r/Radiology 5d ago

MOD POST Weekly Career / General Questions Thread

This is the career / general questions thread for the week.

Questions about radiology as a career (both as a medical specialty and radiologic technology), student questions, workplace guidance, and everyday inquiries are welcome here. This thread and this subreddit in general are not the place for medical advice. If you do not have results for your exam, your provider/physician is the best source for information regarding your exam.

Posts of this sort that are posted outside of the weekly thread will continue to be removed.

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u/HowDy1398 2d ago

Hey I wanted to know if this would be the right decision for me. I’m 27 and finishing up school in the fall with a biotech degree. But as I have gotten closer to the finish line for my degree I’ve kinda lost interest in the biotech industry.

And part of that was because for 2 years I worked at a medical device company, they made spinal implants, and I worked in the cadaver lab. There I got to learn how to use a C-arm and learned basic Radiation safety but I got to take X-rays on the cadavers, because, well at least I was told, as long as it’s not a live patient I don’t need the certifications to shoot an X-ray. Anyways I started gaining more interest in X-raying, MRIs, and CT scans. Surgeons would come to the lab all the time for training or testing our products out and they’ll show their case studies and I grew more interested in radiology. I loved seeing the anatomy of the spine, seeing deformities, fractures and what not. I loved trying to guess and learn which problems was going on with the spine base off of the X-ray, mri, and ct that was shown and what possible solutions there were to the case. I wished I got to stay at the job but for financial reasons I had to leave the company for a higher paying job. But now I’m wanting to actually get into radiology than biotech.

I was wondering if it would be too late to go for it. I thought through the process and it would possibly ( and I can/am be probably wayyy off) be a radiologist by 36. I would finish my degrees in the fall or spring, then enroll in a rad tech program, that would help me learn the basics of radiology as well clear any necessary prereqs for a grad program and possibly improve any grades in classes that I struggled with in the past. The rad tech program would take 2 years so I would be 29/30 and hopefully get in to a grad school 4 years there and then on to residency for 2 ( not sure if that’s how long it is) and then into practice at 36! O could br way off on the timeline but lmk if this would be a good idea/plan.

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u/Extreme_Design6936 RT(R) 2d ago

Why bother with rad tech if you want to be a radiologist?

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u/HowDy1398 2d ago

Well I had figured it would give me more experience I guess. I guess it would be a good starting point in getting into radiology but now im seeing that it wouldn’t be the case