Radiologic Technologist Career Options Nobody Told You About

我是一名有二十年经验的多模态放射技师，同时也创办了一家医疗人力公司，等等。

Twenty year multi modality radiology technologist and founder of a staffing company, among other things.

我相信，作为医学影像专业人士，你的职业资格只是起点。

And I'm somebody who believes your badge as a medical imaging professional is just the beginning.

今天我想和你们聊聊一件一直压在我心里的事——我不断看到那些技术精湛、极其敬业的影像技师们遭遇同样的困境，可却没人敢明说。

Today I need to talk to you about something that has been sitting with me because I keep seeing the same thing happen to incredibly skilled technologists and professionals in imaging, incredibly dedicated technologists as well, and nobody's naming it out loud.

这并不是职业倦怠。

It's not burnout.

也不是你选错了医疗行业中的方向。

It's not that you chose the wrong field in healthcare.

更不是你不够有上进心。

It's not that you're not ambitious enough.

而是有人递给你一张只有三项选择的菜单，而你多年来一直在这张菜单上点来点去。

It's that someone handed you a menu with three items on it and you've been ordering from that same menu for years.

不是因为这些就是你真正想要的，而是你根本不知道菜单背面还有四十多种其他选择。

Not because it's all that you wanted, but because you didn't know that there were 40 other things on the back of that menu.

问题就出在这儿。

This is where we're getting it.

今天我们就来聊聊这个。

That's what we're going to talk about today.

放松一下，咱们好好说说。

Get comfortable, let's talk.

你在医学影像、放射技术这一行待得够久，早就看出了某种模式在不断重复。

So you've been in medical imaging, radiology technology long enough to watch a pattern repeat itself.

聪明的技师，敬业的专家，持有多个认证、经验丰富的老手，学历也都很高。

Smart Techs, dedicated technologists, technologists with multiple certifications, tons of experience, years of degrees.

但到了某个阶段，他们都会撞上同一堵墙。

And at some point, they hit the same wall.

这堵墙不是能力问题。

The wall is not ability.

这堵墙是视野的局限。

The wall is vision.

不是他们自己的视野，而是别人给他们的那种视野。

Not their vision, but the vision they've been handed.

其实，我们大多数人刚进入影像行业时，有人给我们指了三扇门。

You see, when most of us got into imaging, somebody showed us three doors.

管理、外派，或者就一直做扫描。

Management, travel, or just keep scanning.

在我们眼里，整个职业世界就只有这三條路。

That was the whole building as far as we knew it.

你一开始也是这么做的。

You did the same thing early on.

你盯着前面的人，看他们走的路。

You looked at the people ahead of you.

你根据看到的、或者能看见的东西，来规划自己的选择。

You mapped your options based on what you saw or what you could see.

但你能看到的，实在太有限了。

And what you could see was limited.

不是因为你不够努力，而是还没人画出更大的地图。

Not because you were not looking hard enough, but because nobody had built a bigger map yet.

今天我想谈的就是这个，因为这根本不是性格缺陷。

And here is what I want to talk about today because this is not a character flaw.

这是教育体系的缺口。

This is a curriculum gap.

让我来给你说明白。

Let me show you what I mean.

你想想，平时在工作中，你真正参与过的那些职业对话都有哪些。

So I want you to think about the career conversations you actually have at work and have had at work.

你跟谁聊过这些？

Who you had them with?

是你的技术主管吗？

Your lead technologist, maybe?

如果你运气好的话，是你的总监？

Your director, if you're fortunate?

他们跟你说了什么？

And what do they tell you?

走管理路线、出差，或者转岗到别的领域换点工资？

Management track, travel, or cross training to another modality for a pay bump?

这就是当时谈话的全部内容。

That was the conversation.

完完全全就只有这些了。

That was actually the whole conversation.

没人过来问你：你有没有想过当个PACS管理员？

Nobody walked in and said, Have you ever thought about being a PACS administrator?

那应用专员这样的职位呢？

What about application specialist roles?

放射信息学、影像信息学、教育、销售、人事安排、创业，这些方向呢？

What about radiology informatics, imaging informatics, education, sales, staffing, entrepreneurship?

这样的选择多得数不清。

The list goes on and on.

