Please Be Wise

NMT is among the most easiest jobs to get in Ontario Canada, well paid and planty of jobs. According to you it's bad in America?

girleng in Brampton, Ontario said: NMT is among the most easiest jobs to get in Ontario Canada, well paid and planty of jobs. According to you it's bad in America?

Not just according to him. There are NO jobs in the US. If there are jobs in Canada thats great.Just remember there use to be tons of jobs here.

oh that's bad , it is a very popular field in Canada and in Toronto highly paid positions not problem getting in.

Hope for the best, Good luck.

Very difficult to get a job in Nuc Med in the USA.

Stitch in Des Moines, Iowa, I am glad that you see things the way they are, rather than the way you would like them to be. Well said! I am not sure why is it that so many students are still wanting to go into nuc med, when there are no jobs out there. It is much easier to find a job for US, or just Dx, or RN.

It's sad, but 98% of students will never find jobs.

Where I went to school, you must complete 1400 unpaid clinical hours to be eligible for certification. Then people graduate and hit a brick wall.

It's depressing.

girleng in Brampton, Ontario said: oh that's bad , it is a very popular field in Canada and in Toronto highly paid positions not problem getting in.

Hope for the best, Good luck.

I'm a nuclear medicine technologist working in manhattan, ny and am looking to relocate to toronto canada, how can i learn more about finding a job there.
Do you know if they accept US certificates?

D Pustam in Jamaica, New York said: I'm a nuclear medicine technologist working in manhattan, ny and am looking to relocate to toronto canada, how can i learn more about finding a job there.
Do you know if they accept US certificates?

No you will have to write an exam.

Thank You very much. Do you know a good website i can use to search for nuclear medicine jobs in toronto?

The Canadian exam will require a fair bit of studying... I studied in Canada and wrote both Canadian and American exams. Canadian is very application based, 6 hours long (3 in the morning, 3 in the afternoon), and costs $750-800 at the moment, can only write it 3 times a year (i.e. if you fail you have to wait 3 months to rewrite).
American exam (NMTCB) only took me an hour and a half and was much easier.. example.. NMTCB exam gave decay constants for Tc already worked out to the number... in Canada, you have to memorize all the half lives and energies for the major isotopes as they would never tell you.

Not to discourage you, but just so you know what you're looking at. If you google "Ontario Health Regions" they all post their jobs independently, or look at monster.ca or workopolis.ca.

tahria great info!!! Thanks. However, the school I went to... years ago... you had to know the isotopes half lives and energies any way... if you do not know them, you do not graduate, thus you are not eligible to sit for the NMTCB certification. I will admit that you might get lucky and find a program that students are allowed to graduate without knowing this and other very important info., but there is nothing that can be done about it... The result is as we see it now... oversaturated NMT market.

Canada hmmm..... is the pay decent taking into account the taxes and handling the cold?

Pay is probably not all that great compared to the US. Public health care, and all. You start around 50K CAD per year, and I am reasonably sure a lot of the US jobs pay more than that. And you're taxed roughly 20-30% of that.

girleng in Brampton, Ontario said: NMT is among the most easiest jobs to get in Ontario Canada, well paid and planty of jobs. According to you it's bad in America?

I have just graduated from Nuc Med, and I write the CAMRT exam in a few weeks time, is there still a lot of positions available in Ontario? Not to many out west here posted!

Thanks.

I wrote the CAMRT in June.No jobs in Ontario.I am sorry to say the profession is dying and we can see this in that the newest SPECT radiopharm we r using is Cardiolite which was introduced in 1992.Its so sad NM has so much potential but so little is done with it in Canada.

When did you guys get cardiolite in Canada?

Meidou in Scarborough, Ontario said: I wrote the CAMRT in June.No jobs in Ontario.I am sorry to say the profession is dying and we can see this in that the newest SPECT radiopharm we r using is Cardiolite which was introduced in 1992.Its so sad NM has so much potential but so little is done with it in Canada.

what is very suprising is seen Mitchener continue producing graduates in NM when they know the profession has alot of graduates with no job and no hope to get one.

Michener is a horrible school...they keep taking in students so they can keep paying their fail professors and school projects

yes, please stay away from Michener. They have become another greedy institution, they will lie through their teeth about job prospects to get you to enroll. I WARNED YOU!

