Two-year associate degree, no bachelor's required for most of these roles, and hospital-level pay ($60–100k median across most specialties). Every one of these jobs is hands-on and hard to automate. Hiring is steady because hospitals are always short on techs.

Not all "techs" are equal. Cardiac tech pays $67k and grows slowly. Sonography pays $89k and grows 13%. Radiation and nuclear pay more but are harder to break into. Picking the right specialty matters — the $20–40k gap between cardiac and sonography is worth knowing before you enroll.

The ceiling specialties: medical dosimetrist ($138k), PA ($133k but needs master's + bachelor's), radiation therapist ($102k), nuclear med ($97k). Many techs use the associate's as a bridge — work 2–3 years, then back to school for PA, RN, or medical imaging specialist certs. Layer credentials; don't stop at the first one.

AI reads scans — radiology algorithms catch some things humans miss, but a licensed tech still runs the machine and a radiologist still reads the report. The hands-on, patient-facing work (EMS, cardiac, surgical) is untouched. The reading-and-flagging work (imaging review) is augmented, not replaced.