这些职位并不是不存在，它们确实存在。

It's not because these roles didn't exist, because they absolutely exist.

但给你职业建议的人，自己看到的选项也是不完整的。

But the person giving you career advice was also working with an incomplete menu as well.

这种现象是代际传递的。

And this is generational.

这种信息不全的情况，一代代传给了放射技术人员。

The incomplete menu, it gets passed down from generation to generation of technologists, right?

一位从未见过完整图景的主管，指导着同样没见过完整图景的技术员或治疗师，而这些人最终又成了主管，继续指导下一代。

A director who was never shown a full picture advises a technologist or therapist who is never shown a full picture who eventually becomes the director who advises the next generation.

除非有人打破这个循环，否则这个缺口永远不会闭合。

That gap doesn't close unless someone breaks the cycle.

你并不是落后了。

So you're not behind.

你只是没看到整栋大楼的样子。

You just haven't been shown the whole building.

咱们来点实在的吧。

So let's be real about something.

医院根本不是职业发展中心。

Hospitals are not career development centers.

它们是运营机构。

They are operations.

它们需要有人来填补岗位。

They need positions filled.

它们需要有人值班顶岗。

They need coverage.

机构从来就没把你的成长当主要任务。

Your growth was never the primary concern of the institution.

就算你特别喜欢你的主管，就算你的主任特别出色——我遇见过不少这样的好领导。

Even if you loved your manager and even if your director was fantastic, I had some great ones.

这套体系压根不是为你的发展设计的。

The system wasn't built for your expansion.

其实医院的运作方式也没多大区别。

It wasn't built much differently either.

放射技术专业就是为了让你胜任初级临床工作并通过资格考试。

Radiologic technology programs are built to prepare you for entry level clinical work and pass the boards.

这话说出来可能不太中听，但确实是实情。

That's just the honest truth.

职业规划根本不在教学计划里。

Career strategy was not in the curriculum.

没有任何一个项目会开一门叫《一切可能性》的课。

Nobody's program had a class called Here's Everything.

教你这学位除了做扫描还能干点啥。

Here's everything you can do with this degree beyond the scan room.

于是我们毕业了。

And so we graduated.

我们拿到了执照。

We got our credentials.

我们去上班了。

We went to work.

我们对自身可能性的认知，完全基于所在科室里能看到的东西，对吧？

We built our entire sense of what was possible based on what we could see in the departments where we worked, right?

这根本不是在责怪医院或学校。

This is not about blaming hospitals or programs at all.

而是要认清那个误区——以为自己哪里出了问题，其实你可以停止填补这个错误的结论。

This is about understanding the gap you can stop filling in with the wrong conclusion, which is that something is wrong with you.

完全不对。

Totally false.

你根本没什么问题。

Nothing is wrong with you.

只是当时能选的路太少了。

The menu just was incomplete.

但更糟糕的是下面这一点。

But here's what made it worse.

当我们只能在有限的选择中工作时，很多人其实一直在等。

While we were working from limited set of options, a lot of us were also waiting.

我就是其中之一。

I know I was one of them.

等着机会自己出现。

Waiting for the opportunity to present itself.

等着领导说一句：我看见你了。

Waiting for someone in leadership to say, I see you.

我看到你的能力了。

Hey, I see what you're capable of.

让我带你看看还有哪些可能。

Let me show you what else is out there.

对大多数人来说，这扇门始终没打开。

That tap never came for most of us.

当它迟迟不来时，我们就开始怀疑，是不是自己哪里有问题。

And when it did not come, we started to wonder if we were the problem.

我想说得非常清楚。

I want to say this very clearly.

那个信号没来，是因为本该给出它的人，自己也只有一份不完整的菜单。

That tap did not come because the person who was supposed to give it was also working from an incomplete menu.

你的主管并没有故意隐瞒你。

Your director was not holding out on you.

你的负责人也没有藏着掖着。

Your lead was not keeping secrets.

他们根本没法带你去一扇他们自己都没进过的门。

They genuinely could not show you a door that they had never walked through themselves.

以前这部分总让我特别沮丧。

This is the part that used to make me so frustrated.

现在它只让我更加坚定。

Now it just makes me focused.

如果没人会把完整的地图交到你手上，那就得有人自己来画一张。

Because if nobody's gonna hand you the full map, someone has to build it.

