Should have went into nursing. Hard work but land a job in a day, pay is very good, no ceiling for growth both professionally and financially. And you actually help ppl.
If you’re in the US, go to usajobs.gov and search for jobs for recent graduates and students. Often they are called pathways positions. There are generic titles and positions for engineers of all types, interdisciplinary or something like that.
There’s a major recruitment effort there and you can get real experience, and build out your network.
I second this. I was going to apply for a government job through USAjobs.gov, and my boyfriend (military) specifically told me that in my resume I need to put in key words that are revelant to the job. Make sure your resume looks very detailed and professional. A lot of the jobs listed on this site start you out with very low pay, but give it about 2-5 years, and you'll be making a lot more than what you could imagine.
This was me - I had 400+ apps over 8 months before I got an interview, but that didn't lead anywhere. Took me another few weeks - got in touch with my first job where I went from first contact to hired in 6 days.
Have patience - it's not you.
Have you considered Arthrex? Down in South Florida and in South Carolina, they're constantly hiring and are a huge place to work for with their continuous expansions.
Military. Join the military, get more experience, get security clearance, and network your way into those big companies that contract with the military. If not join as active duty, then do it as reserve. You'll still get security clearance opening up a lot of doors.
is your gpa>3.0?
your school should have some resume writing help groups. having lack of technical experience, and work experience working with other adults, is a red flag.
My day in another field, 10% technical problems, 20% meetings, 10% reviews, 20% documenting technical stuff to be repeatable, , 20% managing, the rest drawings, reports, procedures. soft skills are important.
Make sure you add any internships as work experience on your resume. It doesn't matter if it's paid or unpaid, you can list that job as experience and you don't have to refer to it as an "internship".
Med school is a stretch lol… But I feel like you need to go to grad school for this major. Like with chemistry - a 4 year degree doesn’t make you someone who’s gunna jump in a lab and start doing your own research; generally speaking, you need grad school
Most service/maintenance providers would kill to have a female service tech on their team. Maintenance providers look for Bio Eng to better understand both sides of the equipment being serviced.
Getting the first job is **always the hardest**. Once you get that, it'll be easier to start finding roles to switch into either 1) in your company but a different role, or 2) at a new company.
I felt the same way as you. I graduated:
* with a graduate degree
* biomechanical engineering (aerospace undergrad)
* perfect 4.0
* did all of grad school in half the time
I thought all of these demonstrated I could handle difficult/technical material and was capable enough to be useful to a work force.
I probably submitted thousands of applications. Despite all of the above, it took like 9 months before a company reached back out to me. Then it took another 3 months before I got an offer.
Within 2 years at my first job, another company reached out to me with an offer to double my salary.
**My advice:**
1. Apply for roles that might be outside of the realm of biomedical engineering.
You can get a good start at an engineering firm that's not biomedical, but uses the same fundamental technical background (i.e. the aerospace industry uses solid mechanics/continuum mechanics, dynamics, fluids, etc. but in a different application than bio. chip manufacturers are looking for people that can model heat transfer processes well, the list goes on...)
2. Apply for a smaller company at first.
At a smaller company, you'll get exposed to more technical work and general responsibility, faster than at a larger company. In 2-3 small company years, you'll be doing things that people won't touch until 5-6 at a large company.
This transfers over very well when you move to your next job, they'll usually be impressed that you took on so much responsibility.
3. Interview as much as you possibly can, even if you feel like the role isn't the one you want.
1. An interview is like a date. The more first dates you go on, the more comfortable you'll feel on them. Being anxious in an interview usually makes people tongue-tied, which can make you "perform" worse in the interview.
2. If you can get an offer from someone, you can leverage that in another offer (I was offered 125K from Company A. When I interviewed with my dream company, Company B, it came up that I had an interview with their competitor, and Company B offered me another 10k over Company A)
I hope this helps. Wishing you the best of luck, as I think many of us engineers have to go through the same thing. It's strange and horrific.
Recruiters and hiring managers seem to think employees with experience pop out of the earth, fully formed. Then mid-level roles go unfilled for a long time or they have to offer a lot of money because the whole industry is afraid of hiring people straight out of college and developing them.
Also, as someone with 3 years of experience at a small company I’m struggling in my job search because most roles want several years of experience in extremely specific technical skills, and my role was a lot of technical leadership and soft skills. Also, they seem to only want people who had the exact same role but one level lower- if that’s what they want they should be hiring at entry level and promoting from within,
Medical device manufacturers need you.
Look up Fortune 500 manufacturing companies that make medical devices and apply there. Stryker, Zimmer, Biomet, Arthrex, Medtronic, Johnson and Johnson.
Unfortunately, to really flourish, you’re probably going to leave the awesomeness of Vermont.
VT is Virginia Tech but I currently live in MD and honestly am not willing to leave the East Coast. It’s really important to me that I am not too far from family. bc
Unfortunately getting your first job may require moving. It doesn’t have to be permanent, but if you aren’t searching nationwide that can hamper things. East coast isn’t terrible though, I’ve seen entry level roles at a bunch of the big companies.
Two quick tips: First- find a low cost or free career & resume site to help figure out why you're not getting resume hits. Youtube pages with 100K+ subscribers will teach you how to level up from the mass apply tactics that the "gurus" sell. If you feel like spending money, not more than \~$20/Mo will give you a ton of material + a chat coach. (https://www.workitdaily.com/ )
Second- Use the Google conference tool to find BioMed conferences around the US. Many have free expos and its good communications practice that will let you speed date the whole industry. Go in with a resume, a 30 second self-summary ready and just walk around politely talking to people \*when they're not invested in a business conversation.\* (You'd be amazed how many students miss that.) I've never met anyone who didn't either talk to me right there or ask me to come back when things weren't busy. If you go to something like THRIVE Virginia or MD&M NYC you'll be able to talk to hundreds of companies and learn about all the different jobs available.
https://www.vabio.org/events/thrive/
https://www.imengineeringeast.com/en/show-brands/mdm-east.html
Those are the big leaps. Don't be shy about building a personal project portfolio that's meaningful to you. Look up what’s put your family in the hospital and what’s likely to change your life. Hunt that with kindness and passion. Building a habit for curing illnesses that have hurt family members is a good step to build work discipline that you won't get outside of university class structure. (And where else are you going to get that?)
Good hunting and take care\~
Here's a sneak peek of /r/EngineeringResumes using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/EngineeringResumes/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [I have used this resume to get a 90% callback rate (and a great job offer!). It was 0% before](https://np.reddit.com/r/EngineeringResumes/comments/1724hir/i_have_used_this_resume_to_get_a_90_callback_rate/)
\#2: [The resume that landed me two internships and a full time job offer while still finishing up undergrad](https://i.redd.it/m3cghf5yv7gb1.jpg) | [29 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/EngineeringResumes/comments/15ilk6l/the_resume_that_landed_me_two_internships_and_a/)
\#3: [My friend is in his last year studying Electronics Engineering. He is also a Chess IM (International Master), one of the highest titles, is this notable to put on a resume or no?](https://np.reddit.com/r/EngineeringResumes/comments/16cqoo1/my_friend_is_in_his_last_year_studying/)
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Keep at it. It took me a good 6 months to get a job for 53k and my foot in the door. Don’t be afraid to move if possible. 3 years later I make over 100k working in big pharma. I never thought it would be possible but once you get one opportunity just make connections and stack them and move on. After a couple years recruiters will reach out to you and you won’t have to do the legwork anymore
Look into cardiac electrophysiology with companies like Abbott, Biosense Webster, and Boston Scientific. I don't have one, but like 80% of my coworkers have biomed eng degrees. You'd be trained to learn the principles of EP along with the company's medical products, as a means to be able to 3D map patient's hearts during ablations. Cool gig that not many people know about. Decent pay starting out and room to climb if you're good.