How about getting cross-trained in MRI or ultrasound?? There's tons of jobs in those modalities.

Just because you can't get a job in Nuc med it's certainly not the end of the world...

joeschmoe, you sound like one of the slimy reps at Michener hired to distort the truth and deceive students. Many students like myself have wasted 3 years of our life in the nuc med program and have nothing to show for it but a crap load of debt and a useless diploma. I graduated last year, and it's been more than 2 years but I still haven't been able to find a job ANYWHERE IN ONTARIO. Once in a while you will see a part time job listed for nuc med, and guess what, there are literally 50 or more applicants applying for the part time job that isn't even enough to pay the bills.

And to tell these people that now they have to go back to school for another 3 years or more for ultrasound or MRI and this time get up to their eyeballs in debt is outrageous. Not to mention there is a lot of competition for ultrasound so there are no guarantees of getting in. These things are beside the point. It's the snake sales people at Michener and their fail professors that have to be held accountable for the deception and graduating so many students every year knowing well that more than half of them will never find a job in their field.

Jenny in Thornhill, Ontario said: joeschmoe, you sound like one of the slimy reps at Michener hired to distort the truth and deceive students. Many students like myself have wasted 3 years of our life in the nuc med program and have nothing to show for it but a crap load of debt and a useless diploma. I graduated last year, and it's been more than 2 years but I still haven't been able to find a job ANYWHERE IN ONTARIO. Once in a while you will see a part time job listed for nuc med, and guess what, there are literally 50 or more applicants applying for the part time job that isn't even enough to pay the bills.

And to tell these people that now they have to go back to school for another 3 years or more for ultrasound or MRI and this time get up to their eyeballs in debt is outrageous. Not to mention there is a lot of competition for ultrasound so there are no guarantees of getting in. These things are beside the point. It's the snake sales people at Michener and their fail professors that have to be held accountable for the deception and graduating so many students every year knowing well that more than half of them will never find a job in their field.

Jenny, same situation here in the states. Joeschmoe is certainly not the first to recommend "cross training" to improve employment opportunities. Problem is employers prefer 2-4 yrs of specific experience (outside of clinical) in each modality (CT)(MR)(US) in addition to the Nuclear Medicine Degree/Certification.

Jenny, I too graduated from michener with a nuc med diploma a couple of yrs ago and I STILL cannot find a job in ontario!! I was soo frustrated looking back at the time I enrolled and having been told that 100% of graduates will be hired either before or within a few months of graduation! Most of my classmates got lucky and were hired either in the same hospital they did their clinical, or had to move out of Ontario in order to find something - and even then it would only be a casual or part time position! I have been told so many times to do ultrasound or MRI, but I chose nuc med because I love it -it is very discouraging to see people changing their course of study because of the current job market! btw Michener is still increasing their class size every year... the year below us was almost double the size of our class!

There's barely any debt if you choose a modality like MRI, and for ultrasound the debt is easily paid off.

I'm from Winnipeg, and there is a fast track MRI program that is 4 months academic, the other 4 months practicum. It's fully accredited too, so no worries about that. One of you could just as easily come here and take the MRI program. Cost of living is the cheapest in the country too, and any of you could easily opt to do the practicum in Ontario.

Tons of jobs in ultrasound and there's post grad options for that as well. It's not uncommon to be offered $5000-$10000 signing bonuses on top of your competitive entry salary.

And I'm not speaking out of my @$$ either. I've talked to people IN the field. Learning MRI might be too difficult for some of you though because MRI physics isn't exactly a cake walk...

Again, you continue to distort the truth. This is how naive and ignorant students fall for this crap and then have their wake up call full of regret and depression.

"barely any debt"??? Congratulations, you are qualified to work as a snake oil salesman for the Michener Institute and to prop up their fail professors. First of all there is no "fast track" program in MRI, at least not in Ontario. The program is 19 months long and costs $7800 PER SEMESTER. The ultrasound program is similar in length and costs $7500 for full year.

