Trainee Optical Assistant
Job description
Original text imported from Reed
Specsavers Clacton-on-Sea
Are you a caring individual looking to start your career as an Optical Assistant? You've come to the right place.
We aren't looking for people with years of experience and heaps of qualifications, just passionate, hard-workers ready to confidently welcome and help customers as they walk through our doors. And once you've found your feet as a Trainee Optical Assistant, you don't just have to stop there. We have plenty of professional training and development in other business areas, as well as the support of experienced Opticians and Technicians supporting you on your journey. So whatever you want your career to look like, you can bring it to life at Specsavers.
Our team
We have a wonderful team of dedicated people in our store ready and waiting for you to meet.
What's on offer?
As well as all the support you need and great training and development opportunities, we have a whole load of benefits on offer for you to enjoy. These include:
- Salary - £12.91 per hour
- Working hours 37.5 hours per week
- 28 days holiday - Enjoy an additional paid day off on your birthday to celebrate you!
- We will auto-enroll you into the pension scheme with an employer contribution when you contribute too
- Specsavers Perks - a portal to a world of great everyday discounts and savings
- WeCare - our employee support service to help you and your immediate family when you need it most
- Complimentary subscription to the Headspace app
- Eyecare and hearcare discounts for you and your family
What we're looking for?
Some of the responsibilities of this role include:
- Welcoming customers into store
- Booking in eye tests
- Pre-screening patients
- Providing style advice
- Measuring frames
- Taking phone calls
Find out more
If you are comfortable with the responsibilities we're looking for and are excited by this opportunity, we're excited to hear from you.
Got what we're looking for? This job will close when it's filled, so don't delay, apply today!
Key skills
AI-extracted from the job advert
Application advice
5 AI-generated recommendations to maximise your chances.
⭐ Open your Personal Statement with your customer-facing experience — the advert explicitly asks for people who can confidently welcome and help customers from day one.
📊 Quantify any retail or service experience: e.g. 'Served 80+ customers per shift in a busy high-street store', to demonstrate you can handle Specsavers' store volume.
🎯 Mention any exposure to healthcare, pharmacy, or optical environments, even informally — the advert highlights pre-screening patients as a core duty, so any clinical-adjacent context stands out.
🤝 Highlight phone-handling experience specifically — booking appointments and taking calls are listed responsibilities, so a line like 'Managed inbound call queue of 30+ daily enquiries' is directly relevant.
🌐 Reference your willingness to undertake professional training and development, as Specsavers explicitly promotes progression into other business areas — frame yourself as a long-term investment.
Suggested CV bullets
3 bullets our AI drafted for this specific advert, mirroring its ATS keywords.
Add these 3 bullets under your most recent experience:
- •Welcomed and assisted 70+ customers daily in a high-street retail environment, maintaining a 95% positive feedback score across 3 months of mystery shopper assessments.
- •Managed inbound appointment booking for a 12-person service team, reducing scheduling errors by 20% through accurate data entry and proactive call handling.
- •Provided personalised product advice to customers, contributing to a 15% uplift in add-on sales over a 6-week promotional period.
Free to copy — tailoring requires a 30-sec CV upload.
Your cover letter is ready
We've drafted a cover letter for Specsavers. Preview the opening, then unlock the full personalised version.
Letter preview — tailored to Specsavers
Dear Hiring Manager,
Specsavers' reputation for combining clinical care with genuine customer service is exactly the environment I want to begin my optical career in. The Trainee Optical Assistant role at your Clacton-on-Sea store appeals directly to my strengths in customer-facing communication and my commitment to delivering attentive, patient-centred service from the first point of contact.
My background in retail customer service has equipped me with the confidence to welcome and assist a diverse range of customers, handle busy telephone enquiries, and manage appointment scheduling accurately. I am eager to build on this foundation through Specsavers' structured training programme, developing practical skills in pre-screening, frame measuring, and dispensing advice under the guidance of your experienced Opticians and Technicians.
Free signup, no card needed. Export to PDF/Word requires a £1.99 trial (14 days).
Interview questions
10 questions generated from this advert.
Technical
- ›How would you approach pre-screening a patient who is nervous about their eye test?
- ›What steps would you take to accurately measure a customer's frame size?
- ›How would you advise a customer on frame styles that suit their face shape?
- ›If a customer's prescription has changed significantly, how would you explain the impact on their lens options?
- ›How would you handle booking a backlog of eye test appointments efficiently?
Behavioural
- ›Tell me about a time you delivered excellent customer service under pressure.
- ›Describe a situation where you had to explain something complex to someone unfamiliar with the subject.
- ›Give an example of when you showed initiative in a previous role or experience.
- ›Tell me about a time you had to deal with a difficult or upset customer — what did you do?
- ›Describe how you have managed your time when handling multiple tasks at once.
STAR answer examples
Model answers using the Situation-Task-Action-Result framework. Adapt to your own experience.
Tell me about a time you delivered excellent customer service under pressure.
Describe a situation where you had to explain something complex to someone unfamiliar with the subject.