Influential Woman · Optical Retail

Jennifer Sebenick

Optical Training lead, The Optics Group

Mount Pleasant, MI 48858

Certifications · Degrees · Memberships

Degree ABO Certification (self-study) Cert ABO Certified

Her Story

About Jennifer

As an optical trainer, my day-to-day involves training every single new hire that starts in my company, which is company-wide across all 8 locations in Michigan. They start with me and train until they are confident sitting with patients and offering products and offering knowledge to the patient on the products, and from there I hand them off to their new lead. When I'm not training new hires, I work on building programs and training materials for new hires and advancement for our senior opticians. I have built from the ground up the actual training manual and workbook that our company uses for our brand new hires, and I am working on ABO certification prep for our advanced opticians. One of the things I do is sit with the leads and work with them on where they feel like they are kind of under the bar on. It's been a year and a half, but I've worked with every single one of our leads in building their confidence so that they can confidently take over, train, and run a successful team. With that, we have increased our revenue by about 40%.

Her Interview

Ten minutes with Jennifer

01What do you attribute your success to?

I would attribute my success to honestly my desire to learn. I'm a lifetime learner. I love learning new things, and this field provides that to me. I may be the trainer, but I do not know everything. And that drive keeps me pushing, pushing myself further and further every day.

02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?

I would say try out all the things. If it sounds weird, if you've never heard of it, try it anyways, because you just never know what might stick, and where that path might take you in 8 to 10 years.

03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?

One of the biggest challenges is that in the area that I am in, in Michigan, we're not a licensing state. Some states require licensing for opticianry, but Michigan is not a licensed state. So one of the biggest challenges is obtaining, you know, getting ahold of actual educational materials and being able to learn everything that goes into being an optician, because it's more than just fitting someone with a pretty frame. You have to know about the lenses, the lens materials, all of the products that go on the lenses. You have to know how to measure properly, and what exactly your measurements affect when the lenses are made. So the biggest challenge is definitely obtaining the information to better yourself, or even really learn the basics of opticianry.

04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?

I would say the biggest one is being honest with yourself. Both at work, because being honest with yourself is going to help you determine if this career is a good fit versus just pushing yourself and putting patients in awkward positions and getting them things that they don't need. But also at home, being honest with yourself and knowing your limitations in anything is really big.

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