Long-Term Prospects

Long-Term Prospects

Job Satisfaction

79%

General quality of life statement

They say that money can't buy happiness. The best evidence for that is right here. You probably thought that the words "medical" and "technology" were the magic keys to endless dollar signs, and in most other contexts, you'd be correct. Not here. As the faceless person in the lab, you will be making significantly less than some other folks who spend their days wearing white coats.

If you don't mind your studio apartment and your used Ford Festiva, though, you can have a pretty good time of it. These aren't starvation wages, after all. On the good side, the unemployment statistics are quite low. After all, everyone has fluid they need identified at some point, so pursuing this field is about the closest you can ever come to having a job just waiting for you after college.

Even better, it appears that the bulk of medical technologists like their careers. This is probably due to the fact that this isn't an area of work one tries on a whim. Either you can get down with blood and urine and you really want to help people, or you don't. This is the kind of thing people usually know about themselves long before they're handed that first vial of someone else's blood. Still, that has to be a pretty strange experience.

So if you know that you're the kind of person that wouldn't be bothered by any of this, and you don't mind squeaking by financially, go for it. There are plenty of labs, plenty of fluids, and plenty of microscopes. And presumably, this is your dream scenario.

25th Percentile Salary

$44,000

Median Salary

$58,000

75th Percentile Salary

$72,000

Stats obtained from this source.