Originally posted by Dr. Cuts
You can't do tela-ophtho now can you? 
If the thought of working out of home or being free to travel and live wherever you want is appealing to you -- like it is to me -- then Rads is the clear winner...
I hope you live the dream Cuts.
Unfortunately you will find that after you actually do some radiology, doing teleradiology nighthawk work is not all that it is cracked up to be.
Probably >98% of radiologists are not doing teleradiology nighthawk as their primary job even though almost all them could if they chose to do so. If it were such a great gig why aren't people signing up left and right?
I'll tell you why-
1. Unless you are set on living in a foreign country half way around the world, it is not a long term job. Even if you are set on living in a foreign country it is not secure job unless you set up the company yourself and you have the contracts. When the market tanks as it will inevitably, you are job is either going to India or you will lose it to somebody who will work for half as much as you or you will take a huge pay cut. At that time you will wish you were a partner in some group.
2. If somebody is going to pay you 400k, you are going to do 400k worth of work (ie you are going to work you arse off). The biggest lesson people coming of training have to learn (and I had to learn it myself) is that you are not worth nearly as much as you think you are.
3. The work itself is not satisfying. You have no control over anything sent to you from a quality standpoint.
Every time the primary group reads your report and doesn't like it, you are going to hear about it. Nighthawk work is all about the numbers and productivity. You may find that being a radiology robot is not that exciting.
4. If you are getting your information from recruiters, you will soon learn that recruiters are not your friend. They only care about placing you in a job so they can get their big paycheck and couldn't care less if you actually like the job or are a good fit for it. They throw around all kinds of huge numbers and incredible benefits when talking to you. Basically they stretch the truth and hide all the bad stuff. It is easy to get taken in by them at first until you realize that most of their jobs suck. The best jobs are filled by word of mouth and the best groups don't use recruiters because they don't have to. Most of the jobs that recruiters have basically are available because nobody will take the position (and often for very good reason)
5. Of the 4 radiologists I know who did telerad nighthawk jobs, only one lasted more than year. Who knows maybe it will work for you, but I would be willing to wager that 10 years from now you will not be doing a teleradiology nighthawk job