And I am not aware of any signing "bonuses" in Ontario. So stop SPEWING CRAP and to all of you may be reading this forum and thinking about applying to Nuc Med, remember that I warned you, and despite what you may hear from the snake oil salespeople at Michener, THERE ARE NO JOBS. By the way, the students in Radiation therapy are having the same people because theses greedy vampires at Michener have expanded their class sizes and the supply far outweighs the demand.

I can vouch for joeschmo and even the creator of this thread. There are tons of jobs out there right now in Nuc med and other modalities. Methinks you people love to complain and probably suck at writing resumes.

I work in Nuc med here in Vancouver and I was offered a $5000 signing bonus and all additional courses paid for. I get paid a little more than $60,000 annually.

Jenny, I'm pretty sure Michener College has resume writing services for a fee. I'd check that out if I was you

I have to disagree with "Realist". I have been out of school since 2008. I have plenty of previous experience in other healthcare fields prior to starting NMT, had a casual position in a hospital that *should* have helped me get a job (but didn't), and plenty of experience with interviews. Please don't patronize people by saying that they can't get a job because they are 'bad at writing resumes'. You and I both know that it's more who you know than what is on your resume in terms of getting a job in NMT - we all have the same training.

When I graduated, it took me 4 months to find a casual position in a different city 1.5 hrs from where I lived. I worked there for 3 months, then found a part-time in my home city (Calgary), so I moved back.
I stayed part-time (4 days a week) for the next two years, in spite of wanting and being willing to be full-time for that entire period. During that 2 years, I applied to multiple hospital and clinic postings in Alberta, BC, Ontario, and the U.S. I got one interview, but did not get the job, as a casual tech at the hospital got it.

There are not "tons" of jobs in NMT... anywhere. The US has a lot of postings but you do not get calls back in my experience, and apparently a lot of other people's experiences as well. Ontario has a few postings here and there... Alberta has maybe 1-3 a year, when someone leaves or goes on mat leave. BC has casual techs working in Vancouver that have been casual for 5+ years, thus no benefits, pension, vacation, etc. (Or at least that's what I've been told... BC realist perhaps you can correct me here?) But either way BCIT puts out 20 grads a year that have experience working in the Vancouver area hospitals, so good luck getting a job out there, one of those casual grads will get any postings that come up.

Anyway. Not to try to be too negative, there are a *few* jobs out there and if you know someone and are persistent you will eventually get casual or PT which can lead to FT. But not "tons"

I have to disagree with "Realist". I have been out of school since 2008. I have plenty of previous experience in other healthcare fields prior to starting NMT, had a casual position in a hospital that *should* have helped me get a job (but didn't), and plenty of experience with interviews. Please don't patronize people by saying that they can't get a job because they are 'bad at writing resumes'. You and I both know that it's more who you know than what is on your resume in terms of getting a job in NMT - we all have the same training.

When I graduated, it took me 4 months to find a casual position in a different city 1.5 hrs from where I lived. I worked there for 3 months, then found a part-time in my home city (Calgary), so I moved back.
I stayed part-time (4 days a week) for the next two years, in spite of wanting and being willing to be full-time for that entire period. During that 2 years, I applied to multiple hospital and clinic postings in Alberta, BC, Ontario, and the U.S. I got one interview, but did not get the job, as a casual tech at the hospital got it.

There are not "tons" of jobs in NMT... anywhere. The US has a lot of postings but you do not get calls back in my experience, and apparently a lot of other people's experiences as well. Ontario has a few postings here and there... Alberta has maybe 1-3 a year, when someone leaves or goes on mat leave. BC has casual techs working in Vancouver that have been casual for 5+ years, thus no benefits, pension, vacation, etc. (Or at least that's what I've been told... BC realist perhaps you can correct me here?) But either way BCIT puts out 20 grads a year that have experience working in the Vancouver area hospitals, so good luck getting a job out there, one of those casual grads will get any postings that come up.

Anyway. Not to try to be too negative, there are a *few* jobs out there and if you know someone and are persistent you will eventually get casual or PT which can lead to FT.

Jenny, I agree. Numerous schools here in the U.S. are doing the exact same thing as this Michener Institute. Naive students pursuing career paths in Nuc Med/Diagnostic Imaging are not finding gainful employment prospects after graduation due to an oversupply of trained personel (via the schools) vs the few job openings.

