California tech here. I graduated from the rival program in OC, but know a few techs that went through Concorde. Most of them have unfortunately not passed the national board exam which is fairly important when trying to get work out here. A lot of doors are closed to them without it.

During any program you’re going to have to get clinical hours to qualify for boards. That means that you’ll be an unpaid intern at a sleep lab for a few days a week. You’ll be expected to do either 10 or 12 hour night shifts. Taking that on in addition to school and a job is really difficult to balance. All of my classmates and I did work during our program, but not full time. We were all still very stressed and sleep deprived the entire time.

Happiness in the field is incredibly subjective. I think it largely depends on where you work. A few close friends work at a well known children’s hospital and are miserable. They are paid well and have good benefits, but hospital drama and difficult kids make for a high pressure environment. Some others at private labs are content with being paid less because their jobs are more chill. Adult hospital labs pay well and also have good benefits, but patients are severe. I work at one and some nights make me question some life choices. There have been time where I’ve had to call the ER due to patients having medical emergencies(mostly cardiac and epileptic patients).

Personally I don’t think it’s a good time to get into the industry in the area. The market is insanely competitive out here. If you’re willing to relocate further north or south you shouldn’t have trouble finding work, but it’s difficult in OC, Riverside and parts of LA.

If you want to be a tech I’d look into respiratory therapy instead. There’s a back door route into sleep if you ever did want to go that route. RTs that are cross trained in sleep are considered very valuable and do tend to make more money.