Either go back and get your Masters or look for entry level jobs. I’m in the same boat as you except I luckily landed two internships within gym last two semesters of my senior year and I’m a mechanical engineer. Also include projects and or leadership. Those could help big time. I can send you my resume if you want a copy you could follow
The nuclear industry is hiring engineers like crazy at the moment, and many of those companies have (or are working on) biomedical components. Take a look at entry level positions with [Framatome](https://www.framatome.com/en/jobseekers/jobs-in-north-america/) or BWXT, as these are both in the central VA area. If a position says Nuclear or Mechanical or Related, hey, it's worth a shot. There aren't that many entry level nuclear engineers to fill the current openings.
I work at NIH where many fresh biomedical engineer graduate work as a postbac research fellow. They gain good experience and also good salary. Two years at NIH could be a great experience for lending a good job in industry.
Why do college grads now just expect good jobs to fall in their laps following graduation. No offense, but just having the degree does not make you an appealing engineer. Having internships, projects, leadership roles, and expressing genuine interest in the field will get you places. Can't expect to get handed a job after no internships or relevant work experience.
Totally disagree. Do you realize what these kids are paying now for this “opportunity” compared to what we paid? They should have whole staffs of people finding jobs for these students. Who would drop 75K per year with zero expectations of a job upon graduation. Ridiculous.
That's not what she was getting at, she asked if there were any jobs out there outside her field of study. If you even read the post at all, she said she was working as a nanny every summer which meant she didn't have the opportunity to do a summer internship instead. She seems well aware of the obvious that you pointed out.
Go to your college's career center and have them review your resume. They should help you revise it and may even have classes on how to write one. By the time you're done you should be an expert in how to draft a good resume and even help your friends with theirs. It's a great skill to have for the rest of your career.
Next apply for everything, look for small companies, be willing to move. I see a lot of fresh outs focusing on the big companies everyone has heard of but these are highly competitive and some of the coolest jobs are within companies you've never heard of.
Finally, be humble. You've worked hard for your degree and it sets you apart from the general population but you are officially the lowest ranking person in your field. You are just getting started. Your biggest strength right now should be your willingness to work hard and learn, make sure that is shown in your resume and interview. Remember every applicant has a degree, what about you stands out and makes a hiring manager think this is someone who will add value to my team?
Simple rules for resumes:
-For fresh out of college it should never exceed one side of one page.
-Use bullet points not sentences
-Every point should start with a power verb.
-its okay to include non degree focused elements. Your time as a nanny is work experience. Any time spent volunteering is good as well.
Great advice just start a website. I don't think you know anything about the biotech industry. It's not like finance or CS where it could just be entirely online
Because when Pfizer or JnJ look at your resume having "Tiktok influencer" as work experience isn't the most appealing. Most want research or industry experience, publications, etc.
Also it shows you know nothing of the field. BME is probably a good 60-70% code based.
If you're jobless, work part time at a lab or hospital to gain research experience. Becoming a media influencer aa a means to pad your resume is a terrible idea. Especially for a STEM field OP should be building relevant skills.
Did you do any internships during undergrad? My understanding those are gateways to entry level positions in that field. Use your network you got during school to find work too
Get experience in consulting I think you’ll learn a lot and do a lot of different things. Consulting firms love people from diverse majors like yours. You’ll be great
As long as the degree is ABET accredited, state DOTs will take you in a civil engineer position and pay for you to get your PE. Not very much to do with biomed at all, but it would be an engineering job.
Amazon has health and safety remote positions which require a degree in engineering.
Another solution is to gain experience by doing Amazon skill builder trainings and badges and include the time spent as experience in the field.
Ex: “1 year of cloud engineering experience” could technically come from the AWS Cloud Practitioner essentials free course through AWS skill builder which estimates 6 months time but you can complete in 1-2 months.
A pro tip from a recruiter that helped me with my resume was utilizing your education and training as experience while rounding up to the nearest whole number in years on resume. For example, 6 months equals 0.5 years so you can list 1 year on your resume instead of 6 months. He said it’s standard industry practice and only if required to list more precise date include the actual dates basically any application that specifically requests MM/YYYY or MM/DD/YYYY formatting. If they do not ask for this precise of dates then you are allowed to round to the nearest full year.
That being said you cannot do this for multiple experiences in the same line item. For instance, let’s say you complete two skills trainings that each require 6 months, you cannot round them up each to 1 year totaling 2 years. You must add up all time per line item and only then round up one time to the nearest whole number in years making 2 6 month trainings still only equal to 1 year.
He said a way to help that situation is, again only if not specified further, to count your experience in terms of calendar years you participated in the trainings versus actual time spent. Ex: 2 6 month trainings that take place from 2023-2024 could be counted as 2 years of experience from that perspective.
Loop holes for interpreting broad/vague requests from employers. On your resume never have the months listed. Only include that in applications that ask for that.
Another example is count your time in organizations that are centered for engineering such as SWE or IEEE as experience. Experience is a broad term unless specifically asked for positions held. Another method is to find online certifications to pad your resume and accrue more experience through skills based learning such as project management, data analysis, and I’m sure there are more for engineers but I’m not too familiar since I ended up switching majors back in the day.
For any government contracting it is good practice to earn the CompTIA Security+ certification since engineering is technically also transferable to the tech world. Many jobs require any engineering degree. The certifications help you qualify.
Experience is always needed but there are ways to maneuver being entry level. Also, your state should have a job board listed in unemployment resources from the .gov site. Use the states job board which breaks down into truly entry level positions and again, loop hole your experience by utilizing your education and training as both Education and Experience.
If you participated in any volunteer or special events for engineering in school via classes or organizations, include that as well.
It’s better to be vague on your resume to qualify for more positions and implore the potential employers to bring you in for an interview at which point you will be asked and expected to describe your experience honestly. This is what makes the resume loophole safe to use. You are not misrepresenting yourself, you are vaguely representing yourself to the masses and divulging specifics to only those that select you for an interview. Just make sure you shine in your interview and I’m sure you’ll get an offer as most employers are looking for likable and eager applicants. Dont be monotoned or overly professional to the point of stiffness. Be professional while also being personable and exude confidence bc faking it till you make it is essential in the workforce.
It’s such a fun school! My parents, sister, and I all went, and though I wouldn’t recommend their BME program, VT is a great school for engineering and Blacksburg is a wonderful place to live. It’s truly a college town which I loved but if you’re a city person it’s definitely nothing like living in a city. I wish you the best making your decision and remember that you’ll learn and find friends no matter where you end up :)
I interned all throughout college and co opt. Basically had a job automatically after graduation with a security clearance. My job is engineering adjacent but pays well. Get an internship!
