You’re Good at Your Job. That’s No Longer Enough.

A wake-up call for radiologic technologists and medical imaging professionals who feel stuck, burned out, or invisible in their careers.

Here's why:

You can be excellent at your job and still quietly disappear from your profession.

In this solo episode of A Couple of Rad Techs, we’re talking directly to radiologic technologists and medical imaging professionals who are skilled, dependable, and tired—but starting to feel stuck, overlooked, or disconnected.

This is not a motivational episode.

It’s a career reality check.

Being good at your job used to be enough. In today’s medical imaging landscape, it isn’t.

Technology is accelerating. Scope pressure is real. Decisions about radiology and radiation therapy are being made every day—and many working technologists are not in the room when they happen.

In this episode, we cover:

1. The silent career mistake many technologists make without realizing it
2. Why professional isolation feels safe at first—and costly later
3. What technologists actually lose when they disengage from the profession
4. The difference between being employed and being connected
5. Why burnout grows faster in isolation
6. What ASRT and professional societies really provide beyond CEUs
7. Why visibility—not just competence—is becoming the dividing line

This conversation is for medical imaging technologists who:

1. Are good at what they do
2. Care about the profession
3. Feel tired, skeptical, or burned out
4. Haven’t fully stepped away—but haven’t fully stepped in either

You don’t need to do everything.

You do need to stop standing on the sidelines of your own profession.

Key Takeaways

1. Competence alone no longer protects your career
2. Professional isolation is still a decision—even when it feels passive
3. You can’t negotiate, pivot, or prepare for changes you don’t know about
4. Connection creates visibility, leverage, and options
5. Professional societies function as career infrastructure—not extras

If this episode hit, don’t brush it off.

Take one step that reconnects you to the profession.

Visit asrt.org

Review the salary data

Reconnect with your state society

You don’t need to do everything.

You just need to stop being invisible.

About the Show

A Couple of Rad Techs is a podcast for radiologic technologists, MRI techs, CT techs, radiation therapists, and medical imaging professionals who want more clarity, confidence, and longevity in their careers—without leaving the field.

Hosted by a 20+ year medical imaging professional, this show blends real experience, honest conversations, and practical insight from inside the profession.

radiologic technologist

medical imaging careers

radiology burnout

ASRT

professional societies

radiology career growth

medical imaging jobs

radiation therapy careers

healthcare professional development

You're good at what you do.

Your patients trust you.

They come in and ask for you by name.

The doctors want you to do all the exams or these special cases, right?

Your co workers rely on you.

If there is a question about anything, whether it's patient protocol or just where is the break room, they go to you.

Your manager relaxes when they know you're on the schedule.

Sometimes they just take their PTO because they know you got it, you're there.

All because you show up, you handle your cases, you keep things moving.

But here's the question no one ever asks.

Does anyone outside that building know who you are?

Not your license, not your credentials and all the modalities, but you.

The if the answer is no, you're not just tired, you're disappearing.

And this profession, it is not waiting.

Time is ticking.

This is a couple of rad Tech's podcasts.

My name is Sean and I am your host.

I am a registered radiology technologist for over 20 years.

So let's talk about the cost of staying invisible.

And I've got some solutions for you.

So hang tight to the end of this episode.

You're going to love them.

Buckle up, let's get started.

Most technologists don't make loud mistakes.

Do you agree?

We're pretty quiet.

That's why there's this whole campaign on be seen.

We want people on the outside to see us, but also we, we want to be seen in the inside.

See each other, see what our profession is all about.

Like really, really get to know who we are as medical imaging professionals.

But we're not very loud, especially when it comes to silent mistakes.

Like we don't quit without a plan.

Our jobs are pretty.

We're in them.

We're in them, right?

And if we do decide to make a change, it's planned out.

Maybe we cross train.

Maybe we decide to go be a travel technologist.

We've planned those things out.

Maybe we want to go into leadership.

We usually plan those things out, right?

We just don't blow up our careers.

We're just not like, walk away and we're done.

We don't stop caring even during the most tough situation.

Whether we have to work alone, whether we don't have any help, whether we're put in situations where we have to make a call.

We don't stop caring, even if it's not our job.

In medical imaging, we step up to the plate.

But there's one mistake, a quiet one that we do make.

Have you ever become so good at your job?

That you stop building your career.

I'm going to raise my hand because there are things that we can do with our eyes closed and it's our job.

But through this podcast, I want you guys to really think about this big mistake that many of us make is being doggone good at our jobs, but not building a career.

And it's right in our hands in medical imaging.

But I get why radiology technology and medical imaging, all the modality schools, they are not easy.