These colleges rely on unsuspecting students (customers) to fall for their sales pitch promising great employment outlooks and job placement. Unfortunately the wake up call comes too late for many and they find themselves burdened with debt and unemployed after they graduate.

Although not familiar with the Canadian job market for other Imaging Modalities ie US,MRI,CT as I mentioned before in my earlier post it would be wise to research into the amount of yrs experience employers prefer across the board before falling deeper into debt in a fast track MRI,CT,US program. If there are "tons of jobs" and "sign on bonuses" as joeschmoe stated I would recommend talking with hiring managers, working technologists, and recent graduates about true market conditions and then make a decision. Fellow NMT'S don't fall for the same sales pitch twice.

There is barely any debt if you go to Red River College here in Winnipeg to pursue the MRI cert.

You literally do 4 months of academic work here, then 4 months practicum back in your home province. Easy peasy.

Honestly, it sounds like your the kind of person who just demands work but doesn't really want to work for it.

You got through the nuc med program at Michener, now you have to prove that your the person for the job. Nobody wants to hire anyone who thinks their self entitled to everything.

joeschmoe and realist, you are BOTH FRAUDS and I will expose you. This reminds of the Occupy protests going on everywhere. Deceitful and greedy douchebags like you who come on these forums and spill lies to DESTROY innocent students' lives will eventually pay.

Anyone who is even THINKING about applying to the Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences for either nuc med or radiation therapy, I URGE you to consider what I am about to tell you. I have been looking for a job in nuc med for the PAST 2 YEARS and have not found anything. The VAST MAJORITY of my classmates are in the same position. The situation is so bad that some of them have left the country and some are back in school studying something else!!! And I am not embarrassed to tell you that I am washing dishes in a restaurant right now to pay my students loans. Guess what, the same professors that were kissing our ass so that we would sign up for this program, won't even talk to us now because they got our money and know the filth they pulled on us.

Consider this, the ultrasound program at Michener only accepts 24 students per year. And ultrasound has much better job prospects than nuc med or radiation therapy. but this is not reflected in the class sizes because GUESS WHAT, the nuc med class size is 40 and radiation therapy OVER 50!!! Now you might ask why? GREEEEED is the answer. no other reason.
I urge the rest of my class mates as well as students from other years to put aside their shame and embarrassment and come on these forums and warn anyone thinking about applying to these programs!!

Just look at all the threads on this forum and you will see what the vast majority of people are saying. The few people who are saying that nuc med jobs are plentiful are SHILLS and PHONIES sent by these colleges to DISTORT the TRUTH.

You people are a bunch of WHINERS. It's no wonder why most of you are unemployed.

There ARE jobs out there right now in nuclear medicine. You just have to be patient and search for them.

I currently work in a small clinic in the main Vancouver mainland area. We have a couple nuclear medicine tech positions open and can't seem to find anyone. Nobody applies.

Also, there may be saturation in Ontario, but that's not the issue everywhere, especially in Vancouver. You need to be willing to relocate if necessary.

Also, I've never heard of Michener until now. Is it one of those private career colleges that gets advertised on tv all the time? Whose dumb enough to fall for that anyways?

Realist, If there are tons of positions around the Vancouver area because of a lack of applicants maybe you or your employer should post the jobs on this forum with a contact e mail to send a resume. Someone may be willing to relocate if they knew there were real job opportunities elsewhere.

Hey,

Graduated from SAIT about a year ago and currently working in the foothills hospital in Calgary full-time.

There are jobs out there, one just needs to look. Network too. Check your college's job board. Your not just limited to nuclear medicine either. A couple classmates are selling radiology equipment and one of them is making more than I am right now, lol.

Also, be prepared to be flexible. Relocate to another area if necessary to get your foot in the door. Going through all that schooling only to end up at a restaurant washing dishes seems like career suicide to me.

Australia is another option. I heard nuc med techs there make good bank.

Again, there are no jobs here in Ontario, so please stop the deception about there being plenty of jobs. And not everyone can move to another province or country. You FRAUDS should post all the jobs right here on this forum with CONTACT INFO so me and everyone else will see that you are full of baloney. In fact, this forum has taken on the stench of turdd from all your lies.

joeschmoe in Winnipeg, Manitoba said: Hate to flame like this Jenny, but are you fat/overweight?