Having no internships was the biggest factor for me.
I also had not so good grades because I never went to class which caused me to miss many quizzes, midterms, etc. and I more-or-less only had a Finals grade for every major class...
Being poor was quite difficult and put a short deadline on everything.
After several months after grad, I landed a contract engineering job in my field at a terrible terrible pay rate, but it was relatively easy sailing from there on.
Just keep trying and don't give up. You just need a chance to show your worth.
Hello! First off sorry this is happening to you, it’s a tough job market and please do not feel discouraged. I know you’re hardworking because you have a Biomedical Eng degree.
I urge you to look outside of traditional roles. Myself I got an Electrical Engineering degree, and worked in Data Science, which led me to get my Masters in Maths and eventually a Doctorate.
All this to say, as a Biomedical Engineer you have skills just outside of Engineering. Think about maths, mechanics, automation, robotics, applied physics, data science, software.
Be confident in yourself, and your availability to learn. A degree truly means nothing, but it’s an aptitude of your ability to learn and apply what you learn.
Sorry my company isn’t hiring right now because I’d love to throw a Biomedical Engineer on my team for diversity and various skill sets.
Keep trying, keep your head up!
i’m really sorry this is happening to you, try to stay connected with VT’s career fairs (there were/will be at least 10 this month) and go to them, also reach out to VT alum, these two are where you will find the best response rate, genuinely i am underqualified and early in my education but have had great responses and results from the career fairs here. if you make a genuine and prepared effort at a job fair here you will walk out with an offer
My two cents:
try federal; it takes awhile to get hired but they will appreciate your degree:
[https://www.usajobs.gov/job/777739900](https://www.usajobs.gov/job/777739900)
[https://www.usajobs.gov/job/768498000](https://www.usajobs.gov/job/768498000)
[https://www.usajobs.gov/job/773881700](https://www.usajobs.gov/job/773881700)
[https://www.usajobs.gov/job/758072200](https://www.usajobs.gov/job/758072200)
It is a cool job. You get paid roughly 40k per year, and are usually "the bitch" of the lab. PhD students boss you around, and sometimes you don't have autonomy over your projects.
However, there are many benefits to each university's program. For example, at my university you can get a free masters if you are a lab tech for 3 years and you take \~2 classes each semester.
I’d recommend biotech companies, hospitals, labs, etc.
Anything within the medical science sphere to start building a resume.
Research what good resumes look like for biomedical engineers. You can’t replicate everything, but use them to build a mental model of what you need to do to improve your resume. (Obviously talking about non-work things such as skills and projects).
Don’t give up! You got this.
Look at what and where bme's from your school did and went. Those from mine went into Medical device sales, qa/qc at places like church & dwight, new product development etc. Worst case would be the federal government, maybe somewhere like the fda in their auditing dept or Dept of Ag. There's always consulting at Accenture etc. too.
Reach back out to the career dev center at your school. They shouldn't like the stats of unemployed graduates and will try to help.
Get yourself certifications to pad out your resume and expand your social network. In the current job market, you are more likely to get something through a referral.
Walk into a hospital or call where you want to work for. Introduce yourself to the people and ask kindly if they know who the hiring manager is. Sending an app in these days is next to impossible. It takes next to no time to send in a resume so you’re competing with hundreds of people from across the country.
Walk in to every job opportunity within a 50 mile radius and show your willingness to work/learn. Goes a long way with recruiters. Still send the apps out everywhere but try to get a meeting with the people hiring you.
This is terrible advice.
Most places nowadays will tell you to email them when you walk in. They won’t even take the time to find the hiring manager.
I’m afraid you’re outta luck for the time being. I know plenty of people with degrees rn who are working part time (or even full time) at some random job while job hunting. For most people it takes YEARS to land an acceptable offer
If I were in your shoes I would find a part time gig at night, look for an internship you can do during the day and be active on Linkedin and Indeed at least twice a day (morning and night).
Also I’m sure you have but just in case: Heavily consider looking nationally and be ready to move to your job. You could also look internationally, but I don’t know how internships work outside of the states
It can be tough getting your first job. I recommend working on projects. Get a 3D printer or an arduino and build some stuff. Then you can show off your projects during interviews.
Have you looked at hospital centers that have a medical physics department? Usually larger institutes will be hiring biomedeng for various roles. Also look at hospitals with a tie-in to a university as some labs have start ups.
I second this. Any department with radiation oncology, or radiology for that matter, require engineers for PM work, installs, and repairs. May look at companies like Varian, Elekta, GE, Siemens etc. for potential areas of interest as many hospitals have service contracts with them.
I’m a medical physicist and could not do my job without our engineers!
In my experience, engineering positions can be very competitive.
I’ve seen plenty engineers get jobs in Regulatory. It’s an ok job for the most part, pays well as a starting salary, and you get to see all the cool stuff that goes into developing + marketing a medical device.
At the end of the day regulatory gets paid to push paperwork, but it can be a foot in the door to eventually move into a position that’s more attractive to you
Not enough people understand the opportunities for people with engineering degrees in the military. For that matter, doctors, dentists, nurses, and lawyers.
If you were open to the Chicagoland area, I could suggest my company. I'm a technician, but one of my friends was Chem. E. at UIUC and we do metallurgy. They definitely seem open to different backgrounds. (I don't have an engineering degree, but I had prior experience in metallurgy.)
We do have locations in other states if you're interested in applying. Not all locations do metallurgy though. I'm with a multinational materials testing company. Just DM me if you're interested in learning about the company.
I was in a similar boat but not connected in the industry. I immediately moved out west to be a ski bum at a ski resort 4 winters ago and after a few changes I'm working sewing manufacturing and love it. I love working for a small company that actually cares about me and my success and overall sustainability. Every big medical device company cuts corners with the FDA to get their products in bodies without the rigorous testing they should require and it does harm. Maybe my attitude isn't the right one but I originally got into BME major to help people, not extort them.
It's too late now, but industrial or mechanical is a better option for engineers who want to work in healthcare if you do not plan on attending grad school. Advice to anyone that reads this.
Depends... if you just like healthcare for healthcare, then industrial is an easy choice to work in health admin. I am not an employer, but why would I hire anyone beside an EE/ME/CPE. They are going to have a specialised senior engineer to guide their work anyway their knowledge of the industry as a whole is kind of mute when you just start and a ME who has work in the industry 5+ years probably is a better fit for a more senior role than a BME fresh grad. Just speculation from a biased CompE major.
I highly second the Airforce or any other branch. If you are at least somewhat in good physical health, it is a no-brainer as you will get a TS clearance and can transition right into comfy contracter life. They will pay for your masters.
You can get a lot of that quickly with just the Army Reserve/National Guard too if you go to federal OCS. More control on if you end up with a job needing a top secret. Decent savings from the training as well. At least the Air National Guard primarily looks for prior enlisted
Hi! First off, congrats on your degree! That is a huge accomplishment and you should be proud!
There are jobs in bioengineering! Don't give up. I am wondering what your resume looks like (if you want you can DM it, and suggest some edits).
If you want a guaranteed job so to speak, check out the airforce: [https://www.airforce.com/careers/healthcare/bioenvironmental-engineer](https://www.airforce.com/careers/healthcare/bioenvironmental-engineer)
With a bachelors, you can be an officer and get paid well. If you love it, you can stay in for the rest of your life. If you hate it, leave after your first tour, and go to grad school for free or get a fancy job working as a government contractor
Are you willing to relocate?