I know people think, oh, they're a breeze, they're easier than other professionals professions in healthcare.

Look, I'm here to tell you it's not.

We have some of the highest clinical requirements out there.

1800 usually at a minimum for most medical imaging programs of clinical hours, that is not including didactic.

Completing your radiology technology program is nothing to just say, yeah, I did it, I have a degree in radiologic sciences.

No, it was hard.

Completing school was a lot.

Exam after exam, clinical the next day.

It's like working a full time job.

When you go to clinical, eight hours turns into nine hours turns into 10 hours because that surgery case went a lot longer.

Then you have to do second shift clinical rotations as well along with an exam being due the next day.

And you can't fail.

But so many exams or you're out of the program.

The stress is very high.

So pat yourself on the back that you finished radiologic technology and medical imaging school, you survive the orientation.

I remember my orientation to medical imaging programs and it was brutal.

The stress of wanting to be in so bad and really needing this at this time in my life and knowing I was competing against, I didn't know who, but a lot of people and it was just a lot.

The orientation, the questions, each interview was different, each essay was different.

You just can't copy and paste because the questions from each program, it's going to be different.

So you survived orientation, you survived school, you learned your workflow like, like that is huge because you've been in school for the last two plus years learning someone else's workflow because you had to go by the curriculum, you had to go by the technologist that you were working with, how they did things.

You never really got your feet in there to figure out your rhythm, right?

Because as a student you're learning.

So you've already done these other things.

You're now thrust into the situation where you got to learn your workflow amongst working with doctors who have their own workflow, nurses who have their own workflow.

Departments in each institution has Their own workflow as well.

So the hospital across town does it this way.

Well, you pick up a PRN at another hospital across town and they do it another way.

Talk about learning workflows.

And that's just the clinical aspect.

What about the, the, the PACs, the comp aspect?

This system over here is one system.

This one is another PAC system.

There is a lot to our jobs, but despite all of that, you get faster.

Not only faster, you get good at what you do at your job.

And you trust it now.

Trust it by yourself, right?

Because that's a process.

A lot of times you're like, oh no, this exam is coming in, I'm not going to be good at it.

Let's get somebody else to do it.

But now you're like, oh yeah, give me the heart when I got it, no problem.

The one you used to run away from is now the one that you're like, she's to go to or he's to go to for that exam, right?

So you've done all of these things and then life hits, right?

You got kids, you got parents, maybe aging parents.

You're working second or third shift or pulling a weekend, you're in overtime, you're on call.

The burnout starts to really, really get real, right?

Yeah, we can relate to that.

So you narrow your focus.

You, you think I got too much on my plate.

If I just do my job well, everything will work out.

And for a while it does.

This was a good decision.

Just do what they pay me to do, put my head down and do my job.

I'm great at it.

They trust me.

I trust myself.

Until one day you look up and realize your career hasn't moved, but the profession has.

I'm gonna let you sit with that for a second.

You look up, you realize your career is in the same place 10 years ago, five years ago, 20 years ago.

But the profession now is.

Oh, I mean, look at it now, you guys.

It's mind boggling how this profession is taking off.

Technologically wise.

It is just blowing my mind.

Can we keep up?

New roles exist that no one told you about because you said if I just do my job well, everything will work out.

Can you think of some new roles that exist now that did not exist 10 years ago, 20 years ago, when you started or plus, I want you to kind of think about that.

That's a moment of reflection because I had to do it.

I had to say, wait a second, 20 years ago, this wasn't even a thought to be in our profession as A opportunity to advance in medical imaging.

Like, who knew about this?

Who knew this would come?

None of us.

So there are roles out there that many of us even did, but now they are specialized roles.

I could think of a few.

What about you?

Let me know in the comments.

Pay ranges have changed without you knowing.

I don't know who can relate to this, but I am definitely there.

I remember going, like, wait, people are making that, Like, I need to start making some changes because I'm not there.

Decisions were made without your voice.

Most people don't really know what's going on in their state when it comes to medical imaging.

Who can take an X ray?

Who can take an X ray?

If they can take an X ray without going to radiologic technology school, where can they do it at?

We have to kind of think about these things, remember, because you're, you're not.

You know that little box when you sign up for something and it says, do you want to opt in to receive newsletters and subscriptions?

And we get that all the time.

Whenever I use the WI fi at the airport, it always tells me, you want to opt in so we can send you emails.

And I'm like, nope, click, opt out.

But in this particular case, you didn't opt out on purpose.

I clicked that box on purpose.

But you didn't click out.

None of us clicked out on purpose.

We drifted.

And just like boats, what happens, they start out on the beach.

