How Radiologic Technologists Can Secure Top Pay When Advancing Specialties

Tune in to "A Couple of Rad Techs Podcast" for an inside look at the dynamic world of radiology from the engaging perspective of a married couple of radiologic technologists. With over 30 years of combined experience, the hosts, including Chaundria Singleton, aim to demystify the science of medical imaging. Delve into the latest techniques, technologies, and innovations in radiology and discover the crucial role played in the healthcare industry. In this episode, "How Radiologic Technologists Can Secure Top Pay When Advancing Specialties" learn invaluable insights for technologists looking to level up their careers and ensure fair compensation for their expertise. Don't miss out on this engaging and informative podcast that sheds light on the hidden layers of the medical imaging profession.

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Transcript

0:00

Welcome to A Couple of Rad Techs Podcast, where we bring you an inside look at the world of radiology from the unique perspective of a married couple of Radiologic Technologists. Together, we have over 30 years of experience in the field and are here to demystify the science of medical imaging. Radiology is the unsung hero of the medical field, providing doctors with crucial images and information that help diagnose and treat illnesses. Join us as we explore the latest techniques, technologies, and innovations in radiology and discover the vital role we play in the healthcare industry. So come along for the ride as we share our passion for radiology as a married couple.

Chaundria: 0:38

Welcome to a Couple of Rad Techs Podcasts. I am your host, Chaundria. And we are talking Radiologic Technologists who are presently in the field and looking to level up their career. They're worrying about, is my salary going to match? Am I going to be compensated for all my years of experience in the field already, even though I make that move and level up to another modality? Will I have to go back down? I'm going to talk about that because I've been in the field for over 20 years and I have moved to other modalities, other directions besides what I went to school for, which was diagnostic radiologic technology. And many people in our field, They move to other specialties, whether it be education, leadership, MRI, CT, nuclear medicine, all of those things are specialties. Now we want to get paid for it when we make the move, right? Be sure to follow here. Stay with me. We're going to really get into it because I get this question a lot on my social media. If you're not following A Couple of Rad Techs Podcast, be sure to download these episodes. So you can hear them all the time and you can get notified once a new episode drops and be sure to follow on our socials as well. If you're not following us, we're on Instagram, we're on Tik Tok and I think you will enjoy them. Now let's get into it. Well, I personally feel like you will command what type of money you will be paid. Now, are there caveats to that? Yes. Some facilities just don't have the budget to give us what we want, right? I mean, we all want to make six figures, but maybe our experience, maybe where we work, maybe what state we're in does not command that type of salary. I put posts on that really talk about and highlight the wins of our profession. Now, is everybody going to make the same thing? No, because we're not all the same people, but what we can do is demand and value what we are worth. And only we know what we're worth because everybody has different demands. Salary is not going to be your only demand, but we're talking today about if your a technologist say for 15, 20 years in diagnostic radiology and you have all all of this experience. You are the go to technologist for the OR, for fluoro, for everything diagnostic. You know it like the back of your hand and you've been compensated well for it, but you're ready to finally make that move. And we're going to throw in another caveat. Maybe you've been at the same facility or in the same system of hospital for those years that you have been working. What are you to do? Are you going to have to now say your hospital base is everybody based on a level one, that's a beginner. Then you could be a level two. That's me. Level three is going to be more like a supervisor, but without the title, but you get paid really well. You take on some of the responsibilities of a leader without having to take on that full leadership role and get the title, but you're compensated for it. But when the leader is out, the supervisor is out or manager's out, you fill that role. If that's you, you're saying, if I go to another modality, now I'm going to make less money because they're probably going to move me if I go say to MRI, they're going to move me down to level one. I don't want to be a level one when I've been level three. For some people it's psychological. It's, Oh no, I'm being moved to a lower level. That means I'm a lower level person. No, I don't look at it like that. Now you can do a few things and I've coached some people and everybody's not a negotiator. You know, some people are like they're going to go back and forth with you. They are not going to settle for what you give them. They're willing to walk away if they don't get what they feel they are worth. Everybody's not like that. Some people are like, I'm not even going to haggle. You told me this amount, I'm taking it. There is nothing wrong with that. If that is your personality, don't feel bad. And if your personality is to the other level, don't feel bad either. Because you are the one that has a look at that check every time you get paid and you're the one that has to do the work. And if you're not getting what you feel like you're worth, you're going to be miserable and bitter and it's going to come out in your patient care. It's going to come out to your coworkers. In your family. What do you do then? I would like you guys to definitely be interactive with this podcast. If you're following along and you're not in your car driving, but you're somewhere where you can leave a review, you can comment in the questionnaire. Spotify allows me to do that where you guys can make comments. You can even go on my social media and say, Hey, I listened to your last podcast. And this is what I thought. We want to hear from technologists in the field, because this is how we help one another. When I was coming into the field, I was able to get a good support system. Many of them are still my circle. I still have a lunch with my old coworkers. I still text my old coworkers. I make new networking connections and it's not so that I can get this or get that, but this is how you know how to price yourself, right? Because if you've never been there, you don't know if you're not in that position and you never had to go through negotiating after 20 years of being in a field and now moving on to another modality or specialties, you don't really know what the commanding salary is, what you should be asking for. What do the schedules look like? What do the levels look like? What does it look like to be a level three? Because if you are a level three diagnostic Radiologic Technologist, I promise you, you will not become a level 3 MRI Technologist. It takes at least five years to really know what you're doing in MRI. The light bulb comes on about year three. Five, for most people, I'm not talking about, everybody cause I can't generalize that, but for most people, it takes