If I was HR, I wouldn't hire you either...

There's two kinds of people in this world: people who work hard for things, and people who want everything handed to them.

Which one are you?

I say hit the treadmill more often and work on your interview skills. Michener has some good post-grad options too. Check out what's available and spend MORE time looking for a job and LESS time complaining about NOT having a job on internet message boards.

Can you imagine this person providing patient care??

LoL, the idiot probably doesn 't even work in health care. I told you these shills are hired by colleges to spread fraud and deception every opportunity they get.

Even though I'm employed and have no reason to complain, but I always see job postings through canada's version of this website - where most if not all the job locations are somewhere within Ontario.

Perhaps some of you job seekers can start applying through there? Also, have any of you looked through medical supply companies? A lot of them are dying for technically skilled healthcare workers to sell or act as an applications specialist for their radiology equipment.

Don't give up in the pursuit of a job. Keep looking.

Nuclear Employed, I would think that all the folks looking for employment for NMT in Ontario would have checked into these "job postings" already?? - maybe I'm wrong. If the market there is truely saturated (as suggested by many) job seekers will be up against hundreds of applicants per opening, similar to how it is here in the U.S.

My suggestion is NOT TO LOOK ON INTERNET WEBSITES for positions in lieu of the shear volume of applicants drawn. Rather try an find a job through networking, an inside source, or a friend if possible.

Anyway thats my 2 cents worth on internet job postings. N T

mattiemjk, you are right about trying other strategies for finding a job. But, let me put it this way. As an example, the Michener Institute here in Ontario, Canada is pumping out 40 Nuc Med graduates every year. And there are about 5-8 job openings AT THE MOST in Ontario. The problem is SATURATION, not poor resume or job searching skills. And you think those numbers look bad? Now take into account all the international nuc med techs applying for jobs here PLUS all the graduates from previous years that are still looking for a job!!!

Again, Nuc Med is a DEAD field. And these pathetic and greedy schools like Michener are making the problem worse.

Jenny,
It is a frustrating situation with the Nuclear Medicine job market in Ontario. However Nuclear Medicine is far from dead. I am a Nuclear Medicine Technologist from Australia and it is one of the fastest growing allied health fields in the country. The big difference in Australia compared to Ontario is that the government in Aus puts huge amounts of funding into PET and unfortunately Ontario does not. The only way Nuclear Medicine will gain ground in Ontario is the emergence of new PET applications and research into better ways to do things in Nuc Med. There will always be a place for Nuclear Medicine in the health system all over the world but the situation in Ontario is bleak. Perhaps you need to look outside the boarders of Ontario to get some experience. Despite the popularity and growth of Nuc Med in Aus graduates rarely get jobs in the city they studied in. I took a job on the west coast of Australia when I started which would be equivalent to taking a job in Vancouver if I graduated from the Michener institute. I was able to find a job in Nuclear Medicine within two months of arriving in Toronto purely because of my experience and networking skills however have recently left the job as it wasn't for me. The point I'm trying to make is that when you graduate you have to get experience anywhere you can because that will put you at the head of the game when applying against all the graduates for Ontario jobs. I understand you want a job in Ontario but the 2 years spent looking for a job could have been used gaining valuable experience somewhere else.
Good luck and hang in there.

I have been through the ringer this past year and a half. I had to resign my Nuc Med position that I had for 6 years because my director was telling me compromise patient care by not doing quality control on the camera. She said it was non-productive time. Any way, I chose to resign rather than risk my whole 16 year career.

Then I had some out of state interviews set up, and had to cancel those because my son became seriously ill the night before I was to leave. He ended up in the hospital! Not a time for Dad to go out of state.

The local job market is dismal. I happen to live in the county with the highest unemployment, so getting a job in anything is hard. So I worked at Wal-mart for several months before getting a full time CNA job at a Nursing Home, for which I went back to school for while I was working at Wal-mart.

So what? Well, I have learned much about myself and the support of those I call friends. I have learned that honesty comes before anything else, even though you may have to endure hard times for it. I have also learned that there are those people who have no respect for honesty and will literally throw you under the bus.