这个播客讲的，就是这件事。

That is what this podcast is all about.

这份工作本质上就是如此。

This is what this work is.

不是因为我有多厉害，也不是我什么都知道，而是因为我主动去寻找那些没被列出来的内容，花了二十年在医学影像领域探索，想把我的发现告诉你。

Not because I have a figure not because I have it all figured out, but because I went looking for the rest of the menu and but because I went looking for the rest of the menu and I want to show you what I found over the 20 in medical imaging.

咱们干脆聊聊完整的菜单长什么样，我可不只是想跟你讲问题，对吧？

So let's actually talk about the full menu and what it looks like, because I just don't want to tell you the problem, right?

我想带你看看，这些年来一直藏在厨房后头的东西。

I want to show you what has been sitting in the back of the kitchen this whole time.

咱们一步步来。

Walk through.

首先，我想聊聊医学影像设备厂商里的应用专员和临床应用岗位。

So for our first one, I'm going talk about application specialists and clinical application roles with imaging vendors.

我当过很多年这方面的合同工。

I've done this for many years as a contractor.

我不是给某一家公司打工的。

I didn't work for a specific company.

我自己开了公司，很幸运能做这份工作。

I had my own company and I was privileged to be able to do this.

我还自费去西门子总部参加过培训。

I also did training at Siemens headquarters that I paid for for myself.

当时我也和一些其他技师在一起，他们的公司替他们付了培训费。

Now, I was also there with other technologists whose companies paid for them to go to this training.

我想跟各位听众分享一个小细节。

That's a little tidbit of information I want to share with those of you who are listening.

但应用专家和临床教育这类岗位确实是存在的。

But application specialists and clinical education roles are out there.

不过，这些岗位并不适合所有人。

Now, they are not for everyone.

所以你得先搞清楚这些职位到底是怎么回事。

So you want to make sure that you understand these roles.

但这是一种高级职位，你可以把多年医学影像工作中积累的技能，应用到医学影像领域的其他方向上。

But this is an advanced role where you can take the skills that you've learned throughout years as a medical imaging professional, and you can use them in a different field within medical imaging.

再次强调，利用你多年来从学位中学到的专业知识和技能，把它们转化成应用专员的角色。

Again, leveraging your expertise, skills that you already know, that you garnered all of these years in medical imaging from that degree that you got, and now parlay it into application specialists.

这份工作需要频繁出差，出差的频率很高。

It does require traveling, a lot of traveling.

如果你的生活方式不适合经常外出，那这个职位可能并不适合你。

So if that doesn't fit your lifestyle, this may not be the role for you.

但我还是建议你至少做些调研，弄清楚这个应用类职位是不是每周只让你出差两天。

But I encourage you at least do some research and figure out, is this an applications role that maybe takes me away for two days a week?

还是说每周都要出差五天？

Or is it five days a week?

又或者只是每个月跑一次？

Or am I going maybe once a month?

至少去面谈一次，了解一下。

At least interview for it.

至少先了解一下应用专员和临床教育专员的实际工作内容，因为这两者可能完全不同。

At least educate yourself about the actual role of application specialists and clinical education specialists, because they can be two different things.

做临床教育的话，你可能为设备厂商工作，负责开发临床培训内容。

Clinical education roles, you can be worked for a vendor and you create the clinical education.

你不一定非得跑医院之类的客户现场。

Maybe you don't have to go out to a client like a hospital.

所以我说，别一看到别人在社交媒体上晒‘我天天出差做临床应用’，就以为这行永远在路上。

And that's why I say don't always think everything that you see other people showing on social media, clinical apps, I'm going to be traveling forever.

但临床教育岗位也可能设在医院内部。

But clinical education roles can fall in hospitals.

我见过有医院直接招聘这类职位。

I've seen hospitals actually hire for these roles.

他们希望你担任影像科的培训负责人，组织课程、研讨会和学术会议，尤其是大医院。

They want you to be the educator for their imaging departments, putting together education, seminars, conferences for the whole imaging department, especially big hospitals.

如果你在大型医院工作，为什么不问问有没有临床教育的岗位呢？

So if you're working for a large hospital, why not inquire about clinical education roles?

