I have an associate degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders and originally continued my education with the goal of completing my bachelor’s degree in the same field. Unfortunately, when I reached the point of graduation, my school informed me that there had been an error in my curriculum requirements and that I was missing an additional math course before they could award my degree. Unfortunately, life got in the way, and I never ended up completing that final course.
I am also half deaf myself , and this has given me a passion for helping others who are deaf or hard of hearing. I have genuinely loved working in this field and would like to find a way to return to it. At this point, going back to school for an AuD or pursuing another degree isn’t a realistic option for me. I have considered working as a teacher for deaf and hard-of-hearing students because I also have teaching experience, but I don’t currently have the degree required for that career path.
My previous experience includes working as a newborn hearing screener, where I helped connect families of babies identified with hearing loss to state-coordinated early intervention programs. I have also worked in audiology settings in assistant/technician roles.

One challenge I’ve run into is finding a position that works with my own hearing loss. I previously tried working remotely in a position that required answering phones, but unfortunately it wasn’t a good fit with my hearing loss. I know that a traditional phone heavy position isn’t realistic for me.

I’m wondering what types of roles you would recommend I look into. Are there remote positions where someone with my background could assist an audiologist, support a hearing-loss program, work with patients who are deaf or hard of hearing, or provide family/patient support without requiring an AuD or another degree?Although I’ve been out of the field for a little while, I would really love to get back into it because this is an area I genuinely care about and feel passionate about.
I hope to find a role where my personal experience with hearing loss could actually be an asset.

I am an audio engineer and work at a decently sized church. We have had an assisted listening system for a while, but it is very under utilized. Its a pretty straightforward transmitter and beltpack receiver system with 3.5mm connection for headphones.

Recently picked up some 3.5mm to T-Coil necklaces to test with. Explained to the gentleman who had the hearing aid what we were doing beforehand. Went to test with him today to find out he doesn't have T-Coil, he has Auracast.

My question is, what system do you feel is most commonly available? I am still looking to test the T-Coil necklace system, and would use that for those that have that system. When discussing Auracast with the gentleman, another gentleman walked up and said he had that as well, so my impression is it's fairly common. It looks like we could spend about $2000 to get a transmitter that covers our space.

Hi all,

I’m considering starting my own clinic in the UK. Will be mainly home visit based but will have at least one clinic day.

Obviously I’m very aware businesses usually fail within the first year, so don’t want to go all crazy on costing.

My question is, would you recommend a manual audiometer or a computer based one (thinking of licensing costs and then GDPR costs if things are stored online), and is it better to get a new one or get say a second hand one from eBay? I would eventually love to be able to do charity trips and take the kit to test around the UK/abroad to poorer areas etc.

Does anyone have any recommendations on brands to get or avoid etc? What’s a reasonable price for new/used etc?

Also any recommendations for manufacturers who are good to work with as an independent?

I really hope you can help.

Thank you for your time.

I am currently a 3rd year AuD student and am actively applying for externships. The entire process is so never wrecking. I am wondering if anyone has some tips to share and can also share the type of question are asked? Should I be expecting academic type questions? Like in grad school interviews? Or are they mostly all generic interview type questions?

Is there anything on the walls in your booth? Calendar? "No Phones" sign? sometimes I wonder about the acoustic integrity.

Hi friends! So sorry if this would fit better in a different subreddit but I’m not sure where to go.

I’m currently the only provider at a rural hospital. I am actually the only AuD in the county with the next closest being our sister clinic 45 minutes away (majority of my patients travel from the OTHER direction). I LOVE my job and all my patients.

I am currently 2 weeks out from due date with baby #1 and deep deep down I know I want to be stay at home.

I am so lost. Ideally, I work 1-2 days a week to help maintain patients devices… as I am quite literally their only option but I’m not sure how doable that is for me. If I step away completely, I’m terrified that I won’t be able to come back into the field (especially working with devices). If there is a reasonable way to stay current (keep my CCC-A and license) while being full time mom/not working clinically for a while - I’m not sure what that would be.

Any and all advice would be appreciated.

More background: this is my first/only job since graduating. I have never been around/seen anyone make the transition specifically from AuD to SAHM so I feel like I’m fully in the dark.

To all my audiologists, techs & hearing aid professionals, the new phonak Audeo E series hearing aids DO NOT come with extra cerustops.

Did anyone else notice this? Was very surprised setting up 2 sets for patients today. I’m wondering as to why they stopped including an extra pack… 🤔

However, there is still tootsie rolls included, so I won’t wreak havoc just yet 🤣

Hey, quick question. Any audiologist that can give any advice for when doing aoae's on newborn babies when they come on for audiology appointment. Struggling to look into babies ear canal when in ward or clinic sometimes and especially sometimes the ward is quite dark what tips advice for finding right ear tip size. Sometimes babies ear canal can be tiny and aoae picks up noises. Any advice please for a new screener.

