Average Salary: $34,078

Expected Lifetime Earnings: $1,422,688

Endoscopy techs don't get paid the big bucks. With a median annual salary of about $34,000 (source), you're likely to feel a little twinge of jealousy when you realize how much those brain surgeons down the hall are making.

However, as with most careers, the median wage goes up the longer you're in the field. Experience pays, and if you have ten or twenty years' worth of experience under your scrubs, you'll be making closer to $43,000 a year (source). It's still not brain surgeon money, but, well…you're not performing brain surgery.

 

"Hmm, I was planning to be the king of the endoscopy department by now..." (Source)

The downside to this career is it doesn't offer a lot of upward mobility. Or even sideways mobility. While a brain surgeon might start as an intern and wind up the head of the hospital's neurology department, an endoscopy technician starts and ends their career in the same place—and your salary will reflect that. You might switch hospitals or move to a higher-paying region, but when all's said and done, you'll find yourself in roughly the same position.

The good news is you'll have a great benefits package: medical, dental, and probably vision (source). You won't have those giant student loans to pay off, either, which will be nice. And, of course, you'll have the knowledge that you're helping people on a daily basis. It's not the same as a six-figure paycheck, but it still feels pretty good.

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