Salary and Benefits
The mean salary for X-ray technicians as of January 2010 is between $43,840 and $52,341 per year. A lot of a techs have reported having dental and health insurance, along with overtime pay.
Job Security
One of the best things about being an X-ray tech is the job security that it has. It is expected that the industry will grow by 15 percent by 2016. This percentage is higher than many jobs in this field and this is partially due to the average growth rates of the health care industry.
Flexible Education
In order to become a X-ray technician, you will find it easy to train -- this is one of the great advantages of becoming one. Some individuals go to school to obtain a bachelor's degree; this is actually great for those who are looking for managerial work and administrative positions in this field. But there are others who choose to go to school for two years versus four years, in order to obtain an associate's degree and certification.
Disadvantages
Working in the health care industry comes with disadvantages like many job positions in different markets. A lot of X-ray techs have reported working overtime, which means that they work over 40 hours a week -- this is standard fulltime. To work in this field, you will need to have strong work ethics -- 44 percent of X-ray technicians report that they are being paid for working on-call, which means that every time you are paged while off duty, you'd have to come in to work. Techs do get paid well for doing this, but this is still seen as a disadvantage for some.