You're on the beach enjoying yourself, relaxing, laid out and enjoying the sun, laying in the boat.

And you know you're.

You didn't tie it up to the dock, but you're just relaxing in your boat, in the water, on the beach, in the sand.

You're not in the water.

And you wake up a few minutes later, not even hours later, a few minutes later.

And what happens?

The tide went a little higher and came and took you on out a little further than you planned to ever go.

Because now you don't have a paddle, you've drifted out.

How do you get back?

But in this instance, you didn't opt out on purpose, but you drifted and drifted, feel safe, loves you.

Right to sleep.

Right.

Until it isn't.

Because you're out there in that water with no paddle to get back.

Omg, now you're professionally isolated.

You don't lose your job.

No.

But you lose information.

You lose salary data.

You lose, and I'm going to say reputable salary data.

You lose market awareness.

If you're not informed or around people that are informed, you kind of Stuck back in what you know, because you're not able to stay up to date.

You lose early warnings.

You don't hear about scope changes when it comes to our profession of medical imaging until they're already happening.

I remember 20 plus years ago, I probably have been doing CT for a couple years and I remember all of this talk about radiologist assistance, you know, being in there with the radiologist, what they'd be allowed to do.

It was, it was talking then and I was interested and the radiologist at the hospital I was at, they were very excited for technologists to be able to do this.

So it was a place where they really were behind it.

And I moved on to another job.

But I didn't stay informed because I wasn't a part of the SRT at that time.

If I had been, I would have been connected with people who could have informed me that this is a real thing, it's happening and it's happening all over the US and to date, the amount of jobs that I see is, it's mind boggling.

But again, when you're professionally isolated, you don't lose your job, but you lose what information I give you personal experiences because I've been there.

This is not me talking at anybody.

This is me telling you I'm right there with you.

You don't know what other technologists are making, so you guess or you do the best you can to think that people are telling you the truth.

But just because someone shows you their check on social media, remember that doesn't give you the full data.

When I look at things that give me the full data when it comes to salary so I can make an informed decision about my worth.

It's more than just this is what XYZ is making.

Who is not a person that is comparable with my background, where I live, what I can do.

Even if that person has been doing CT and you do CT for the same amount of time, that doesn't mean you do the same CT scans.

That doesn't mean you know how to do the same radiation therapy procedures or have the same experience.

It doesn't mean that you both are equal as nuclear medicine technologist, just because you both are interventional radiology technologists.

For 10 years they may have worked in a surgery center, you may have worked in a trauma hospital.

Not equal.

They may live in small town Wyoming, you may live in Los Angeles.

So there is.

So it is very important when it comes to not losing information.

You don't know which states are fighting deregulation until it shows up in your backyard.

I don't know about you, but I remember the first time I saw someone who had eight hours of training taking an X ray and I was like, ooh, mindboggling.

And some.

And each state is different.

So do you know how your state regulates your job?

That is important.

And most importantly, I always talk about going to radiologic technology school first.

And it's not a hard and fast rule.

It's just my opinion.

But I believe in options.

I said that because I believe in options.

And to me, starting out with that as my foundation gives me options without in a strategic manner.

But when you stay isolated in this profession, you lose information.

You lose information, but you lose options.

Let me tell you, roles like informatics.

You may have been doing what informatics specialists and technologists have been doing for years.

Who knew that nursing would not be the only informatics people hired, that it would not be done, that hospitals need radiologic technologists with a medical imaging background in their informatics roles.

That's one of those things we didn't foresee.

But it is real education roles.

We are seeing more and more private schools and public schools with medical imaging programs opening.

And they need qualified educators.

Leadership.

Leadership is so important because it shapes the care we give to our patients.

It shapes the students that are trained and the culture of a department.

So you, as a technologist, understand what it looks like to have cream of the crop leadership.

And I love that the ASRT has leadership channels where you can actually be guided toward being one of the top leaders.

There are so many things that the ASRT opens up to you to give you options.

Not just CEU credits, but their leadership academy.

Whether you're a student or a technologist, these are things that you get to take advantage of that most people pay thousands of dollars for in other organizations to go to you.

That's part of your membership.

And all you have to do is be a member and apply for it and qualify for it.

Advanced practice.

I already talked about radiologist assistance.

Nobody foresaw that.

And it is steadily growing and it is just going to be even bigger than I think we can imagine.

So not because you're unqualified, but because you never heard about them.

In time, that makes sense.

You're probably overqualified.

But when you don't hear about things in time, it's kind of like you're trying to play catch up.

But here's the quiet one people don't talk about.

You lose leverage.

We talked about losing information options, but you use.

You lose leverage.