这样你就不用再纠结这份工作是不是要经常出差了。

That will cut down on you having to worry about, is this a travel position?

PACS管理员和影像信息学。

PACS administrator and imaging informatics.

我二十多年前刚入行的时候，根本还没有PACS这个概念。

This is a profession that when I started over twenty years ago, PACS didn't exist.

那时候刚出现，我还懵了，这到底是什么东西？

So I remember when it started, I was like, what is it?

当时没人说得清PACS是啥，可现在人人都懂了。

Nobody kind of knew what it was, but now everybody knows what PACS is.

虽然这类岗位数量可能比不上X光或者各种影像设备那么多，但确实存在。

And it has maybe not a lot of jobs compared to X-ray or their modalities, but these jobs are out there.

而且很多人其实已经在做PACS相关的工作了。

And many of you are already doing PACS work.

你们都清楚它是怎么运作的。

You understand how it works.

你肯定对影像很了解。

You definitely understand imaging.

以前我觉得信息学只是护理领域的，但现在影像信息学也变得必不可少了。

The informatics part, I remember informatics was just for nursing, but now they need imaging informatics.

这正是我们这一行特有的。

That is specific to us.

我建议你可以开始留意这类职位。

And I would encourage you to maybe start looking for jobs like that.

即使你现在没在找工作，也可以在自己单位里打听一下，问问有没有PACS管理员。

Even if you're not looking for a job right now, look within your institution and start talking around, asking, do we have a PACS administrator?

多认识一下PACS管理员，了解他们具体做些什么。

Getting to know the PACS administrator, understanding what they do.

这么做一点坏处都没有。

There's no harm in doing that.

这其实是在为你的未来职业发展积累经验。

That's actually educating you maybe for future roles.

我见过一些机构，那里只有一个PACS管理员，或者一个影像信息学的技术员兼专家。

I've seen institutions where they had one PACS administrator or one imaging informatics technologist and specialist.

后来工作量猛增，这个人忙得焦头烂额，不得不额外招一个技术员。

It grew so much to where this person was so bogged down they needed an extra technologist.

想象一下，如果你现在就开始去了解、学习，提前做好准备，哪天你们机构正好需要第二个或第三个这样的技术员，

Imagine if you started investigating and learning more about it and preparing yourself and one day your institution needed a second or a third technologist to fill one of these roles.

那你早就准备好了。

You're already ready.

第三个方向，医疗行业的销售与客户管理。

Healthcare number three, healthcare sales and account management.

这个领域规模非常大。

This is huge.

你们很多人已经拿到了其他专业的学士学位，后来才进入医学影像领域。

Many of you are graduating already with a bachelor's degree in something else, and you got into medical imaging.

很多销售类或技术类岗位，都要求你有学士学位。

Many of these roles with sales or the tech aspect require that you have a bachelor's degree.

你已经满足了这个条件。

You've already fulfilled that.

你们中有些人正从医学影像专业的本科项目毕业。

Some of you are graduating from bachelor's imaging programs, medical imaging programs.

等你积累一些经验后，这能帮你顺利转向销售岗位。

This can help you once you get a little experience parlay into sales.

不是所有销售工作都靠提成，也不是都要经常出差。

Not all sales jobs are commissioned, not all are traveling a lot.

所以我建议你们，去关注一下这些职位。

So I would encourage you, start looking at these jobs.

第四，领导力培养路径，不只是管人。

Number four, leadership pipelines that are not just managing people.

我得说清楚这一点，因为大多数人一听到领导力和管理，就以为一定是管人。

And I have to say that because most people think leadership and management automatically means managing people.

但并不是所有领导角色都涉及管理他人。

That's not always a leadership role.

所以你在寻找领导岗位时，别一上来就排除那些不需要管人的职位。

So as you start to look for leadership roles, don't count them out that, oh, I don't want to manage people.

我理解你的想法。

I get you.

如果你在家已经操心所有事情了，可能也不想上班后还得管别人。

At some point, if you're managing everything in your household, you don't want to come to work and have to manage people again.

其实你在家早就已经在做管理了。

So you're already managing at your household.

在工作中管人确实挺累的。

Having to manage at work can be a lot.

不妨找找那些不需要管人的领导岗位。

So look for leadership roles that don't require that you manage people.

