How Much Can I Make? - Discover Your Dream Job.
"How Much Can I Make?" - Explores career opportunities and job advice.
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This podcast dives deep into what different careers are really like—what the day-to-day looks like, how much you can earn, and what it takes to succeed. You'll hear firsthand job advice from professionals who've been there, done that, and are eager to share their stories.
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How Much Can I Make? - Discover Your Dream Job.
Imaging Technologist - Behind the Scan
Imaging Technologist
Tom O'Neill is an imaging technologist. When a doctor orders an X-ray, CT scan, or MRI, a trained medical professional is required to operate the medical imaging equipment that helps you get the answers you need to treat your condition. Being an imaging technologist requires specific knowledge of subjects like anatomy and physics, and it's a job that keeps you on your feet all day. But for Tom, the reward is knowing that patients receive the highest level of care on their journey to health.
Topics
00:34 Introduction
02:11 Necessary schooling
04:49 Licensing
05:47 Working in a hospital vs. outpatient care
06:29 Who would be a good fit for this job?
07:18 The job outlook
07:38 How much can you make?
09:12 A day in the life
11:51 CT vs. MRI
15:25 Will AI play a role in this field in the future?
16:06 Rewards of the job
Resources
The American Registry of Radiologic Technologists
ARRT - Find an educational program
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - Radiologic Technologists
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Music credit: Kate Pierson & Monica Nation
Your day might be busy, but you don't feel like you're not. You're constantly, in a way, almost uplifted a little bit.
Speaker 2:Hi, welcome back. I'm Erav Ozeri, a curious journalist that always want to know what people do for a living and how much they can earn. Today we are going to talk with Tom O'Neill, who is an imaging technologist. He was mine, and then I grabbed him and I said oh please can I interview you for my podcast? And he was kind enough to say yes, so thanks a lot, tom, for doing it. My first question is how did you get into this profession?
Speaker 1:I went with my sister she's a nurse and she had to do something out of college. And this is years, you know, 30 years ago and in the job fair they had a whole set out of things between x-ray technologists all the way to radiation therapy, what you could do in the x-ray field.
Speaker 2:So what grabbed you? What made you decide? Oh, that's the thing.
Speaker 1:Travelability. Back then you could get a job, a per diem job, I'm going to say literally just anywhere in the country very easily. So I solely got into this because I was going to travel around the country in places just in per diems, to see where I want to settle down through the country and did you travel around the country? I did not.
Speaker 2:I had another blessing instead not a blessing my daughter oh yeah, of course life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans, sure it?
Speaker 1:was john lennon wrote that upon graduation found out so that changed the plan right.
Speaker 2:So you're an imaging technologist. Do you do ct, m, x-rays, all of those things?
Speaker 1:Correct. I mainly do CT. I've done MR in the past and x-ray is where you start with any of those three modalities.
Speaker 2:What kind of schooling did you have to go through to become a technologist?
Speaker 1:To enter into one of the programs. When I went, it was a two-year degree. The pathway was always you went in, you started an x-ray and then you learned modalities. As you were there as a student and I went to Hudson Valley, you had weeks where they would send you through modalities and you would see if you you know to acclimate yourself to that. But it was solely the x-ray program that you were graduating from and then on site, that's where you would be learning.
Speaker 2:So how long have you been doing it? 30 years. In school did you have to study? Because I remember when you did my CT you had to put me in a certain position and all of that Did you have to learn anatomy.
Speaker 1:Yes, and the anatomy for the x-ray program is. It's an extensive you know, that's usually what they say, the harder course, one of of the harder courses because there's a lot of information. So you have to learn anatomy to a very good level and the physics of how radiation works would be the other hard one for that. So you had to learn all that and positioning. You did in labs and on site.
Speaker 2:You mentioned radiation. Are you afraid of getting overdose of radiation? You're doing it every day uh, no, not at all.
Speaker 1:The nuclear medicine has a more of a risk of that because you're holding something that you could spill or anything of that nature. X-ray, it's only if you have the machine turned on. There's no radiation there. That is instantaneous type of reactions. And you have a monitoring badges that you wear that are checked every 30 days to see what accumulating you have done in your life and how much for that one period.