When it's time to negotiate, you don't have the right numbers.

When it's time to move, you don't have connections.

Connections are important.

When it's time to pivot, you don't know where to start.

Nothing like starting in the middle of a good movie, right?

Or a good book.

I met technologists in medical imaging who found out major professional changes months later.

Not because they didn't care.

We care.

But because no one in the circle was plugged in.

If you're around everyone at your job or in your circle and they know just as much as you know or just as little as you know, your leverage, your options, your information is going to be zilch and limited, and you're going to be opting out.

That's not a skill issue.

That is an infrastructure issue.

So here's some reasons people give, and they're real reasons.

These are real.

Let's not discount any of these.

Don't feel like, oh, I'm just complaining.

No, these are real and we all feel them.

I'm.

Burnout makes sense.

I mean, if you've never been burnout, you hadn't been working long enough and you hadn't been in health care long enough, this makes sense.

But burnout grows fastest in isolation, right?

So we all get burnt out, but it is sped up by isolation.

When you're disconnected, every problem feels personal.

When you're connected, patterns become visible as solutions follow.

Right?

Because we all have that friend that when we're down, we're feeling some kind of way, we can call them up and they kind of like, tell us, give us some good advice, give us a good analogy, help us to see things in a different way.

And we go and they say, now let's do it this way.

Or have you thought about doing it that way?

Right?

You've been that friend or you have that friend.

Infrastructure reduces friction.

Isolation increases exhaustion.

So professional societies are just CEUs.

I see it all the time.

And I thought that that's how many people use them.

That is how I used professional societies when I was a member years ago.

And that's why it didn't work, because that's not what they are.

That's like using your phone only for the calculator, right?

We know our phone could do so much more.

Our phones can take pictures, our phones can call people, our phones can do a lot of things.

We can record things, we can measure things with our phone, and we can use the calculator, right?

So they're not just for CEUs.

I mentioned earlier, about the Leadership Academy for Students scholarships.

I mean, you can get involved in advocacy.

There are so many things beyond CEUs, and the scholarships are like over 500,000.

I have a podcast episode on that.

You can go back and listen.

I'll link them here in the description.

But go back and listen to the podcast I've done this year for the srt and you're going to be like, wow, I didn't know this.

Remember, infrastructure reduces friction, isolation increases exhaustion, and your circle can help you see beyond where you see if you have the right circle.

And professional societies are not just used for CEUs.

So much more.

It felt clicky.

Yeah, we've all been there.

We've been to things.

And it felt like, I'm not in the click.

Well, unmeeting isn't a network.

Sometimes things may feel clicky.

I've been there, you know, done that.

It's like, ooh, that was awkward.

But then you don't stop going.

You find another one to go to.

You're going to click with someone.

You're going to find a session that really speaks to you.

But don't stop because one felt clicky.

Might not have been just the right one.

You might have chose one that wasn't good.

A meeting that wasn't good.

Try another one.

One conversation isn't a relationship.

It takes time for people to get to know you.

Like, it takes time for you to get to know them.

Connection takes repetition.

So.

So does trust.

Remember just the way you take time to get to know people, other people have to take time to get to know you too.

So throw those out the window and I can't afford it.

I know, I've said that.

That's what took me so long to go to rsna, but I wish I would have gone years ago.

Most technologists in medical imaging and radiologic technology and radiation therapy lose more money by not knowing their market value than they ever spend on memberships.

I mean, if you take the price of a basic membership with the SRT and all that you get.

But the direct readings, the white list papers, oh, my goodness, those were excellent.

I did a video on that too.

Is such a good paper.

I mean, there are so many things.

The Leadership Academy.

I just can't wait till I qualify to apply.

I am definitely doing it.

But most technologists, you know, we do lose money by not knowing the market, right?

It's like if you wanted to sell your house and everybody around you was selling the same exact house as you for half a million dollars, you paid 100,000 for yours.

Somebody comes up and says, I'll give you 250,000.

No, no, I'm going to up it.

I'll give you $350,000 for your house.

You don't have to fix it.

You don't have to do a thing.

You've been trying to move back to your town or move somewhere else, get a condo.

You're going to be able to pocket that much money because guess what?

Your house is paid off.

You don't owe $100,000.

You paid 100, but you've paid it off.

That whole 350 is going to be yours.

So you take it.

And then you're talking to a neighbor, bragging, and tell them, yes, I'm going on a long vacation.

We're going to take a month long cruise and I already got my condo picked out.

I'm going to close it, I'm walking away with 350,000.

And neighbor one says, congratulations, but did you know you could have got at least half a million, if not more, because you got a pool.