a few years for you to be really be independent in those specialty modalities. But your experience should count. You should not, in my opinion, come into a new modality at a level one when you've been a level three for 15, 20 years or however much in your other modality, you have shown that you know the basic principles. You are not somebody straight off the street, you're in the system. You should already come in. And if you go to another hospital, I feel like you should really show them and express to them what you are worth that you are not coming in at a level one because that level one is going to be a little less money. I believe if you are radiology, and you make a move that is not a lateral move or a backwards move, it's gonna be a forward move, and any specialty is a forward move. If you're in MRI and you're going to CT, that's a forward move. If you're in mammo and you're going over to, leadership. That's a forward move. You should not start at level one if you've been a level three and shown your experience and your aptitude in this profession of medical imaging. Just because you're starting in a new specialty doesn't mean that you are a beginner and you have to recognize that about yourself. When you go in, you go in, pumping yourself up. And this is the time to really be your cheerleader because they don't know you. They just know what your resume says. They know what, maybe if you're in a system already, what you've been doing in that specialty. So now you're moving to another specialty. So it's time to hype yourself up and tell them, this is why I deserve this. This is what I'm asking. Really negotiate more than your money, y'all. Negotiate your salary. Negotiate your time off. Negotiate your call. I mean, all of the things that you want are not just a monetary transfer. You're going to need to exchange other things. If you want to work, you're tired of working five eights and you say I'm making this move to MRI because I want to work three twelves and at my facility they offer three twelves, willing to maybe not get a$8 or$6 increase. Maybe I want to get a$5 increase or a$4 because if I stay over here, I'm going to be on five eights and taking call every week. Whereas this one I don't have to take call and they're done by 7 PM, which means I'm not working second or third shift getting called in. Those are all things that you want to negotiate. But again, going back to the original thing, you should never go backwards. If you can get one thing out of making another move to another modality, when you have years of experience in one modality in medical imaging, never go backwards. If you need to make a lateral move, make sure it's still a win for you. I personally don't think you need to go the same salary, moving to another modality. I don't know if anybody agrees with me or not on that, but I just feel like you should always get some dollars more if you're moving to another specialty. I mean, you had to take certain exams to get that specialty. You had to pay for education to get that specialty. You had to probably take some extra education to make sure you pass the physics in MRI. How many dollars did it cost you to get this extra certification? That's what I want to know. Now, this is the other caveat. If the facility pays for you to go to your specialty school to get the education. That's something you might have to kind of give a little bit on because they're paying for you. Not saying you have to, but you may not get the increase dollar wise that you would normally if they paid for it. Because if they're paying four or five, six thousand dollars for you to go to MRI school or letting you get all your comps on their facility time, you don't have as much wiggle room maybe. But if that is a good move for you, take it and run. Now that's really all I have to say about this. I, bottom line is value yourself high. Your years of experience do count. Now, are they in the same modality? Do they count for the experience in another modality that you're moving in? No, but they do count because we're all medical imaging. You have shown that you were able to move up in those leadership roles by them leveling you up and your pay should not go backwards. I'm going to leave it at that and leave it to you guys to chime in on this conversation because everybody wants to know how much we make and it's not just the people coming into our field. And I've had comments on my LinkedIn and other places from technologists who say we should not be talking about money because it's going to attract the wrong people to our field. But what we're not doing in my opinion is talking about money with those who are already in the field who want to make moves forward or laterally, not backwards. And this is the time as technologists to talk about pay transparency and really not just be nosy about what people are making. I don't feel like that is everybody's desire. People really want to stay in the field. I don't know if y'all bought groceries lately, but groceries are not cheap. Gas is not cheap. Living is not cheap. Paying mortgages and rent. Daycare is a mortgage and a rent. It's a car note, you guys. I mean, and we all need cars to get us to work, get our kids to softball games and baseball games and take trips with our family. People work hard in our field and we need to be compensated for it. But we have to have these kind of conversations because people don't know. And we need to have honest and open conversations on both sides. Because people have to know what they're worth. And some people really don't know because they haven't ventured out of their facility. They don't have a circle of people that they can have these conversations with. I mean, who just sits around talking about money? I don't. Do you? Especially with people that you really don't know or you work with. We've got to create situations where within our field, we also discuss money. And that's what my podcast is about. It's talking about those real things that we as technologists and future technologists need to know. And many of us who've been in the field 20 plus years, we didn't know these things. We didn't have these opportunities available. There are so many opportunities coming available in the medical imaging and radiation therapy profession. And to elevate our profession and to be seen more as the professionals that we are. Whether you look at yourself as a trade or not, we are professionals, medical professionals. We have degrees, we have years of experience and we're really good at what we do. We are the eyes of medicine. And this podcast is going to highlight that. And I love for you guys to share this out, listen more, and let me know what you think about this episode, because I'm going to be coming back with more questions that I get on my social media from real people in the field of radiologic technology, like you all. Until next time.

13:01

And that's a wrap for this episode of a couple of rad techs podcast. We hope you enjoyed our discussion of the fascinating world of radiology and learn something new about the role we play in the healthcare industry. If you have any questions or topics that you love for us to cover, feel free to reach out and let us know what they are. And you guys, please, if you enjoyed this podcast or any of the other episodes, we want to hear what you think. Thought leave us a review. Mama's got to pay our bills. It helps. And until next time, stay tuned for more insightful and informative episodes of a couple of rad techs podcast.