Got a new job!

[Deceptive]

I am guessing you want to keep the company name out of it. Are you working on a singular platform? How big of a territory do you have?

I am possibly going to have to chose between Imaging and possibly taking a FDR position with niche market company.


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[James Snover]

I am guessing you want to keep the company name out of it. Are you working on a singular platform? How big of a territory do you have?

I am possibly going to have to chose between Imaging and possibly taking a FDR position with niche market company.


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Yeah, I don't want to say the name, they're funny like that. However, i can say it's a very large German outfit.

Of your two choices, right now it's tough to say which way to go, in this industry. My bet is to keep general, not get too specialized. But hey, there's still guys out there making a living calibrating film-and-chemistry analog mammo machines. Not many, but some, and doing pretty well at it.

 

[James Snover]

How does one get into a field like that?

Going into biomed studies is a good way to get started. Probably the best and least expensive, personally, training is in the military biomed courses. There are many civilian biomed schools as well, costs and financial assistance range all over the place. Most biomed schools will also offer Imaging as an elective.

Then there's my path, which I don't recommend: fall into it ass-backwards. LONG story short: by luck I fell into the right place at the right time at several key moments in my career, and here I am.

Even today, Imaging is not easy to get in to. The cost of the equipment is in the millions in many cases; the chances of disaster due to inexperience are off the charts, the learning curve is a long one (give me a guy with a AS in electrical engineering, and it'll still take about five years to get him up to the point you can expect him to walk into whatever situation pops up and have a chance at being able to resolve it.) You also have to be pretty smart in dealing with people, tech skills alone won't get you very far. You have to deal with doctors, and most of them are, to put it bluntly, assholes.* You have to deal with nurses. (What is the most destructive force in the universe? A 95-lb nurse! They can bend steel balls, break rails you couldn't even imagine bending.) The training is expensive, the parts are expensive***, and you generally have to put in a year or four to prove you're up to the job.

Then there's the stress: This job is usually cake walk. But ... you have to be able to go into a cath lab, with a patient on the table, wires running from the femoral artery to their hearts (or even brains, in some cases!) and assess why a million-dollar room just went down. With a pissed off doctor, a room full of nurses and clinicians, and possibly even some family members, and even the patient**, all looking at you, expecting an answer. And you have to keep your head, whether that patient is an old man, a young woman, or a little kid, possibly even a new born infant, even, and figure out if you can get the room going, or if you have to tell them you can't, they have to pull the patient. You have five-to-ten minutes to find a solution, sooner is better. Oh, and there may also be blood everywhere. And you may even get into it.

If you can put in the time, take the stress, deal with people and keep your head, the job pays pretty well when you hit the five-year mark, thereabouts.

*Disclaimer: the docs we have here on SVTPerformnce are all great guys. They're into Mustangs, it's how you can tell. Unfortunately, they're a rare breed, and most docs out there are assholes.

**Yep: in the cath labs, the patients are often awake, and talkative, even. Patient: "Hey, pal, why you crawling around on the floor?"

Me: "Oh, they said the room had stopped working, thought I would just get a look at some wires, here in the base of the table."

Patient: "Oh. Hey, was that a flash?"

Me, on the floor, now blind, because it was a flash because I found the the short in the wires, only inches from my face, trying to sound completely casual and not all panic stricken because now I can't see: "It sure was. Found the problem, have you going again in a second." (because my vision did come back, well enough to let me put some electrical tape on a wire and get the room going again.)

***An x-ray tube for a CT can easily be $250,000.00 or higher. It can also be easily destroyed in the process of installing it, before any studies even have a chance to be made.

 

[Buckwheat 1]

You fell into your career ass backwards. I fell in my career dick forwards. I got a girl pregnant at 23 and was told I better get into the trades and make some money.

 

[Deceptive]

How does one get into a field like that?

Like Snover, I fell into the field. I had been working in healthcare for 12 years or so and was managing the Anesthesia Support Staff. I came from a university medical center background were we were expected to troubleshoot the Anesthesia equipment while running perfusion systems, assisting with intubation, line and monitor placement. I came to a smaller hospital were the staff just stocked rooms and looked stupid.

I cut Biomed calls majorly because I knew how to troubleshoot machines.

A position came available and I was approached by Biomed. A year and a half into the game and I am responsible for perfusion, Anesthesia, Electrical Surgical units, monitoring, and I cover multiple hospitals as the go to guy for the company in the region. Was just asked to go to Michigan to work on some equipment but had to turn it down due to the baby being close to making her entrance.

I was approached by the Imaging Manager asked my if I was interested and also approached by a Vendor.

The market for good employees is smaller than the market for jobs in the field. I love the field and have grown quickly in the income line.

Like Snover said, you have to know how to handle stress and the egos of the healthcare field. Sometimes you are on the carpet explaining why a piece of equipment stopped working in the middle of a surgical procedure. You also need to be very good at notes.



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[James Snover]

You also need to be very good at notes.

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And THAT is the money quote, right there! If I losemy notebook, I am hosed; everything has to come to a stop until I find it.