By working at Wal-mart and now being a CNA, I have learned a lot of valuable patient care skills that will help me out in the future. By working at "lesser jobs," I have also learned that keeping busy doing something is valuable in itself.For example, as a CNA, I am giving MORE direct patient care than I ever had before.

I could sit at home and "boo-hoo" my predicament, but I really don't have time to do that. Life moves on and we learn.

I have an interview coming up in a few weeks. Whether or not I get the job, I'll keep doing my best.

So to all the unemployed Nuc Med techs...DO SOMETHING! ANYTHING! And do your best at it. Good work ethics, attitude, personality, and perseverance will triumph in the end. Being a good worker in whatever you are doing will always shine through...and you will be highly recommended

Jenny is right....Michener is a fkin deceitful lying school. All the staff there are not qualified to teach and they dont follow up or assist you in getting a job afterwards. They just take your money and leave you to die. There are no jobs in nuc med in ontario...even if there is...the backlog of nuc med graduates is so enormous you will not get a chance.

it doesnt matter if you write the best resume in the world..if you dont know anyone inside the hospital you wont get a job. SIMPLE. FK MICHENER

strikefreedom, did you graduate from Michener last year? Let me know, we might be classmates.

This is good. I encourage other nuc med graduates to come out and tell the truth. I know you are having a crappy Christmas because of these greedy parasites at the Michener Institute. Remember, we have the power to save other naive students from falling into the same trap. It is immoral and disgusting to be graduating so many nuc med graduates knowing that the jobs don't exist.

I also have an update: A friend of mine who is a radiation therapist told me they have restricted his hours because the hospital budget is going down the toilet and they are under pressure to cut back on everything. Guys, the situation is getting worse. Please, let others know so they don't destroy their life and go under debt. THERE ARE NO JOBS IN NUC MED AND RADIATION THERAPY!

Wow...is it really that bad??

I'm on a Christmas vacation with my family right now in the States, but I currently reside in Mississauga Ontario near Toronto...

I've got the pre-requisites for both the Nuc Med, Rad tech, and Radiation Therapy programs at Michener...I was leaning towards Rad Therapy or Nuclear Medicine though.

Are these fields really in the hole like you say they are?? That REALLY sucks, the field seems so interesting...how about Rad tech?

Thanks for the insight...

Future therapist,

Unfortunately, the situation is very bad at the moment. This is due to a number of factors, not the least of which is that the class sizes of institutions like Michener do not reflect the reality of the job market. Remember, the goal of educational institutions is mainly to make a profit and look out for their bottom line.

I would advise you to consider rad tech. because they always seem to be in demand and their numbers are much greater than either rad therapy or nuc med. Then there's also the fact that physicians give out requisitions for x-rays like candy on Halloween, mainly because x-rays are very cheap and this is important in Canada, where the government is paying for these studies. Also, you will have much greater opportunities to specialize in CT, mammography, angiography, etc. as a rad tech. whereas nuc med and rad therapy are much more limited.

Bottomline, if your goal is to be employed at the end of your studies, rad tech. is a much, much better option. I only wish someone had given me this advice before I wasted 3 years of my life and 30k in debt with nuc med.

hey jenny, I graduated last year 2011. I believe you are in the 2010 class correct?
For anyone who questions the reality of the situation go on google right now, type in nuclear medince technologist jobs and see how many pops up. do that for the next year plz and come back and talk to us. And to all the haters that say these 2 years we could be getting working experience tell me plz, how the fck would we get working experience when no one hires you because you are competing against 100 people with working experience

Future therapist, go rad tech its way better than rad therapy or nuke med

strikefreedom,

yes, I graduated in 2010. I have been applying to the very few jobs that are posted since 2010 (there were about 4 jobs posted for the ENTIRE year). I was only invited to one interview and the lady that interviewed me said there were over 50 applicants to the job!! Imagine that, now you tell me the chances of getting a job in nuc med. And all of the applicants are qualified. Oh, and 3 out of the 4 jobs were for CASUAL jobs, which is barely enough to pay the bills, let alone the OSAP debt.

Have you been in contact with the instructors at Michener or with other classmates? The instructors basically gave me the middle finger and said good luck. Now, if only I could save some poor naive student from wasting 3 years of their life at the Nuc Med program at Michener, then at least I've done something positive.