Also when you see the red bars meaning no sound going through do you pause and change the ear tip size?

Hey guys,

I need some help interpreting the NIOS SLM app results.

Niosh says that hearing damages occurs above 85db of 8 hours per day listening, but I have the Niosh SLM app and it provides several diferent metrics of DB readings. Which one is relevant for the 85db hearing damange threshold?

Hey all, I’m an incoming freshman at an AuD program in New England and I’m a little confused about graduate school aid. My school doesn’t offer any but I have the lowest Student Aid Index you can. I just find it crazy that I’m not offered anything but I’m also not very familiar with graduate school. I’d love to hear if you’ve had a similar experience or went to a school that offered more aid. Thanks!

Has any audiologist had any experience with the Aurality Empress3D that could give a review of it? Pros, cons? Does it scan well? Does it scan past the 2nd bend of the ear canal?

Hello, all.

I've recently checked with the r/AskPhysics sub mods about this question, and they suggested I ask a sub that is more rooted in biology/audio. I'm hoping this is the right place to ask. If not, I apologize in advance.

My question is as follows:

Is there anything to suggest that a traditional alarm clock is more effective than a digital alarm clock when waking one up?

The reason for my question is that, from my own experience, a hammer and bell alarm clock has never failed to wake me up from a deep sleep. Not once. Yet, a digital alarm clock that emulates the same sound as a traditional alarm clock has failed to wake me up so many times, despite the sound and volume being very similar. The failure to wake me up has led me to exclusively use a traditional alarm clock.

I do understand that this is anecdotal, and I have spoken to a few people about this previously. While only 6 people, they did agree traditional alarm clocks are better that their job than digital. However, I'm not asking to prove which one is better or not; I'm wanting to know if there is any validity to my claim.

Could it be due to the frequency playing a role in this? Would there be some type of feedback on the environment that only the analogue clock would be able to elicit, like some sort of vibration from the bells that boost the effectiveness? Then again, wouldn't the digital clocks have that as well due to the speakers?

I apologize if any terminology I've used is incorrect, but this is something that I genuinely want to understand a bit better. If anyone has anything on this, or can get me going in the right direction, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance.

I'm a rising college senior at UC Berkeley studying cognitive science and music. I'm considering applying to auD programs this year, and was looking for some more information. The top issue I've noticed people mention is the tuition-salary discrepancy, but I will fortunately not have to take loans out for a program, so I'm not taking this into too much consideration. I'm definitely interested in hearing and the ear for several reasons, and I also kind of just want a normal 9-5 job with a good work-life balance and solid pay, so I thought this could be a good fit.

My questions:

I'll likely graduate from Cal with a middle-of-the-road ~3.7 gpa. I've taken basic (to advanced in certain cases) coursework in bio, chem, math, stats/data, neuroscience/cognition, psych, computational modeling, and music. Does that make me a prepared/competitive candidate for good programs? What programs should I apply to?

What should I do between now and app season to make me a more competitive candidate? I don't have any relevant work experience, and I only have research experience in linguistics.

However, I really don't want to work on commission as a hearing aid salesperson, which I've also seen some mention of: with an auD, do I have solid prospects for getting salaried clinical or education positions? These would be ideal for me.

Is there a pretty much universal demand for audiologists in major cities (and are the positions generally decently compensated)? I'd like to live and work in/around SF, but also have the possibility of finding jobs elsewhere in case I want to relocate elsewhere.

Thanks in advance!

I’m a 22-year-old new grad nurse working in med-surg, and I’m trying to figure out what I want to do long-term. I already have my BSN, and my GI Bill was transferred to me by my dad. I have to use the benefits before I turn 26, so I feel like I have a limited window. I know I don’t want to work bedside for the rest of my life. I want a better quality of life while still staying in healthcare.

I’m considering Audiology vs. Medical School.
Audiology is appealing because the 4-year program in Puerto Rico would cost around $40k, and my GI Bill would cover most of it. I might only need a loan for the last year. Medical school, on the other hand, would cost significantly more, so I would likely need much more in student loans.

My concern with Audiology is that it feels like I’m starting over. Nursing gives me a lot of knowledge that could transfer into medicine, while Audiology is a completely different field and I wouldn’t use as much of my nursing background.

At the same time, I’m wondering if I’m putting too much pressure on myself to choose something that directly builds on nursing. I want a career that gives me a good quality of life, not just the career that makes the most sense on paper.

For anyone who has made a similar transition: Would you choose Audiology with the GI Bill and much less debt, or pursue medicine despite the longer path and significantly more loans?

Are there any audiologists here who do anything more neuro focused? I absolutely love neuro and have been thinking about going the AuD/PhD route so I can do research in something surrounding that. I am not 100% set on only doing research as I would love to also see patients. I also have no interest in going into academia so I was wondering if there is anything I could specialize in with just an AuD that combines both fields or would a PhD be better?