这样的岗位是存在的。

They are out there.

想接受领导力培训和指导，可以考虑加入一些影像领域的专业协会。

One of the ways you can get leadership training and mentorship is to make sure you are a member of some of the imaging societies.

一定要加入这些组织。

Definitely get in those.

它们确实有帮助。

They do help.

当地的医学影像协会提供奖学金，帮助你进入不需要管理人的领导岗位。

There are scholarships at your local associations for medical imaging professionals that help you get into leadership roles and connect with leadership roles that don't manage people.

当然，我要提一下下一个机会——外出影像工作或按日计酬的模式。

And of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the next opportunity, which is travel imaging or per diem strategy.

这些都是你发挥医学影像专业学位优势的机会。

These are all opportunities for you to leverage your degree in medical imaging.

对有些人来说，外出工作再合适不过了。

Traveling for some people is perfect.

他们一年只工作三个月、六个月，甚至可以自由选择想上的班次。

They get to work three months out of the year or six months out of the year or even pick shifts that they just want.

我刚跟一位技师聊过，她干这一行已经超过三十年，现在正慢慢退出职场。

I just talked to a fellow technologist who's been doing this for over thirty years and she's on the wind down of her career.

她前几天跟我说，她特别喜欢跟医院做合同工。

She told me the other day, I love doing contract work with the hospitals.

她就是时不时去医院接几个班。

So what she's doing is picking up shifts here and there with hospitals.

有些医院有自己的合同体系，不用靠大型中介公司，直接通过医院自己招聘临时人员，这样你就不用签全职合同。

They actually have their own contracting system instead of using the big contracting companies, and they are running their own traveler travelers or contract workers through the hospital, which means you don't have to commit to full time hours.

工资会高一点。

The pay will be a little higher.

时间安排也更灵活。

You can be more flexible in your schedule.

重点不是非得把所有这些都做一遍。

So the point is not that you need to do all of these.

重点是，在决定下一步怎么走之前，你得知道这些选择是存在的。

The point is that you deserve to know they exist before you decide what your next move is going to be.

明明有四十种选择，却只在三个里挑，这不是职业规划，这是自我设限。

Choosing from three options when 40 exists is not a career strategy, and it's actually just a limitation.

限制往往来自外界，而不是你自己。

And limitations came from the outside of you.

我想送你一句话作为结束。

So I want to leave you with this.

医学影像和放射技术从业者最常见的职业错误，不是缺乏抱负。

The career mistakes most medical imaging and radiologic technologists make are making making is not ambition.

也不是缺乏热情。

It's not passion.

更不是技能不足。

It's not a skill.

而是你只看到了有限的选择，根本不知道还有更多可能性，也不知道该怎么去实现。

It's working from an incomplete menu and not knowing the rest of it exists or how to get there.

如果你一直觉得停滞不前，管理岗位提不起你的兴趣，出差外派眼下不现实，加更多班也不是解决办法——这种感觉不是失败。

If you've been feeling stuck, if management does not excite you, travel is not realistic right now for you, and more shifts is not the answer, that feeling is not failure.

这只不过说明，你手里的选择清单，配不上你真正的胃口。

This is just what it feels like when the menu you've been given doesn't match the appetite you have.

你看到的菜单，只是全部内容中的一小部分。

The menu is bigger than what you were shown.

这可不是什么励志口号。

That's not a motivational statement.

这是事实。

That is true.

确实如此。

That's true.

我在这个行业待了二十多年，而你们中的许多人待得更久。

I spent over twenty years in this field, and many of you many more years.

直到现在，我还在发现当初根本不知道的其他选择。

And I'm still finding out options I didn't know existed when I started.

真的很令人惊讶。

It's amazing.

你下一步不是要从头再来。

Your next move is not about starting over.

咱们把这事说清楚。

Let's clear that up.

关键是看清你所有的背景、学历、经验和技能到底还能做什么。

It's about seeing the full picture of what your credentials, what your degree, what your experience and your skills still actually do.

你并没有被困住。

You're not stuck.

你只是还没看到所有的可能性。

You just have to be shown all your options.

你还没被全面展示过你拥有的所有选择。

You just haven't been shown all the options that you have yet.