We don't have a pool.

You have a privacy fence.

We don't have a privacy fence.

You have brand new windows throughout your whole house.

We don't have that.

Your mouth falls to the floor because you didn't know the market value of your home.

You lost so much money.

Now that's expensive.

The next one is, I'm too far into my career.

Let's be honest.

If you have 10 to 15 years left, it's not too late.

You're still going to be working in medical imaging radiology.

This career is so good to our bodies.

All, so.

And one of them is a travel technologist.

Now that's influence.

Choosing not to engage is still a choice, even when it feels passive.

Segment four.

Now here is the reframe that changes everything.

Start is not a CEU tracker.

Don't let these groups and anonymous commenters sway you and cost you money.

Asrt it's salary data for real medical imaging technologists.

It is not guessing.

It's not pulling data from the Internet to putting it together.

If you understood how they come up with salary data.

We get surveys asking us to tell anonymously certain aspects so they can Put all this together because they want you to be able to make what you deserve, but to also go in there equipped with the tools, to be able to negotiate properly and think about the skills you're going to learn and being able to take that data, translate what you have from the data for yourself, and put it all together and go in and negotiate.

I'm going to tell you that's a skill right there.

It's early awareness of legislative threats, educating yourself on your state and what it requires of people like you.

Medical imaging technologists who can take an X ray, who can do radiation therapy, who is allowed and needs to be licensed to do nuclear medicine.

These are things that you can educate yourself on, advocate for, whether it's to your family members, your friends, your loved ones, however you choose to do it.

It's visibility into where the profession is headed.

It's not just a conference host, it's a legislative watchdog.

That's what the ASRT is.

When scope is threatened, when licensure is questioned, when roles are redefined, the people responding are already connected.

They're already in that work.

They understand the lingo.

It's not just networking, it's access.

Access to mentors, access to committees, access to conversations that shape hiring and leadership.

Have you ever written an article about medical imaging or radiologic technology or radiation therapy?

Have you ever wanted to?

They're always looking for technologists like you to contribute.

Think about putting that on your resume.

Oh, my goodness, that is huge.

Who has ever offered to have technologists write about anything medical?

This is your opportunity to advance your career in ways you never thought to be more than just good at your job.

Being a member of ASRT isn't asking you to volunteer.

Your life is offering access to the rooms where your profession is shaped while you're clocking out.

That's infrastructure, you guys.

Technology is accelerating.

AI is here.

We cannot fight it.

We can't tell it to go back where it came from.

It is here and it is in medical imaging and radiation therapy.

Workflow is tightening.

Boat pressure is real.

No matter what state you're in.

If you're not in the rooms where decisions are made, which you can be, decisions are going to be made without you.

You may is going to be made without me anyway.

Think of that presentation that you may give at your job to inspire your technologists or teach better positioning or teach Better systems or workflow for your department.

You're putting yourself in these rooms where decisions are made.

Sometimes we think decisions have to be being in rooms where decisions are made or being at the top executive level.

No.

And you learn leadership by being a member of the SRT and going through Leadership Academy.

That's not dramatic.

That's how systems work.

You can't complain about being overlooked if you've made yourself invisible.

And we're all guilty for various reasons.

Remember, the profession is moving.

Visibility is the variable.

So I'm not here to inspire you.

That's not what this is about.

I'm here to tell you what I've watched.

Medical imaging and radiation therapists stay excellent.

We can stay dependable, we can stay busy.

And we slowly lose visibility.

Not because we weren't good, not because we weren't connected.

But here it is.

They weren't in the room when salaries were discussed.

They weren't in the room where roles were designed.

They weren't in the room when scope decisions were made.

And one day they realized the profession moved forward without them.

Again, I've been in this field of medical imaging and radiation therapy for 20 years plus.

I've seen it happen to people who were smarter, faster and more skilled than me.

Competence alone is no longer protection.

You guys.

You don't need to run for office.

You don't need a microphone.

You don't need to be on social media making content.

You don't need to do everything.

You do need to stop confusing showing up to work with building a career.

A job is not a career.

Look at the salary data.

Study it.

Join state societies, local societies.

Have one conversation or don't.

But let's not be surprised when visibility becomes the dividing line.

This is a couple of rad texts.

Stop standing on the sidelines of your own profession.

If this episode hit, don't scroll past it like a thought you'll deal with later.

Take one step that puts you back inside the profession instead of watching it from the outside.

Go to asrt.org look at the salary data, look at the scholarships, look at ways that you can get involved.

Write that article, submit it, sign up to be a speaker, Reconnect with your state and local societies.

You don't need to do everything.

You just need to stop being invisible.