Speaker 2:You started with x-ray and how long after you started did you switch to?
Speaker 1:CT. Actually, I switched to what they call interventional radiology, that's where they do angiograms of the body, and that was first, because that was the first opening Probably let's say, six years somewhere in there where I went into CT.
Speaker 2:Do you like it? Yeah, does the doctor tell you exactly what position to put the person in CT?
Speaker 1:positioning is a lot easier because there's a lot less of it. You're centered on a table. Okay, x-ray would be different for each body part.
Speaker 2:You take the image, you see the image. If something is wrong, it's the focus, the resolution or whatever. Are you in charge of fixing it? Yep.
Speaker 1:All techs should know how to fix an image that comes across.
Speaker 2:By the way, I never see men doing mammogram, do they do?
Speaker 1:No, that would only when I first got into it you had to do a rotation through it because it's your license and my entire time. That's not a job any man was did they hire for.
Speaker 2:You need a license to do what you do yes, and you have to renew it and continuing education.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. You have New York State license New York State, florida and I believe it's still California. They're the hardest licenses to get, so if you have one there, different states would honor that. And then you have what they call the art, and that's an organization that we answer to for our continuing education, the art american registry radiologic technologists. They have added to that so that if you do modalities you have to have there's another type of credits, like all cq credits that you have to have for your specific modality. So you have to maintain x-ray and then whatever modality you also have oh, kind of deal.
Speaker 2:And how often do you have to do continuing education? Every two years, every two years?
Speaker 1:yes, it's kind of a hard subject in a way, because some people are not happy, because a lot of the stuff that you would learn or not learn is very specific to where you work.
Speaker 2:Did you ever work in a hospital where there's emergencies?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I worked in a hospital 24 years. Was it more stressful? I wouldn't say stressful, but a lot busier. At times, when you have your patients what they call the flood you've got to get each patient done as quick as you can without you know, obviously taking away quality because there's a lot more waiting.
Speaker 1:Where in an outpatient facility, you have a schedule so it's easier to follow through with that even if you get behind or whatever In a hospital plenty of times where there would be a lot of people come in all at once. So you have to be able to get them done and not have them wait two hours. So that part I guess, but you don't really feel it because you're busy. You're so busy getting this one done and as soon as it's done you're busy doing the next one.
Speaker 2:If somebody wants to get into this business. What kind of person would be a perfect person for this kind of job?
Speaker 1:To start with, there's a few funny things with it is you cannot be a person who does not like touching other people, starting with x-ray and learning how to position. You don't want to be over-touching anyone, but you have to use your hands at times in order to get the patient in the right position, and a lot of people don't like that. And if you don't like to see what can come through an ER, know that before you're going to work in a hospital or restrictions of that nature. One of the big things I see, at least now even, is when you get into it you may not always get the shift you want. So actually radiology is 24 hours a day, so sometimes when you get out you may have to take a midnight job. So those are the really main things that you have to be okay with.
Speaker 2:It's a growing field, right? Yes, there's a demand for this kind of jobs.
Speaker 1:Yes, the market. Strangely, right now, with the amount of people come out, travel is a very big market. Right now a lot of people aren't taking full-time jobs, they're doing travel technology.
Speaker 2:Yes you know it's so interesting. I hear it in different industries that the traveling is the is the best. What can they make? Let's talk about money for a second.
Speaker 1:There are places you're getting paid three grand a week because, uh, what they do is you have to be over a I. I think for most places it's like 50 miles. Once you're over 50 miles, you get stipends for food, lodging, there's a few things, and all that money is non-taxable. Your base salary is what you'd get in a hospital, maybe a little bit more, but it's the extra that's not taxable. That that's where everyone goes for.
Speaker 2:So how much a beginner, let's say, I just finished school, I know X-ray, I know CT and probably MRI. Do you make money more on MRI, by the way, than CT?
Speaker 1:It fluctuates with the market. There was a point in time where it was where now they're getting a lot closer back to about the same. Okay. So how much a beginner can make Around here? I believe the start and pay is around like $28 to $32.