如果这场对话让你有共鸣，赶紧点击节目说明里的链接，免费做一下职业转型评估。

So if this conversation is hitting home, take the free Career Pivot Assessment at the link in the show notes.

只需要三分钟，七个问题，就能让你清楚自己现在的位置，以及下一步可以怎么走。

It takes three minutes, just seven questions, and it'll show you exactly where you are and what your next move could be.

我设计这个工具，就是给那些身为技术专家或治疗师、感觉生活该有变化却还不知从何开始的人。

I built it for the technologist and therapist who knows something has to shift but is just not sure what yet.

只要三分钟。

Three minutes.

链接就在那儿。

The link is right there.

好了，又一期《两个酷科技人》播完啦。

And that's a wrap of another episode of A Couple of Rad Techs.

如果这期内容让你有共鸣，帮个忙。

If this episode hit different, do me a favor.

分享给一位需要听到这些话的科技从业者。

Share it with one technologist who needs to hear it.

如果你还没评价，麻烦留个评论。

Leave a review if you have not yet.

这真的对频道很有帮助。

It really helps the channel.

也能让我们被更多人看到。

Helps us to be seen as well.

这样能让更多人找到这个节目，而这正是我们想要的。

It helps more people find this show, and that's the whole point.

我是肖恩。

I'm Sean.

你正在收听的是《两个放射科技师》。

You've been listening to a couple of Rad Techs.

现在出去吧，做超越你专业范畴的自己。

Now go out there and be more than your modality.

下次见。

See you next time.

好了，各位，稍作休息，但这件事对我来说特别重要。

All right, y'all, quick break, but this is something really close to my heart.

如果你喜欢这个播客，那你一定会爱上我们做的这个东西。

If you're loving this podcast, then you're going to love what we've created.

《拉切尔，放射技师》——一本终于让我们登上舞台的儿童读物。

Rachel, the Radiographer, a children's book that finally puts us on the map.

这本书既有趣又有教育意义，而且很特别，因为作者是一位真正的医学影像技师。

It's fun, it's educational, and it's different because it's written by a real medical imaging technologist.

没错。

Yep.

就是我。

Me.

我是肖德里亚，是一名放射技师、磁共振技师，也是CT技师。

Shondria, I am a Radiologic Technologist, MRI Technologist, and CT Technologist.

而拉切尔，她的目标是让孩子们明白，医疗行业远不止医生和护士。

And Rachel, she's on a mission to show kids that healthcare is so much more than just doctors and nurses.

很多人不知道，我们其实是全国规模最大的医疗职业群体。

Most people don't know this, but we are the largest healthcare profession in the nation.

但在早期教育中，我们却总是被忽视。

Yet somehow we're invisible when it comes to early education.

这时候，拉切尔就站了出来。

That's where Rachel steps in.

这本书以友好、有趣、易懂的方式，向小学生、图书馆和医院里的孩子们介绍X光、核磁共振、核医学和放射治疗的世界。

This book introduces children, especially in elementary schools, libraries, and even hospitals to the world of x rays, MRIs, nuclear medicine, radiation therapy in a way that's friendly, engaging, easy to understand.

教育工作者特别喜欢，因为它非常适合讲故事时间，还能自然融入STEM教育。

Educators love it because it's the perfect story time read that ties right into STEM education.

帮助孩子们了解医疗职业，减轻他们对医疗检查的恐惧。

Career awareness and eases fear around medical exams.

家长们也很喜欢。

Parents love it.

技术人员也特别喜欢。

Technologists love it.

最重要的是，孩子们真的能看懂、喜欢上。

And most importantly, get it.

更棒的是，

And here's the cherry on top.

每售出一本书，都会有一部分收益用于每年颁发一笔500美元的奖学金，奖励给放射技术专业的学生。

A portion of every book sale goes towards a $500 scholarship we award every year to a student in a radiologic technology program.

如果你希望支持下一代，让更多人了解我们的行业，就去访问 rachaeltheradiographer.com。

So if you want to support the next generation and help spread awareness about our field, head over to rachaeltheradiographer.com.

网址是 racheltheradiographer.com。

That's racheltheradiographer.com.

让我们把这本书送到更多人手中，点燃更多人的想象。

Let's get this book in more hands and more imaginations.

好了，我们继续回到播客内容。

Now let's get back into the podcast.