Sonographers, do you enjoy your job?

February 7, 2013 1:18 PM

I have been looking into cardiac sonography as a career change, and would love to hear from any of you that work in the field and can comment on your job. Do you feel like there is opportunity for advancement? Do you see your job as something that you could do your whole life, or will you get bored? Does sonography segue into other paths within health care (ie. administration, public health, non-profit work, etc.)?
posted by anonymous to Work & Money (5 answers total)

I'm not a medical imaging technologist, but I work at a university with a MIT program, including a program in echocardiography and diagnostic sonography. What I can tell you is that it's easily our most competitive and popular program, and the students in it love the program. It's one of those not-so-secretly really good career fields. As of last year, 100% of our MIT grads were employed out of school and their average salary in echo was 70k. Not too shabby...
posted by Lutoslawski at 1:38 PM on February 7, 2013

Ultrasound is a growing field- compared to other radiology imaging modalities.
posted by sulaine at 6:46 PM on February 7, 2013

My mom is 71 and has been a sonographer for over 20 years. She cross trained from x-ray into it and loves it. She began at the hospital and works for a radiology group now, making (I believe) around 55k annually. She's never bored really, since she does different types of scans all day, a biopsy followed by a gall bladder followed by a venous doppler for blood clots. If she wanted, she could be the clinical supervisor at the practice but she just likes scanning and doesn't want the business part of it.
posted by hollygoheavy at 10:04 PM on February 7, 2013

I assume you are in the US. I'm In Australia.

If you memail me, I will tell you what I know including about general opportunities for training, management and roles with career development, with work/life balance, public and private or a mix.

Big Echocardiographic Technician (aka Cardiac Sonographer) shortage over here in Aus/Pac.

Awesome salaries, conditions and choice of locations/employers.
posted by evil_esto at 5:00 AM on February 8, 2013

In terms of segueing into the other areas you listed, you can move, but you might need additional training (an MBA, MHA, MPH, etc.). Health care is really credential-focused, so it can be hard to move up without an advanced degree. This is more true in large hospitals and less true in smaller organizations.
posted by jeoc at 5:37 PM on February 8, 2013