Speaker 1:That's not bad for starting and how far can you get? That's the thing. You learn modality, you get extra pay for learning a modality, being getting certified in that modality, but then you have like evening differential pay, overnight differential pay and that and that starts adding up quite a bit. You take like around here someone who's been in it for, you know, 20 plus years, whatever. They're probably going to be anywhere from the $40 to $50 range.
Speaker 1:Right After the 40 hours you start getting time and a half Time and a half yeah, and if you work holidays and weekends, that's still, you know time and a half You're supposed to get, you know lunch and you know your breaks and stuff like that. And yes, and that's what it does, but it is healthcare. So if you can't because say there's too many people in the ER, you know it's that day. They don't, it's just time and a half.
Speaker 2:What is your day like? You come in here, you have to first check the machine, turn them on. How does it?
Speaker 1:work. I come in, you turn on the machine. There's a calibration it does to warm up so it can take the heat, because an x-ray tube generates a lot of machine is probably a little different in how they do that. And then you do a quality assurance on a phantom and then you measure that in certain places. Again, it's very simple with that. And then, once that's done for this machine anyway, they do a longer calibration scan automatically. So it just sets the computer up for the day, and when that's all set then you're ready to get your first patient on the table.
Speaker 2:And then it's go, go, go all day long it is.
Speaker 1:Then you're making sure the room is stocked. You have a power injector with contrast, you got to make sure that's warm and loaded. The room is clean for patients, you know, and in-cap.
Speaker 2:Right. So when you take an image, you take a look at it first and do you analyze anything? Oh, you do. Tell me about it.
Speaker 1:You don't read the image. That only radiologists can do. Okay so even if you're doing it for a while, you do pick up information and stuff like that, but you cannot interpret that image because you are not the doctor, right, but you know what the doctor needs to see. So if you're looking at that image and you know they're not getting what they need, you have to adjust, and that's any tech has to do. That it becomes very second nature, you know, because the human anatomy doesn't change that much.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:You just have to make sure that you processed image right for the radiologist. Is it physically challenging? It can be. There is no sit down time, you know there's no sitting. And doing x-ray CT you do just when you're actually pushing the button, so to speak, to generate. But everything else you're moving around, and I say especially in the hospital. You got to move quicker if there's a lot of people waiting, so you're on your feet all day long. Yes, and it can be very physically demanding moving patients from stretcher to onto a table and then back what's the most common thing people come for?
Speaker 1:ct chest and abdomens for the mostly cough fever, anything of that nature you know, any kind, any kind of breathing. Obviously you know for lungs and just the myriad of you have for health problems, whether it be things like diverticulitis, if you have kidney stones, if your liver's not, your liver numbers are not right, you know. So that's the bulk of what would come through.
Speaker 2:But anything broken ribs or anything like that that's x-ray right.
Speaker 1:For a lot of things like, say, a foot, they'll do CT, because you can take that data that can be applied to robotics for surgeries like for knee replacements or anything of that nature that they use robotics for. You would need the 3D data for that to be constructed.
Speaker 2:Oh, really, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1:Yes, if it's a robotic program, Well it needs a map on where to go.
Speaker 2:So CT can do 3D? Yes, so what is the difference between CT and MRI? I thought MRI was the 3D and CT 2D.
Speaker 1:Mr is 3D because you can image in any direction at all. Ct you have three points. You have the X and the Y, like in mathematics, and then you have the Z axis. So when you take each image, think of your body like a loaf of bread. You can just pull up and see each one, but then you can stack them all together and turn the image by computer work to form a 3D. So CT gives you 3D imaging through computer.
Speaker 2:Do you have to work that computer and create the 3D?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So you learn the special software that does that.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Did you learn that it's cool? Or on the job, because it's different for each machine? It's different for each machine because of proprietary, but they're not complicated to learn. And all the images because they never show the images to the patient, so I never saw. But all the images are black and white, right, they're not color.
Speaker 1:Correct, it's all a shade of gray. Your eye can pick up 256 shades of gray, so that's how CT produces its images. So it seems white or seems black, but that's the shade of gray that you're at and that's how we can tell the subtlety, because a lot of your tissues are the same density and the only way you can tell one organ from another is by that slightly different shade of gray.
Speaker 2:Are you able to read the different shades now?