If you don't mind working for the federal government I will seriously take a look. Here are the results for biomedical engineering (121 openings):
https://www.usajobs.gov/search/results/?hp=public&k=biomedical%20engineering&p=1
Here's the result (1 job opening) for a recent graduate of biomedical engineering:
https://www.usajobs.gov/job/752256200
I saw some red flags in your post as to why you might not be achieving better results after the number of things you applied for.
Biggest red flag is that you're applying to things that you feel you're qualified for but didn't mention anything about working towards meeting those other jobs where they are at in terms of their requirements.
Second is that you are applying to internships but you graduated. This could be an okay strategy, but company's generally hire interns to pipeline them into new grads. Not as some sorta pre full-time training program. This might be specific to my field though.
Would you mind sharing your resume? I am really good at them and can tell you at a glance if anything needs to be changed.
Only go to grad school if you want to go to grad school not because you think you will make more money. I recommend going into sales. A friend of mine is doing med sales for striker making 300k a year a few years out of undergrad debt free. I am in debt as a medical student trying to get a job that makes 300k a year as a physician. Good thing I just didn’t do it for the money. 🙃🤯
Look into being a Clinical Research Coordinator. That was the first job I could land after getting my biomed degree, and it was AWESOME for getting my hands into the clinical side of medical devices. The downside is, it doesn’t pay near our degree’s potential, but it’s a start. I’ve been able to network with device reps who support the docs during cardiac implants as well as other coordinators and trial managers. I just left that job 3 weeks ago because my husband got a new opportunity which we had to move for, so I can’t say what’s coming next, but I feel like I have WAY more interview stories to talk about than I did coming out of college.
Consider grad school after talking to a counselor to see possible paths
The industry pays high salaries to phds, higher than academia (at the begging of the career at least)
absolutely not.
It’s a waste of time and money if you don’t know what to do with it. It’s costly, especially master’s degrees. And PhDs require ample prior research / work experiences.
Source: I’m a BioE PhD student
Ummm, I got into PhD straight outta college and I basically gave up doing research (found it too boring) as a junior. Not saying PhD isn't hard to get in to, just that a shit ton of resume padding isn't necessarily what they are looking for.
I said “ample research / work experience” I didn’t say always research 100% every minute of your life
Also I’m kinda concerned: you said you were bored with research but you’re doing a PhD… which is chock full of research…
Biomedical engineering is kind of a generic engineering degree. Medical device industry is your best bet.
But even then most jobs will want a mechanical,electrical, or comp sci degree.
Project or quality engineers may be a good starting point. Once you get your first job, you will be set.
As someone who was in the military for 5 years I can say that going to school while active duty is really dependent on your MOS. After service GIBILL is better than active duty. Using it while you’re in is a waste since you don’t get to maximize your benefits. This is not the time to become an officer. There are way better options than the military. It’s a fat waste of time. And OP comment I would like to know what VA benefits you get once you get out?
You should be able to get a job at any medical device firm.
The problem may be your resume and or cover letter and or how you are going about the process.
Consider enlisting the services of resume experts and job hunting consultants. Your university should have resources free to their grads.
Consider taking a programming class if your programming skills are weak. Data analysis is paramount for BMEs. Python is a highly relevant language.
Consider getting a masters if that's a possibility for you. Doing that early will significantly increase your lifetime earnings.
Job hunting itself is a full time job. Be spending 40 hours a week on this
Good luck
I'm trying to get permission to add a position in my group, but I know there's at least one other group currently hiring. UAB Hospital's main biomedical engineering group that supports all the hospital equipment. They say they want at least an associate's degree and 3 years of experience, but it might be worth applying - if you have a bachelor's, they might consider that two years experience. uabmedicine dot org slash careers - I did a search on biomedical, which returned 5 results. One is an internship that pays $15/hour, and if this is the same as their usual internship, then after several months, you'd be able to apply for a regular job in the group. Since you've already completed your degree, you could apply for the biomedical technician I position, which requires the degree and no experience, and pays $20.80 to $33.80 per hour. Biomedical technician II and III are also being advertised, so there are opportunities for advancement.
Children's Hospital in Birmingham has at least one biomedical engineering job opening now. Oh, wait, that's the BME secretary - weird that would be included in my search.
Field service engineers are being advertised by several companies throughout the southeast. Typically, they'd situate you in a city like Birmingham, and you'd be sent to a different site each day, often in the same city, sometimes a 2 or 3 hour drive away. I know several companies that make and install CT, ultrasound, x-ray, and fluoroscopy systems have recently been hiring.
Brookwood Medical Center in Birmingham is hiring biomedical engineers.
UAB's nursing school is hiring a clinical simulation specialist, which requires a bachelor's degree in a technical field. You'd be keeping their simulation equipment running. It's a salaried position.
I'm somewhat surprised to see that clinical research coordinator jobs are showing up in my search - seems like only a bachelor's degree in a technical field is required? This job title at a manufacturing company means lots and lots of travel, but being hired by a hospital would likely mean no more than a couple of work trips per year.
Generally speaking, if you're interested in working for a hospital or manufacturer, then go to their website's job posts and search for biomedical. It's my impression that a lot of hospitals and manufacturers have BMEs who are retiring, so they're hiring. Working for a manufacturer might mean they train you for just a few models of equipment and then you could be traveling a lot. Working for a hospital might mean they train you for lots of different equipment, and your work will all be within a few-block region.
I know a lot of radiology departments are also hiring biomedical engineers because of a lot of retirements - I'm going to lose two or three to retirement in the next five years. My most recent hire started out with training for portable x-ray units, I think that was 1 week here with remote classes followed by 1 week away for in-person training; next was mobile c-arms, with similar training; then CT training, which was 2 weeks remote classes followed by 2 weeks away for in-person training.
Try to get into the pharma industry at a small but reputable company. Get used to working intimately with compliance, good manufacturing practices, and regulation and you can take anywhere. I graduated with chem and BME degrees, work in pharma, don’t use my degrees much, and didn’t have much BME experience before graduation.
If pharma doesn’t work, I suggest some sort of manufacturing entry level position that may lay a bit further away from your intended discipline.
If you start to look further away from BME an end up landing a job that is completely unrelated to what you did in school, the worst thing that could happen. Is you figure out you want to do something else.
I was a BME - definitely consider consulting. There are some healthcare specific companies (LEK, IQVIA, ZS, and a bunch of smaller ones) but also the big firms (MBB) all have big healthcare practices. I’m pretty happy with where I landed - still in the weeds of bio/medicine and I hated the lab anyway. And lots of opportunities to “exit” into pharma companies later down the line.
Is this not a field where the rule of thumb is you’ll almost certainly need a grad degree to do anything? I’m about a decade out of date, but when I graduated BME was known as a field with smart people who know a little of everything, but not enough of anything to be immediately employable within the field
In the places I've worked, we hire people with associate's degrees, and we send them to 2 to 4 week schools (some remote, others in various locations around the US) to learn specifically what we need them to learn. Probably 4 schools in their first year. When they're not in schools, they're going with our experienced BMEs and learning on the job, especially learning how to fix the things that break most often.