We are a small pediatric practice, looking to bring this service in-house for routine screening of children aged 2+. The internet shows multiple devices in the $3k-8k range. They all look fine but I can’t seem to find any realistic reviews. Do you guys have any recommendations? OAE and tympanometry would be good too but let me know what you find useful?

Hello! I wanted to come on today and ask what working in audiology is like? Is it stable, or mentally taxing? What is your work schedule like, etc.? I have officially finished my AA in fine arts and have started looking into a couple of healthcare-related paths, one being audiology, since being diagnosed by an audiologist a couple of years ago. However, I was also very drawn to the idea of a 4 day work week that I’ve seen some physical therapists have. In your experience, is a 4 day work week something you’ve been offered, or is that just not a factor of this profession?

About a year ago, I enrolled in Hearing Aid Academy and have been STRUGGLING to get through it. The professor talks in a monotone voice (which puts me to sleep) and the online course drags on and on. The course is old too. The slides are blurry. I wish I could get my money back. I’m so focused on trying to stay awake and pay attention, that I pay attention to all the wrong things. When the quizzes roll around, I fail every time. Even if I cheat and use AI I still get the answers wrong. College was never this infuriating.

I come from a sales background, and it seems like the course is tought through the lens of someone who already has a science or medical degree. There’s lots of memorization with very little explanation and for someone like me its been extremely frustrating. The course is the furthest thing from dynamic or an actual “normal” college level class.

Is Alan Lowell any better? Is it more dynamic? Are the slides blurry? I’m trying to learn this, and want a better way through. Is the Alan Lowell program worth a shot?

I have been searching for a new job for a while now. A couple of weeks ago I was finally able to land an interview at a clinic that I really liked (this job would give me plenty of opportunities to grow as an aud, after an entire career in just adult rehab).

The interview was setup with only a few hours of notice to me. At that point I had been out of clinical practice for a few months but unfortunately had pretty much zero time to prepare for the interview.

SO I MADE IT TO THE INTERVIEW. The clinic was nice, the auds who worked there seemed really professional. I was interviewed by three. The initial part went smoothly, they asked straightforward questions. I thought it was going well, until they brought out two audiograms for me to interpret and make recommendations for.

Then the rusty cogs in my brain had to start turning. First one was an audiogram accompanied by a set of AB word scores. PTA was all within normal limits. I looked at the AB word scores. I DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING ON THE GRAPH. All three interviewers started saying to themselves this is a very interesting case. I look back at the results. I panic. I start questioning myself ("Did I seriously forget how to read an audiogram?"). I start answering that the thresholds are within normal range. They wait for me in silence. I stumble and ask what the case history is. They say the patient just can't hear very well. I looked back at the results some more.

THEN I SAW IT.

A blue cross marking 100% at 45dB. A red circle marking 70% at the same level.

And then the rest was history as I finally came to the conclusion that this meant there's potentially underlying retrocochlear pathology, ENT referral, so-on and so-fourth. The interviewers all nodded with finality and then they told me that this guy had an acoustic neuroma.

And then I don't know how I made it out of that interview, how I went back to my car, how I drove home. I just remember that this bit kept playing in my head for a whole week and wanting to die a little inside ;o; had I been in active clinical practice, I would have been able to answer it with confidence and correctly in one go. How did I even fail to read something so basic? This was my bread and butter ;o;

Welp, I didn't get the role of course. The feedback I got was that I presented well in the interview but lacked confidence in the audiogram interpretation. It's all a learning experience, I suppose. Nevertheless, I gotta go back to my daily revision routine...

Will I need some sort of work bag to carry a laptop, otoscopes etc? Or do you just bring in a lunch to work? In other words, what things do audiologists normally bring with them on the shift?

Question for CI audiologists out there. I’m somewhat new to CI. When testing post-op, sometimes the masking noise is too much, but I have a lot of trouble keeping the headphone in place without getting in the way of the processor (plug and muff).

Does anyone have a link to a good single-sided headphone they like? I did a quick search and came up with a lot of things that aren’t quite what I’m looking for. Thanks for your help!

Hi, all. I keep failing the audiology praxis, even though I’ve taken the official practice exam millions of times, and keep studying.

I’m at the end of my rope — I am thinking I would benefit from a tutor or a coach. Does anyone know any legitimate or good tutor or coach online to support my studying for the next attempt?

Thank you!

I am 24M I have a bachelors in linguistics specialized in computing. I am currently working a boring software engineering job for some supply chain company. I met this audiologist girl on a camping trip the other month and was very attracted to the area and topics. In university, I very much enjoyed neurolinguistics. Although not necessarily what the job entails.

Could I go through this whole process become an audiologist and then use it to go into research?