Radiologist as My Future Career

Now that my high school career is coming to an end, I have decided to make a step towards my college readiness, and even my life after college. Autonomy is important to every individual as they prepare themselves to enter their “adulthood.” The word autonomy is commonly described as having your own freedom or finally becoming fully independent from one’s parents; usually around the time they finish their first 4-5 years of college. Independence is so crucial to everyone, because you can’t rely on your parents for the rest of your life. I am preparing myself now, so that when it comes to the time where I am just a step away from becoming independent, I feel prepared and ready for what is to come. Since I am only a senior in high school, and still living with my parents this project will assist me in becoming autonomous for my future.

Before pursuing my career, I plan on attending either Indiana University Bloomington, or Purdue University in West Lafayette in order to graduate with a major in radiology. By the time I finish my first 4 years of college I will be 22 years old, and starting to live on my own as I prepare to get my Bachelor’s degree in radiologic technology. As I come near obtaining my or Bachelor’s degree, I will start to prepare myself to become self-sufficient. Becoming self-sufficient comes with having to pay for the expense of living. In order to pay for these expenses, I will need to move to the next chapter of my life, which is to get a successful career.

Becoming a radiologist has always sounded appealing to me because ever since I was a child, I have always wanted to go into the medical field. I’m not the biggest fan of blood, although I can still handle it, but radiologists don’t have to do a lot of “hands-on” work with patients, so blood wouldn’t be an issue. When I was a sophomore in high school, I broke my hand at practice and was taken to the ER a couple hours later. When I was in the ER, I got x-rays and I had an opportunity to talk to a radiologist at that hospital. He told me about the job, and what he usually does during his daily schedule. Ever since that moment, I realized that radiology was what I wanted to do for my career.

During my interview with Cheryl Ferguson at St. Vincent Medical Group, she told me that employable skills to become a radiologist include: a good understanding of general medicine and surgery, organizational ability and ability to manage a busy role, an eye for detail and good observational skills, applying yourself to your everyday life, previous field related experience, communication skills, and achievements before applying. My personality type; ESFJ displayed that I am very extraverted and good with other people, applying that this Consul personality would be suitable for choosing a career where you are helping other people directly. Considering this, my skills are very suited to apply to a radiology program.

With my aspiration to be self-sufficient, it will be crucial that I am able to pay for all of my own expenses. After lots of time and experience, my salary should be about $180,000 a year. With this, I should be earning about $7,600 every two weeks, or $15,200 a month. The General Services Schedule shows how radiologists or people in the medical field are paid, guaranteeing automatic salary increases over time. I have not decided where I would like to live in the future yet, I was just going to see where my job takes me, but with my salary I would expect to pay $2,150 for mortgage and split this with my significant other in the future. Since I will be responsible for living in a house, I will be paying about $300 a month for things such as: water, gas, electricity, trash, sewer, internet, and cable. Assuming that I will have a family, I will need to put aside about $500 each month for food, including eating out. For insurance expenses, I would predict on spending $600 monthly to cover health and car insurance. Speaking on the terms of a car, I will put $400 a month towards my car payment until it is paid off. I have already planned out what I am doing for child care and I have multiple family members that have offered to help, so I don’t think I will have to worry much about paying for child care each month. My monthly cell phone bill right now is about $80 a month, not including my $15 for apple music. I am assuming the cost will be similar, if not the same in the future. I would anticipate on spending about $200 a month on entertainment such as fun events, movies, or shopping. With making monthly payments of $1,000 for student loans and $2,500 each month for retirement, I plan to have student loans paid off in about 10 years or less and retire around the age of 60. I plan to put about $7,000 in my regular savings account and also $2,700 in my emergency savings. With my leftover money from My Every Dollar Budget I plan to contribute about $100 towards Cancer Research because I would love to make a difference.

After considering all of the jobs that my personality test offered me, I think that radiology will suit me the best, and give me a career path for success. This career path that I have chosen will cover the cost of all of the expenses for living and provide opportunities for me to be very successful and organized. If I am to continue the lifestyle I have now, I will 100% be able to support myself and even have some extra money with this career. 

Works Cited

1. American Society of Radiologic Technologists. (n.d.). Radiography. Retrieved from https://www.asrt.org/main/careers/career-center/careers-in-radiologic-technology/radiography
2. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (n.d.). Radiologic and MRI technologists. Occupational Outlook Handbook.
3. Holland, J. L. (1997). Making vocational choices: A theory of vocational personalities and work environments (3rd ed.). Psychological Assessment Resources.
4. Indiana University Bloomington. (n.d.). Radiologic Sciences and Therapy. Retrieved from https://medicine.iu.edu/radiologic-sciences/
5. National Radiology Data Registry. (n.d.). Radiologic technologist wage and salary survey. Retrieved from https://www.nrdronline.org/index.php/nrdr-annual-report
6. Purdue University. (n.d.). Radiological Health Sciences.
7. Rhea, J. T., & Novelline, R. A. (2014). Fundamentals of radiology (2nd ed.). Harvard University Press.