appreciate all of the feedback and pms of which i received a ton so i will try to make this a follow up post (long rant) and answer many of those questions and respond to comments (sorry am currently on call this weekend)...
crazy mixed opinions about the job market on here and other forums which is understandable given the cyclical nature of radiology in the past however a few caveats. although it is cyclical this is a simple supply and demand issue. the volume of imaging studies being ordered is literally f****** outrageous as many of you will see when you start residency. because of the"cover your ass" type of medicine practiced in this country (as opposed to evidenced based medicine) and the incompetency/stupidity of many clinicians (especially from the ED) this spike in volume is nearing borderline dangerous levels in our field in terms of what is manageable on any given shift without missing critical findings. I can speak to this as someone who has been training in NYC for the past 6 years. most academic centers are scanning nonstop throughout the night and even outpatients until late evening hours which adds to this mess.
my point is just based on volume and reliance for diagnosis by other clinicians alone there will forever be an increasing need for us and there will be no scarcity of jobs in the near future. now for those scared about AI i would start by saying if you really enjoy radiology more than any other fields in medicine do not let AI deter you from pursuing this as a career. as a matter of fact i would honestly not be in medicine at all if not for radiology.
AI will most definitely play a big role in our work probably very soon but in our lifetimes i do not see it replacing physicians for several reasons which are too long to discuss here. you can google the study out of the UK which demonstrated AI as "superior" to radiologists at reading mammograms overall however if you look close there were instances where all radiologists found a cancer while the AI software missed it and vice versa. point of this is AI mechanisms of learning and pattern recognition are still very variable and different than how a trained radiologist performs the same task. for general AI to replace us as a whole means AI would replace pretty much 90% of jobs so noone will feel sorry for radiologists.... In the UK mammograms are double read by 2 trained radiologists and their goal will become to use AI to help manage large volumes and possibly serve as this "double read" IMHO. secondly for now no software or tech company is going to be willing to accept the liability/malpracctice costs that go along with replacing a board certified MD read with a scan read by AI (at least in the near future), case in point we already have computers reading EKGs yet an MD still is required to sign off on them....
my opinion on jobs is biased because i trained at an insanely heavy volume center with not enough attending coverage (also did 1 year of surgery) so at this point i am basically burnt out, hate most people in medicine, have high med school debt and have just finally only been able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. i really feel like different jobs are suited for different personalities and you have to find what is most important to you before making the decision. what i have experienced is day jobs private practice jobs and academic jobs all pretty much increasing RVU requirements with little vacation time (avg 6 weeks/year in academics) more teaching and interdisciplinary conference requirements (which i personally dont give a s*** about) for less pay (decreasing reimbursements) especially in major cities with already saturated markets. if being in an "elite/academic" setting or teaching or trying to "advance" the field are important to you then academics may suit you (also if you come from money or money is not a concern). personally i decided my sanity and free time and money were more important that any of the above so i went with my job and nights IMO are the some of the only jobs in rads where attendings have autonomy in terms of what they are required to read and how much. now i had a hookup because my former coresident already had been working there plus it is in the city near where i grew up so i had geographical ties to the region however 1 on 2 off is not uncommon to find. i definitely have a sweeter gig than other similar positions that are posted on forums or ACR. the best jobs are going to be found rather through networking and personal connections. as far as salary right now a newly fellowship trained rad should receive anywhere from 300-350k starting but nothing below that unless its part time (speaking only about day positions). anything higher has to be taken with a grain of salt for example i had another job offer from my home medical school however they were asking me to cover more ED and essentially id be working alone which is a recipe for burnout right out of fellowship.
il end on a bright note for all you young eager med students as i was once on these forums asking the same questions and scared about the future. recent ACR estimates showed that nearly half of practicing radiologists are above 55 and nearing retirement age (many are older who stuck around and kept their jobs after 2008 recession because they lost money or retirement assets and thats why the job market was bad in the early mid 2010s. so theoretically many should retire in the next 5-10 years probably as you near the end of training and ofc the aging population continues to increase which only means even higher volumes....so we are and will continue to be desperately needed as is evidenced by the the barrage of phone calls and emails i get daily from physician recruiters.
feel free to keep this thread going or pm me with additional qs. best of luck and dont let negative outsiders or perception about this field sway you if you actually genuinely enjoy rads.
if anyone needs reassurance just remember this is the only profession in medicine where you can make pretty much top 10-15% salary of all physicians, work from home in your F****** underwear, never have to touch a patient, and have 2/3 of the year off....all of which i am looking forward to experiencing in 6 months 
