Career Change to that of an X-Ray Technician
After I graduated from MIT with a degree in computer science, I lived out a short career doing web design and graphic art. I decided I wanted to go back to school to pursue another career, but it did not want to spend another four or five years in a college or university. So I decided that I would look into technical careers also known as fast-track careers.
There were a few different career choices that I could easily chosen, because many of them are actually quite closely related to each other. Some of these include ultrasound technician, MRI technician, x-ray technician and sonography technician to name a few. The one that I decided to go with was the x-ray technician training. I figured the career as an x-ray technician seemed a little more well rounded and I could probably easily switch careers from working at one hospital or doctor’s office to another if I decided to maybe specialize as MRI Tech or ultrasound Tech.
So as I mentioned before I did not want to go to school for another four years if I didn’t have to, and since I already had a degree some of my basic courses I had already gained credit for. However, I started looking for x-ray technician schools I quickly found that there was a lot of hands-on training and very specific job training. This was great because a typical degree consists of mostly book work and a lot of basic courses. I noticed that technical courses are extremely to the point that there is no time wasted.
They taught me how to use complex radiographic equipment and on top of that they taught me the most up-to-date methods of using the equipment so that whenever I did land a job in the field of x-ray technology I would already be caught up to speed on the newest equipment and how to use them. Some of the other simple things I learned as an x-ray technician is simple things to like patient positioning, examination techniques and medical ethics and terminology as well. I did not realize that so much of your job training insists on being a people person were utilizing your natural people skills. As an x-ray technician you are constantly at close quarters with different patients throughout the day, and it is vital that you know how to interact correctly with people of all walks of life and ages.
As far as my job schedule, it was tough to use to but now that I know what I’m doing it’s actually quite simple as I’m on at work where I work four days and have three night off and I work four nights and have three days off then I have a week off and then I work a week on. The salary is great, starting off I’m a $34,000 my first year, which paid a lot better than my computer sciences degree and allowed me to buy a new home very quickly after I graduated. Well that’s my life as an x-ray technician and I hope you found some of the useful, I did a lot of research on other technical degrees and I’m sure that I will be posting up a lot of information that I read on those as well.