Speaker 1:That's applied by the computer automatically. You do testing every day, quality assurance tests, to make sure that the machine is operating right. It bases it off plexiglass and water, so that's a constant. So if they're always measuring that right, then all the other shades are being measured right.
Speaker 2:So the technician would never tell you what they see in the imaging and when I get it I'm really curious.
Speaker 1:I want to know the answer now. You never share anything with a patient. It is so irresponsible to do. Uh, there's been plenty of times in my 30 years that I'm looking at an image whether it be an x-ray or a cat scan and I know what that is, and when you see the report it's not what you very much thought it was. So that's where you really do have to be careful. It doesn't mean the tech doesn't know what he's doing. She doesn't know what he's doing, but their interpreting is a doctor's job because they have a depth that you do not. So it's very important you can tell if there's a bone that's fractured.
Speaker 2:The bone that fractured is not a big deal really. But what if you do a CT and you see a tumor? What's your reaction?
Speaker 1:personally. That's the other hard part with this kind of job, because when people ask you you almost have to have a poker face in a way, because you don't. If you start lying to a patient they can tell and that's what would devalue the whole job. You know the whole profession because you're not there. You know for that. But it's hard to keep when you just see something that's real bad and they ask you. And it's hard to keep when you just see something that's real bad and they ask you. And it's really hard to keep the care off your face but keep the right care so you know you're still caring about the patient and let them know that you are. That can be a bit challenging. And it can be challenging when you see something that's really bad. There's a sadness to that, very much so.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Especially if you've seen them for a couple times and you know you kind of know them Right. That's it can be, I can say as a technologist. At times it can be very tempting to say something you know, especially if someone's really nervous and there's nothing there or something looks there, but nothing you should be worried about. You almost want to tell them so that you can just alleviate that at least, say for a weekend or for a holiday. It's, you know, right before Christmas and they're asking you, you want to say something.
Speaker 2:So I'm like, have a Merry Christmas or enjoy this one, because it's hard sometimes to Don't you think AI could take your job away.
Speaker 1:That's a very good question. There's possibly, but that's going to be down the road quite a bit, because even in how radiation is used right now, it's getting more efficient. You're able to use less and less. So when they get to a point where you're using such low dose radiation, you may not need the specialty training with it anymore, because the machine's going to do it. And then what would run the machine? Well then, the AI would. Yes, there's nowhere, so far, that AI can get in there and take away the job that I do. That is manual, because you're watching the patient. Where is the patient? There's no way in a scanner they could judge all that, yet they haven't made one of those, not yet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, not yet. It's a few years down the line.
Speaker 1:What like about the job. I like the interaction with people. That's why I do it really. I like the technology that you see and when you do help people that are afraid or anything like that, there's a reward to that. When you see someone be comfortable when they're leaving. They're scared to get into the machine or they're afraid of moving and you can get them to get the exam done and they're very thankful.
Speaker 2:And if you're good with children, people who do that?
Speaker 1:Oh you do children too. See, we don't much here, but I worked at the hospital, you did, and when you can do that, that's even more rewarding, because that's when you see a kid leaving smiling. You know that you did the things right.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:For them. One thing that at least they taught when I went to school, it's not to return business, it's to have that patient not be afraid to come. To go back to any imaging facility is as important as getting that image done right so if they need it again, they won't be afraid to, or they won't wait too long or things of that nature. Right, your day might be busy, but you don't feel like, because you're not. You're constantly, in a way, almost uplifted a little bit all right, tom.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for your time. Now, probably when I'm going to come for a CT scan. Hopefully I will not see you as a CT scan technician ever again, but I will have more knowledge if I do come again.
Speaker 1:Now you said technician, One of the things that ART started. Because they want to be technologists, people might feel they don't like being called technicians.
Speaker 2:All right technologists People in my field. They don't like being called technicians. All right technologists. Oh, manil, thanks a lot. Thank you for inviting me. Yes, and I probably will not see you, hopefully, okay bye. Okay, that's a wrap for today. If you have a comment or question or would like us to cover a certain job, please let us know. Visit our website at howmuchcanimakeinfo. We would love to hear from you and, on your way out, don't forget to subscribe and share this episode with anyone who is curious about their next job. See you next time.
