Clear Thinking for Optical Professionals

9 Mindset Tips to Help You Stay Confident, Focused, and Successful in Your Optical Career

Why Starting a New Job Feels Stressful and How to Turn That Anxiety Into Progress

Starting a new job is one of those moments in a career that brings two completely opposite emotions at the same time. On one hand there is excitement, opportunity, and the promise of something new. On the other, there is uncertainty. New colleagues, new expectations, a different culture, and the quiet question most people carry in their mind: Will I be good enough here?

When Work Stops Feeling Sustainable: Understanding Burnout Before It Costs You Your Career

Over the years I have spoken to thousands of people about their working lives. Some conversations are about ambition, opportunity, and progress. Others are quieter and far more concerning. They often begin with a sentence like, “I think I’m burning out.”

Why Your Career Often Stalls Because Your Mind Is Too Full

Over the years working in recruitment, I have noticed something interesting about people who feel stuck in their careers. It is rarely a lack of ability. It is rarely a lack of opportunity. More often, it is something much simpler: their mind is too full.

What Anxiety Is Really Doing (Therapist Team Breakdown)

When Anxiety Shows Up at Work: What Your Mind Is Actually Trying to Do

Anxiety is often treated as something purely negative. Something to eliminate. Something that signals weakness, lack of confidence, or inability to cope with pressure. Yet over the years, working with thousands of candidates and employers, I have noticed something interesting: many of the most capable professionals I have met experience anxiety at key moments in their careers.

The Career Skill Nobody Talks About: Learning the Art of Detachment

One of the most common patterns I have seen over the years in recruitment is how emotionally attached people become to outcomes they cannot control. A candidate becomes fixated on a single job opportunity. A hiring manager becomes convinced that only one specific candidate will work. A professional ties their entire sense of progress to a promotion that may or may not happen this year.

Most people leave the profession not because they lack ability, but because they leave just before things start to change.

In optics, that moment often comes quietly. It might follow months of doubting yourself in a busy multiple where testing times feel rushed and Saturdays stretch endlessly. It might sit behind another unsuccessful interview for a role you truly wanted. It might be the fatigue that creeps in after juggling pre-reg supervision, patient complaints, staffing gaps, and commercial targets all at once.

The Quiet Career Risk of Self-Abandonment

Over the years, working in recruitment and speaking with thousands of professionals about their careers, I have noticed something that rarely appears on a CV but shows up everywhere once you start paying attention. It is not a lack of skill, experience, or ambition. In fact, it often affects some of the most capable people in the workplace. The issue is something quieter and far less visible: people slowly abandoning their own needs, values, and direction in order to keep everyone else satisfied.

There is a particular kind of tiredness that settles in when you realise a role is no longer right for you.

It does not arrive dramatically. It builds quietly. You notice it when the Sunday evening feeling starts creeping into Saturday afternoon. When a 25 minute sight test feels like an hour. When conversations in the staff room turn from light-hearted to loaded. When you begin to question whether it is you who has changed, or the practice.