Radiologic Technologist job description

Radiologic technologists wear a badge that measures how much radiation they take on, and the readings are kept as a running lifetime dose. Sixty percent of the work happens in hospitals, and because emergencies need imaging at three in the morning, evening, weekend, and overnight assignments come with the territory. The Handbook counted 234,200 of these jobs in 2025. Pay ran to a median of $80,110 in May 2025, the lowest-paid tenth under $55,980 and the highest-paid tenth over $118,660.

Core Duties and Responsibilities

A technologist takes the physician's request, decides the positioning, sets exposure time and distance on the equipment, shields the parts of the body the image does not need, and then judges whether what came out is good enough for a radiologist to work from. Anything below standard gets rejected and shot again. Technologists also watch the patient through the exam and report abnormal signs, prepare contrast material under a radiologist's direction, and push mobile x-ray units into operating rooms, emergency departments, and up to the bedside. Mammography, fluoroscopy, and routine contrast studies happen under a physician's supervision.

Common Skills and Technologies

Active listening and social perceptiveness rate above the technical skills here, which tracks with a job spent explaining an uncomfortable procedure to someone who is frightened of it. Quality control analysis and operation and control cover the equipment half. eClinicalWorks EHR and MEDITECH are the records systems employers request by name, with Microsoft Office throughout, and the images themselves move through a picture archiving and communication system the technologist operates directly.

Education, Training, and Career Path

Nearly 73 percent of the technologists O*NET surveyed hold an associate degree, 17 percent a postsecondary certificate, and the rest a bachelor's. Coursework runs through anatomy, pathology, patient care, radiation physics and protection, and image evaluation. Most states license or certify the occupation, and employers usually want certification where the state does not. That is O*NET Job Zone Three, medium preparation. The Military Crosswalk pairs the Army's 68P radiology specialty with this work and with MRI technology, the usual next rung: a separate BLS line of 43,900 jobs at a $95,480 median. The combined occupations are projected to grow 5 percent through 2035, about 15,300 openings a year.

Sources: O*NET 30.0, 29-2034.00 Radiologic Technologists and Technicians, https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/29-2034.00. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, 29-2034, https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes292034.htm.