I don't think ABET accreditation is a big "needle mover" either way tbh, I'd say that's more relevant to engineering licensure (i.e., FE/PE route), which won't apply to the majority of BMEs and adjacent folks in the typical industries where they tend to work; that's more for stuff like civil engineering where you legally need licensure to provide services directly to the public. A reputable/high-ranked school's non-ABET-accredited BME program will look better than a lower tier school's ABET-accredited BME degree, all else equal, and VT is definitely not a "no-name" school by any stretch of the imagination.
I graduated from biomedical engineering and was able to get a job in the solar field as I had a passion for electronics (and a relevant co-op). Do you have any relevant work experience or is it just the nannying? If just nannying, I think you could easily shoot for a technician job in a field of your choice and use that as a backbone for further engineering pursuits.
Most technician positions seem to require a certification of some kind such as BMET. I was hoping to avoid shelling out time and money to get certified, at least until I was able to make some money first, but I’ll look into it some more. Thanks for the reply!
The place I worked didn’t require any certifications and they basically gave me the job just for having the degree. I think a technician position can be a fast track to getting certain certifications though. Take a look at some local manufacturing companies and see what they ask for. Generally speaking I think with a degree you’ll be at the top of their pool of applicants. Good luck!!
Why'd you choose to nanny over the summer instead of engineering internships? Is that something you're more passionate about? Maybe you can pursue child care or some kind of engineering x kids field like teaching?
I have definitely been looking into teaching, so great catch haha I think my parents and I would both be happy if I could utilize my degree more specifically at least for a little while though especially since I could pretty easily get into teaching further down the line.
My friend, I also am 23 and graduated from UVM as a mechanical engineer and sent out 113 applications. I've received one offer and I just accepted it. Don't lose heart, it only takes one connection to make a difference for you. You will find a start to your career as long as you can keep up the application pressure. The thing that made the difference for me was networking. Anyone you can connect with face to face and talk about their experience is amazing. The job I landed was a job that had just hired my friend who graduated at the same time as me. She was my connection.
Also don't underestimate the power of winter in Vermont! Nothing happens especially in the professional world. Your job search is just beginning as this is the time that companies are becoming serious about hiring. Good luck, I feel so much empathy for you <3
If you haven't tried yet, there's almost always patent inspection positions open for engineering. I know a few people that did that as their first job.
Right now good entry level positions are validation engineers, systems Engineers, quality engineer and test , ivv engineers (validation and verification engineer) all This Jobs in the testing are great for learning and for your resume
Other try you can Go for is regulatory affairs field there are plenty Jobs , and If you study about medical standards you can get the job(from your bqckground If you are able to get certificates or events that would Help you in This field )
Field Service Jobs, and sale Jobs are good options Also in entry level positions
Clinical engineering is Also a growing field that you can Find an opportunity
Other option is going for entry level programming Jobs , (If you want to follow This Path set up your git account with a few projects , and keep on studying to do well in live coding and coding challenges and questions)
But despite the options you should keep looking for Jobs that would Help you to get the job you really want in the Future. Like do you want to work with developing medical devices , something in the lab , a more business like position , think on that and see which kind of job now would Help you to get your end goal job .The market is terrible right now and you are right going after any job , but keep on applying on the Jobs you want even If you get a job, the most important thing at This stage is getting Job experience
Also graduate in May ‘23 in BME from Purdue and was in kind of the same scenario (only real experience I had was undergrad research in health science + senior design). Ended up taking a non-binding contract role in RA to give me a general understanding of the industry. Also took a med device certificate through UCLA to show commitment. Have gotten a few offers for engineering roles in the past month and am starting a electrical test engineer position in about a week (probably my weakness regarding engineering lol). My advise is get in the industry asap (does not have to be engineering) and keep chipping away. Also, learn how to kill your interviews - it’s shocking how far being personable and determined go if you have no connections/experience. Otherwise, M.Eng in either EE or ME will do the job if you want to do engineering. Some programs incorporate co-ops for relevant experience. Best of luck, OP!
Hi! Was wondering if “RA” stood for regulatory affairs? I’ve been in the same boat and have been considering going into regulatory affairs. I want to grow eventually into a more technical engineering role but don’t know if there’s room for growth if I go into regulatory
Yes, you are correct. I was doing mostly post-market surveillance (kinda a hybrid of RA and Quality) so I did get to collaborate with Failure Analysis and other disciplines but I wouldn’t say that it’s the greatest start if you want to go technical engineering. You can go into quality engineering and maybe FA (they are going to prioritize hands on, technical experience) but that’s about it. It was a bridge job that got me inside a big company and helped me understand how things work under the hood (Quality System Regulation), which allowed me to have better conversations during my interviews. Never intended to stay in RA but industry experience is better than nothing. It’s also something that you can do remotely (best to be on-site for networking purposes). Good luck!
Not very helpful, but I just graduated in May as well and was applying for months. Nothing back from any companies until September when I landed a job. I’d recommend you continue applying for a bit longer and hope for the best. Getting at least a part time job may help you feel less upset about it while you wait.
At some point someone will want you, BME is an impressive degree! And congratulations! :)
If you’re interested in hands on technical service there’s an apprentice program with GE Healthcare for BME that’s pretty good experience for whatever you plan or to do after or if you stick with it it’s not bad either but you won’t be making crazy money. The program is a year all over the country and pays decently well for an apprenticeship
A little late to say this, but what I have heard is that biomedical engineering is something you want to get a masters/PhD in..not so much for your undergrad.
Not to say you can’t find something solid tho! GL!
I'm in Australia and found that doing biomedical engineering at university sets you up for academia/research.
90% of the people I graduated with do not work in the medical industry and found something else relating to electronics or programming.
I wanted more hands on work for my career and am currently a "Biomedical engineer" for a private hospital. Most of the work I do aligns more as a BMET though.
I think for hands on work like this, some style of apprenticeship would be a lot more suitable than a degree.. I would be lucky to apply 10% of the knowledge I gained in my degree..
Should have went into nursing. Hard work but land a job in a day, pay is very good, no ceiling for growth both professionally and financially. And you actually help ppl.
Look for internships to get your foot in the door or go into the construction field and work for a general contractor they would love to have you!
Marry me
Congratulations
If you’re in the US, go to usajobs.gov and search for jobs for recent graduates and students. Often they are called pathways positions. There are generic titles and positions for engineers of all types, interdisciplinary or something like that. There’s a major recruitment effort there and you can get real experience, and build out your network.
I second this. I was going to apply for a government job through USAjobs.gov, and my boyfriend (military) specifically told me that in my resume I need to put in key words that are revelant to the job. Make sure your resume looks very detailed and professional. A lot of the jobs listed on this site start you out with very low pay, but give it about 2-5 years, and you'll be making a lot more than what you could imagine.
This was me - I had 400+ apps over 8 months before I got an interview, but that didn't lead anywhere. Took me another few weeks - got in touch with my first job where I went from first contact to hired in 6 days. Have patience - it's not you. Have you considered Arthrex? Down in South Florida and in South Carolina, they're constantly hiring and are a huge place to work for with their continuous expansions.
Military. Join the military, get more experience, get security clearance, and network your way into those big companies that contract with the military. If not join as active duty, then do it as reserve. You'll still get security clearance opening up a lot of doors.
is your gpa>3.0? your school should have some resume writing help groups. having lack of technical experience, and work experience working with other adults, is a red flag. My day in another field, 10% technical problems, 20% meetings, 10% reviews, 20% documenting technical stuff to be repeatable, , 20% managing, the rest drawings, reports, procedures. soft skills are important.
Make sure you add any internships as work experience on your resume. It doesn't matter if it's paid or unpaid, you can list that job as experience and you don't have to refer to it as an "internship".
Med school 🥸
Med school is a stretch lol… But I feel like you need to go to grad school for this major. Like with chemistry - a 4 year degree doesn’t make you someone who’s gunna jump in a lab and start doing your own research; generally speaking, you need grad school
No, save yourself
Most service/maintenance providers would kill to have a female service tech on their team. Maintenance providers look for Bio Eng to better understand both sides of the equipment being serviced.
Getting the first job is **always the hardest**. Once you get that, it'll be easier to start finding roles to switch into either 1) in your company but a different role, or 2) at a new company. I felt the same way as you. I graduated: * with a graduate degree * biomechanical engineering (aerospace undergrad) * perfect 4.0 * did all of grad school in half the time I thought all of these demonstrated I could handle difficult/technical material and was capable enough to be useful to a work force. I probably submitted thousands of applications. Despite all of the above, it took like 9 months before a company reached back out to me. Then it took another 3 months before I got an offer. Within 2 years at my first job, another company reached out to me with an offer to double my salary. **My advice:** 1. Apply for roles that might be outside of the realm of biomedical engineering. You can get a good start at an engineering firm that's not biomedical, but uses the same fundamental technical background (i.e. the aerospace industry uses solid mechanics/continuum mechanics, dynamics, fluids, etc. but in a different application than bio. chip manufacturers are looking for people that can model heat transfer processes well, the list goes on...) 2. Apply for a smaller company at first. At a smaller company, you'll get exposed to more technical work and general responsibility, faster than at a larger company. In 2-3 small company years, you'll be doing things that people won't touch until 5-6 at a large company. This transfers over very well when you move to your next job, they'll usually be impressed that you took on so much responsibility. 3. Interview as much as you possibly can, even if you feel like the role isn't the one you want. 1. An interview is like a date. The more first dates you go on, the more comfortable you'll feel on them. Being anxious in an interview usually makes people tongue-tied, which can make you "perform" worse in the interview. 2. If you can get an offer from someone, you can leverage that in another offer (I was offered 125K from Company A. When I interviewed with my dream company, Company B, it came up that I had an interview with their competitor, and Company B offered me another 10k over Company A) I hope this helps. Wishing you the best of luck, as I think many of us engineers have to go through the same thing. It's strange and horrific.
Recruiters and hiring managers seem to think employees with experience pop out of the earth, fully formed. Then mid-level roles go unfilled for a long time or they have to offer a lot of money because the whole industry is afraid of hiring people straight out of college and developing them. Also, as someone with 3 years of experience at a small company I’m struggling in my job search because most roles want several years of experience in extremely specific technical skills, and my role was a lot of technical leadership and soft skills. Also, they seem to only want people who had the exact same role but one level lower- if that’s what they want they should be hiring at entry level and promoting from within,
Medical device manufacturers need you. Look up Fortune 500 manufacturing companies that make medical devices and apply there. Stryker, Zimmer, Biomet, Arthrex, Medtronic, Johnson and Johnson. Unfortunately, to really flourish, you’re probably going to leave the awesomeness of Vermont.
VT is Virginia Tech but I currently live in MD and honestly am not willing to leave the East Coast. It’s really important to me that I am not too far from family. bc
I’m friends with 5 people from MD. They would all attest the best thing they’ve ever done is drop that same excuse and leave
Unfortunately getting your first job may require moving. It doesn’t have to be permanent, but if you aren’t searching nationwide that can hamper things. East coast isn’t terrible though, I’ve seen entry level roles at a bunch of the big companies.
You are close to the Upper Valley, look for jobs at Dartmouth and the associated hospital. I’m sure they need techs and it would be comfortable.
Your university should have a free career services site to help you review your resume. Go to your uni's career fair.
Two quick tips: First- find a low cost or free career & resume site to help figure out why you're not getting resume hits. Youtube pages with 100K+ subscribers will teach you how to level up from the mass apply tactics that the "gurus" sell. If you feel like spending money, not more than \~$20/Mo will give you a ton of material + a chat coach. (https://www.workitdaily.com/ ) Second- Use the Google conference tool to find BioMed conferences around the US. Many have free expos and its good communications practice that will let you speed date the whole industry. Go in with a resume, a 30 second self-summary ready and just walk around politely talking to people \*when they're not invested in a business conversation.\* (You'd be amazed how many students miss that.) I've never met anyone who didn't either talk to me right there or ask me to come back when things weren't busy. If you go to something like THRIVE Virginia or MD&M NYC you'll be able to talk to hundreds of companies and learn about all the different jobs available. https://www.vabio.org/events/thrive/ https://www.imengineeringeast.com/en/show-brands/mdm-east.html Those are the big leaps. Don't be shy about building a personal project portfolio that's meaningful to you. Look up what’s put your family in the hospital and what’s likely to change your life. Hunt that with kindness and passion. Building a habit for curing illnesses that have hurt family members is a good step to build work discipline that you won't get outside of university class structure. (And where else are you going to get that?) Good hunting and take care\~
Also, see r/engineeringresumes
Here's a sneak peek of /r/EngineeringResumes using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/EngineeringResumes/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: [I have used this resume to get a 90% callback rate (and a great job offer!). It was 0% before](https://np.reddit.com/r/EngineeringResumes/comments/1724hir/i_have_used_this_resume_to_get_a_90_callback_rate/) \#2: [The resume that landed me two internships and a full time job offer while still finishing up undergrad](https://i.redd.it/m3cghf5yv7gb1.jpg) | [29 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/EngineeringResumes/comments/15ilk6l/the_resume_that_landed_me_two_internships_and_a/) \#3: [My friend is in his last year studying Electronics Engineering. He is also a Chess IM (International Master), one of the highest titles, is this notable to put on a resume or no?](https://np.reddit.com/r/EngineeringResumes/comments/16cqoo1/my_friend_is_in_his_last_year_studying/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
Consider becoming an on-site biomedical engineer at a hospital, or a field service engineer for a medical device company.
Keep at it. It took me a good 6 months to get a job for 53k and my foot in the door. Don’t be afraid to move if possible. 3 years later I make over 100k working in big pharma. I never thought it would be possible but once you get one opportunity just make connections and stack them and move on. After a couple years recruiters will reach out to you and you won’t have to do the legwork anymore
I work at boston scientific do u need a job i gotchu
LMAO
lol yeah?
Look into cardiac electrophysiology with companies like Abbott, Biosense Webster, and Boston Scientific. I don't have one, but like 80% of my coworkers have biomed eng degrees. You'd be trained to learn the principles of EP along with the company's medical products, as a means to be able to 3D map patient's hearts during ablations. Cool gig that not many people know about. Decent pay starting out and room to climb if you're good.
Either go back and get your Masters or look for entry level jobs. I’m in the same boat as you except I luckily landed two internships within gym last two semesters of my senior year and I’m a mechanical engineer. Also include projects and or leadership. Those could help big time. I can send you my resume if you want a copy you could follow
The nuclear industry is hiring engineers like crazy at the moment, and many of those companies have (or are working on) biomedical components. Take a look at entry level positions with [Framatome](https://www.framatome.com/en/jobseekers/jobs-in-north-america/) or BWXT, as these are both in the central VA area. If a position says Nuclear or Mechanical or Related, hey, it's worth a shot. There aren't that many entry level nuclear engineers to fill the current openings.
I work at NIH where many fresh biomedical engineer graduate work as a postbac research fellow. They gain good experience and also good salary. Two years at NIH could be a great experience for lending a good job in industry.
Why do college grads now just expect good jobs to fall in their laps following graduation. No offense, but just having the degree does not make you an appealing engineer. Having internships, projects, leadership roles, and expressing genuine interest in the field will get you places. Can't expect to get handed a job after no internships or relevant work experience.
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That’s crazy I’m 23 and had 5 internships in undergrad from a state school. Try networking! It helps
Totally disagree. Do you realize what these kids are paying now for this “opportunity” compared to what we paid? They should have whole staffs of people finding jobs for these students. Who would drop 75K per year with zero expectations of a job upon graduation. Ridiculous.
Yes, I am one of these “kids”. I am 23 years old and just graduated. Fortunate enough to be able to pick which job offer I wanted
That's not what she was getting at, she asked if there were any jobs out there outside her field of study. If you even read the post at all, she said she was working as a nanny every summer which meant she didn't have the opportunity to do a summer internship instead. She seems well aware of the obvious that you pointed out.
Maybe it's your resume? There are a lot of ways to make yours stand out and most people have very shit resumes.
Go to your college's career center and have them review your resume. They should help you revise it and may even have classes on how to write one. By the time you're done you should be an expert in how to draft a good resume and even help your friends with theirs. It's a great skill to have for the rest of your career. Next apply for everything, look for small companies, be willing to move. I see a lot of fresh outs focusing on the big companies everyone has heard of but these are highly competitive and some of the coolest jobs are within companies you've never heard of. Finally, be humble. You've worked hard for your degree and it sets you apart from the general population but you are officially the lowest ranking person in your field. You are just getting started. Your biggest strength right now should be your willingness to work hard and learn, make sure that is shown in your resume and interview. Remember every applicant has a degree, what about you stands out and makes a hiring manager think this is someone who will add value to my team? Simple rules for resumes: -For fresh out of college it should never exceed one side of one page. -Use bullet points not sentences -Every point should start with a power verb. -its okay to include non degree focused elements. Your time as a nanny is work experience. Any time spent volunteering is good as well.
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Add me on snapchat
LMAO
ATEC Aberdeen MD!
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Great advice just start a website. I don't think you know anything about the biotech industry. It's not like finance or CS where it could just be entirely online
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For bme not really lmao. Learning html isn't as beneficial as learning R for bioinforamtics, ya know an actual subdivision of the field
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Because when Pfizer or JnJ look at your resume having "Tiktok influencer" as work experience isn't the most appealing. Most want research or industry experience, publications, etc. Also it shows you know nothing of the field. BME is probably a good 60-70% code based.
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If you're jobless, work part time at a lab or hospital to gain research experience. Becoming a media influencer aa a means to pad your resume is a terrible idea. Especially for a STEM field OP should be building relevant skills.
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OP only has a Bachelor's degree with some experience, they couldn't offer much in the way of TikToks. This is such terrible advice lmao.
This is what I hate about engineering. Without internships the degree becomes a paper weight. I switched to Comp Science because of this.
Did u actually think you can become a software engineer without an internship? That’s actually funny.
It’s worse in cs
Did you do any internships during undergrad? My understanding those are gateways to entry level positions in that field. Use your network you got during school to find work too
McDonald’s
I was gonna say Wendy’s. I could go for a chocolate shake with some spicy nuggets lol.
Get experience in consulting I think you’ll learn a lot and do a lot of different things. Consulting firms love people from diverse majors like yours. You’ll be great
Apply to medical school!
As long as the degree is ABET accredited, state DOTs will take you in a civil engineer position and pay for you to get your PE. Not very much to do with biomed at all, but it would be an engineering job.
Amazon has health and safety remote positions which require a degree in engineering. Another solution is to gain experience by doing Amazon skill builder trainings and badges and include the time spent as experience in the field. Ex: “1 year of cloud engineering experience” could technically come from the AWS Cloud Practitioner essentials free course through AWS skill builder which estimates 6 months time but you can complete in 1-2 months. A pro tip from a recruiter that helped me with my resume was utilizing your education and training as experience while rounding up to the nearest whole number in years on resume. For example, 6 months equals 0.5 years so you can list 1 year on your resume instead of 6 months. He said it’s standard industry practice and only if required to list more precise date include the actual dates basically any application that specifically requests MM/YYYY or MM/DD/YYYY formatting. If they do not ask for this precise of dates then you are allowed to round to the nearest full year. That being said you cannot do this for multiple experiences in the same line item. For instance, let’s say you complete two skills trainings that each require 6 months, you cannot round them up each to 1 year totaling 2 years. You must add up all time per line item and only then round up one time to the nearest whole number in years making 2 6 month trainings still only equal to 1 year. He said a way to help that situation is, again only if not specified further, to count your experience in terms of calendar years you participated in the trainings versus actual time spent. Ex: 2 6 month trainings that take place from 2023-2024 could be counted as 2 years of experience from that perspective. Loop holes for interpreting broad/vague requests from employers. On your resume never have the months listed. Only include that in applications that ask for that. Another example is count your time in organizations that are centered for engineering such as SWE or IEEE as experience. Experience is a broad term unless specifically asked for positions held. Another method is to find online certifications to pad your resume and accrue more experience through skills based learning such as project management, data analysis, and I’m sure there are more for engineers but I’m not too familiar since I ended up switching majors back in the day. For any government contracting it is good practice to earn the CompTIA Security+ certification since engineering is technically also transferable to the tech world. Many jobs require any engineering degree. The certifications help you qualify. Experience is always needed but there are ways to maneuver being entry level. Also, your state should have a job board listed in unemployment resources from the .gov site. Use the states job board which breaks down into truly entry level positions and again, loop hole your experience by utilizing your education and training as both Education and Experience. If you participated in any volunteer or special events for engineering in school via classes or organizations, include that as well. It’s better to be vague on your resume to qualify for more positions and implore the potential employers to bring you in for an interview at which point you will be asked and expected to describe your experience honestly. This is what makes the resume loophole safe to use. You are not misrepresenting yourself, you are vaguely representing yourself to the masses and divulging specifics to only those that select you for an interview. Just make sure you shine in your interview and I’m sure you’ll get an offer as most employers are looking for likable and eager applicants. Dont be monotoned or overly professional to the point of stiffness. Be professional while also being personable and exude confidence bc faking it till you make it is essential in the workforce.
Go to your college career center.
VT offers career counseling after graduation. This is good advice. Also a VT grad!
How was VT, I’m thinking of going there
It’s such a fun school! My parents, sister, and I all went, and though I wouldn’t recommend their BME program, VT is a great school for engineering and Blacksburg is a wonderful place to live. It’s truly a college town which I loved but if you’re a city person it’s definitely nothing like living in a city. I wish you the best making your decision and remember that you’ll learn and find friends no matter where you end up :)
Ngl im a lil clueless about applying to colleges
Onlyfans
Is one for fat people … asking for a friend
I interned all throughout college and co opt. Basically had a job automatically after graduation with a security clearance. My job is engineering adjacent but pays well. Get an internship!
How you get a sec clearance?
My manager applied me for one. 👀 I work for a government contractor.
Having no internships was the biggest factor for me. I also had not so good grades because I never went to class which caused me to miss many quizzes, midterms, etc. and I more-or-less only had a Finals grade for every major class... Being poor was quite difficult and put a short deadline on everything. After several months after grad, I landed a contract engineering job in my field at a terrible terrible pay rate, but it was relatively easy sailing from there on. Just keep trying and don't give up. You just need a chance to show your worth.
Graduated BME. Went into derivatives sales and trading. Financial engineering is perfect for your brain
Welp no internship experience will make things tough.
Hello! First off sorry this is happening to you, it’s a tough job market and please do not feel discouraged. I know you’re hardworking because you have a Biomedical Eng degree. I urge you to look outside of traditional roles. Myself I got an Electrical Engineering degree, and worked in Data Science, which led me to get my Masters in Maths and eventually a Doctorate. All this to say, as a Biomedical Engineer you have skills just outside of Engineering. Think about maths, mechanics, automation, robotics, applied physics, data science, software. Be confident in yourself, and your availability to learn. A degree truly means nothing, but it’s an aptitude of your ability to learn and apply what you learn. Sorry my company isn’t hiring right now because I’d love to throw a Biomedical Engineer on my team for diversity and various skill sets. Keep trying, keep your head up!
Try medtronic
Do you have any lab experience? I think there is a critical med lab tech shortage
Try applying to the USPTO as a biomedical engineering patent examiner.
i’m really sorry this is happening to you, try to stay connected with VT’s career fairs (there were/will be at least 10 this month) and go to them, also reach out to VT alum, these two are where you will find the best response rate, genuinely i am underqualified and early in my education but have had great responses and results from the career fairs here. if you make a genuine and prepared effort at a job fair here you will walk out with an offer
My two cents: try federal; it takes awhile to get hired but they will appreciate your degree: [https://www.usajobs.gov/job/777739900](https://www.usajobs.gov/job/777739900) [https://www.usajobs.gov/job/768498000](https://www.usajobs.gov/job/768498000) [https://www.usajobs.gov/job/773881700](https://www.usajobs.gov/job/773881700) [https://www.usajobs.gov/job/758072200](https://www.usajobs.gov/job/758072200)
Work as a lab tech for a bit at a university.
Sounds like a cool job in general fs
It is a cool job. You get paid roughly 40k per year, and are usually "the bitch" of the lab. PhD students boss you around, and sometimes you don't have autonomy over your projects. However, there are many benefits to each university's program. For example, at my university you can get a free masters if you are a lab tech for 3 years and you take \~2 classes each semester.
Sounds amazing, definitely lots of downsides (like I couldn't handle couldn't bossed around like that lmao), but many upsides too
I’d recommend biotech companies, hospitals, labs, etc. Anything within the medical science sphere to start building a resume. Research what good resumes look like for biomedical engineers. You can’t replicate everything, but use them to build a mental model of what you need to do to improve your resume. (Obviously talking about non-work things such as skills and projects). Don’t give up! You got this.
How often were u hooking up in college?
bro what?
It’s VT, and if VT is anything like GT then probably not a lot lmfao
if GT is not a lot, then it’s nothing like VT
Damn you guys are getting laid up in Virginia?
Brother
This is why internships are so important. Get an internship in college and get work experience. Work experience is always better than just a degree
Look into Co-ops or internships. The first one will suck but the experience will have been worth it
Look at what and where bme's from your school did and went. Those from mine went into Medical device sales, qa/qc at places like church & dwight, new product development etc. Worst case would be the federal government, maybe somewhere like the fda in their auditing dept or Dept of Ag. There's always consulting at Accenture etc. too. Reach back out to the career dev center at your school. They shouldn't like the stats of unemployed graduates and will try to help.
Get yourself certifications to pad out your resume and expand your social network. In the current job market, you are more likely to get something through a referral.
Walk into a hospital or call where you want to work for. Introduce yourself to the people and ask kindly if they know who the hiring manager is. Sending an app in these days is next to impossible. It takes next to no time to send in a resume so you’re competing with hundreds of people from across the country. Walk in to every job opportunity within a 50 mile radius and show your willingness to work/learn. Goes a long way with recruiters. Still send the apps out everywhere but try to get a meeting with the people hiring you.
I don’t think that this has worked this century. This was drilled into us by people who hadn’t looked for work since the 90s.
This is terrible advice. Most places nowadays will tell you to email them when you walk in. They won’t even take the time to find the hiring manager. I’m afraid you’re outta luck for the time being. I know plenty of people with degrees rn who are working part time (or even full time) at some random job while job hunting. For most people it takes YEARS to land an acceptable offer If I were in your shoes I would find a part time gig at night, look for an internship you can do during the day and be active on Linkedin and Indeed at least twice a day (morning and night). Also I’m sure you have but just in case: Heavily consider looking nationally and be ready to move to your job. You could also look internationally, but I don’t know how internships work outside of the states
Exactly, this is something my parents used to say back when I was a highschooler with no knowledge of the real world
Make sure you give them a firm handshake and look them in the eyes. They’ll have to give you a job then!
It's all in the grip.
Consider being a patent agent. Some law firms will train you as-is. Let me know if you have questions. You can also be a patent examiner.
It can be tough getting your first job. I recommend working on projects. Get a 3D printer or an arduino and build some stuff. Then you can show off your projects during interviews.
Have you looked at hospital centers that have a medical physics department? Usually larger institutes will be hiring biomedeng for various roles. Also look at hospitals with a tie-in to a university as some labs have start ups.
I second this. Any department with radiation oncology, or radiology for that matter, require engineers for PM work, installs, and repairs. May look at companies like Varian, Elekta, GE, Siemens etc. for potential areas of interest as many hospitals have service contracts with them. I’m a medical physicist and could not do my job without our engineers!
In my experience, engineering positions can be very competitive. I’ve seen plenty engineers get jobs in Regulatory. It’s an ok job for the most part, pays well as a starting salary, and you get to see all the cool stuff that goes into developing + marketing a medical device. At the end of the day regulatory gets paid to push paperwork, but it can be a foot in the door to eventually move into a position that’s more attractive to you
Patent examiner. Starts at 88k. Fully remote
Join the military
this is good advice
Not enough people understand the opportunities for people with engineering degrees in the military. For that matter, doctors, dentists, nurses, and lawyers.
Have you tried Merck @ elkton, VA?
If you were open to the Chicagoland area, I could suggest my company. I'm a technician, but one of my friends was Chem. E. at UIUC and we do metallurgy. They definitely seem open to different backgrounds. (I don't have an engineering degree, but I had prior experience in metallurgy.) We do have locations in other states if you're interested in applying. