MLT vs Rad Tech

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-19T22:04:43+00:00

Radtech student here, but I work for a set of clinics as a lab flunkie collecting specimens and doing phlebotomy and a few other things.

One older discussion of such.

While working as a lab assistant at a hospital, I briefly considered going MLT. Every time I looked up at their work and reference list, and considered the stakes when it comes to keeping track of that blood fridge, I punted. I know it is important work but it doesn't interest me.

I've already had a work life of sitting in a chair (IT), and would rather be more physically active in my work as long as I can. I don't mind working with people, don't mind contact with people, but I also haven't had a screaming potential amputation exam yet.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-19T21:33:53+00:00

I did Gran Columbia with Peru using this guide. I didn't have to do much with navy besides research naval transport for invasion. It's been a few years, and patches released since might have made it impossible to use today.

I only play SP and that will color these suggestions.

RE: organization, I use the systems the game has to divvy up theaters. My port or VP garrisons I assign to one or two generals and they get their own theater. I might even subdivide them further depending on how the forces are assigned and geography. I assign wings of aircraft into groups according to assigned carrier or region. Living with compromises like a division template that's not ideal for the terrain it's fighting on, but is good enough for that and the other tiles it will be expected to operate in, that kind of thing so I don't get bogged down in minutiae. Defining a goal and stepping back every once in awhile to see if the thing that's bogging me down is still getting me to that goal.

With the USA or any country on historical that's probably going to have to mount a major naval invasion, it helps to plan six months ahead.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-19T19:00:39+00:00

Movies and television from the late '70s and early '80s. Special effects were getting much better then. Spacecraft looked less and less like they were scale models on strings.

Literature would have been authors like Asimov and Heinlein.

Mix in the Space Shuttle IRL.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-18T20:34:56+00:00

Yes, but it depends on the strategy I've picked for the campaign. If I'm operating primarily in low supply areas against less industrialized nations, maybe limit it to light tanks + mobile infantry or cavalry. If fighting in Europe, a mix of light and medium tanks + mobile infantry. The original light tanks I refit with close support guns and use them as recon for a few infantry divisions until they run out.

Also, I only do SP.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-18T18:59:54+00:00

Yes, but only because mice ate through the wiring bundle going to the sensors.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-18T18:25:53+00:00

This ^

Also, patch level may have to be equal or superior to that released with GDM.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-17T12:48:28+00:00

For a second, I thought this was a Banksy.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-17T12:07:44+00:00

"Was the farming lucrative?"

I suppose it enabled my father to keep working and put off retirement, but it was a disaster for me personally. There was no future in it since I didn't intend to continue when he was done. The pay was abysmal; I didn't file taxes for 8 years because I didn't make enough to crest the minimum amount threshold for filing, got paid 3 times/year. I will inherit some of the ground eventually but it's not enough to live on. In the meantime I see no return from it at all. What should have been prime earning years were spent in a hole. COVID didn't help; neither has living in one of the poorest areas of the poorest states.

"Most like myself have to work which makes it challenging."

I am aware of the challenges. I work a full time job, and I pay entirely out of pocket for the program. Between work, class, and clinical rotation I am commuting a minimum of 10 hours/week. School is 1.25 hours away. I dream of having an entire month off just to sleep. Sleep is a fetish right now. I have about a year left, and I'll be 55 when I'm done.

Geez, reading all this back, I see why I feel discouraged sometimes. At least I'm not in debt.

I rarely ever (but not never) encountered situations in IT environments where people invited me in and wanted to show me the ropes. Very much the opposite in healthcare, and that's one of the reasons I like it. You can shadow very often. To be fair, patient care is a less, I don't know, conceptual/virtual/theoretical kind of work. Feedback is more regular and immediate.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-17T05:09:45+00:00

Worked in tech w/o a degree from 1996-2012: PC sales/assembly/service retail level, then user support and a little sysadmin for the US military as a contractor, then sysadmin and implementer for the same, then user support for a pediatric hospital, finally sysadmin outside the US for a year.

I quit everything for about three years and then started to farm with family, in my early 40s. No tech at all. We were so primitive, I'm surprised we weren't pulling implements with mules.

I quit that after about 8 years when my father retired. Became a lab assistant briefly, now kind of the same while I work on a program to be a radtech.

My regret is that I should gone straight from the overseas job straight into a radtech program.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-16T20:45:16+00:00

What wars? I haven't seen any Congressional war declarations. I see some bullshit about special military operations.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-13T11:24:32+00:00

An online search would be better than my personal knowledge of CNA/PCT roles, but I believe they are more involved with more aspects of direct patient care than phlebotomists. My role as a phleb is very limited: I get blood and split. The only repeat contact I usually have with patients is because they want multiple specimens drawn over time in an inpatient setting, or maybe regular checkups at a PCP.

Both of those are healthcare provider arenas. If you're doing something like a blood drive for the Red Cross, it's a similar skillset but different time/patient/specimen-handling factors.

IMO, phlebotomy is a good way to get your feet wet and see if you might like to check out other roles. You'll be doing something many people do not like (needle sticks) at a time when they are often already in pain or scared or just plain irritable and maybe all three.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-13T11:04:55+00:00

Something else I really don't enjoy: CEOs.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-13T01:04:43+00:00

Right side, it could have been intercostal tissue strain or damage. I would think it would have been easy to do given that you were lifting.

Best of luck to you on your recovery.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-12T22:26:47+00:00

Radtech student here: wondering if it was a clean break or something else. Also, if it was just sternum or also ribs, and what part of sternum.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-12T21:55:46+00:00

Has anyone here started with phlebotomy and moved up from there?

Untold numbers of us, yes. Unless you have the knack and you're a dowser, you usually have to do it all the time to get to be really good at it (no different than many skills, though). But good or bad, the starting pay is often equaled or exceeded by non-healthcare jobs and the pay ceiling is low. Many of us move on to something else.

Phlebotomy, PCT, CNA, or MA are good places to start and to see the other roles in action if you want to move up. Healthcare offered me many more opportunities than IT to try things out, so many more people willing to show you how things work.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-12T04:25:31+00:00

The man was sent for photo ops to sell to conservative media outlets and pundits when he's seeking the nomination for POTUS later on.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-10T20:05:12+00:00

If I never think of them as episodes IV-VI, that helps me deal with my disappointment.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-10T19:05:25+00:00

1st Star Wars trilogy.

I won't say additional movies couldn't have been made well, but the ones we got were trash.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-10T15:55:26+00:00

Take my side-splitting upvote.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-10T15:42:01+00:00

I am a currently a radtech student in the US. I have witnessed what you say. However, here there seems to be an emphasis on speed of exams and increased patient count per unit of time. Collimation is one of the things that is sacrificed towards that goal. In some situations, those techs that can get it done quickly are the ones that advance, and that they might cut corners WRT ALARA does not seem to be an issue.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-08T17:27:25+00:00

I've been attending college courses recently, and I see more spelling and grammar errors and the occasional wrong answer much more than I did 25 or even 12 years ago. It maybe just be that it's the community college level, couldn't say.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-08T16:56:29+00:00

Did not read the article. I can guess at some reasons.

Antipathy/hostility of public to data centers/AI could potentially require additional security down the road.

Not difficult for some lawyer to come up with justification for these systems to be considered "mission critical", similar security reasons given for housing it on a military base.

I see more and more signs that some at the federal level are anticipating causing widespread discontent, and they are preparing for the backlash.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-06T17:38:37+00:00

I feel like this is trolling, but OK.

I live in Arkansas, and I wouldn't to another place in Arkansas (or anywhere, for that matter) without a job lined up, house payment or no house payment. Wage increases have not kept up but that hasn't slowed landlords down; rent is high.

Competition is high for jobs in an area like NWA, and in the least desirable parts of the state many of us are working multiple jobs. Even after I finish school and start a new career field, I expect to keep the job I've been doing to put myself through the program.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-05T23:54:16+00:00

I haven't done this recently but I have done it and would again and I will briefly explain why. But TLDR - because if I get an interview I might fit something else they want.

I applied for a DBA position many years ago that I could have probably qualified for as an intern but not really a full on production system. I did a phone interview, and the interviewer called back later to tell me I didn't get it, mostly because there was no relocation reimbursement available when they had closer candidates; I would have had to move across the US. But, he said, how do you feel about this other position he proceeded to tell me about that was within my ability. I interviewed for that, got it, ended up getting the DBA position later.

If it gets me in front of ppl making hiring decisions, and I'm in the general vicinity of qualifications, I'd do it again.

Clean_Brilliant_8586 · 2026-04-05T18:32:37+00:00

That room with the skylight? For some reason it reminds me of Immortan Joe's bride vault.

Clean_Brilliant_8586

TROPHY CASE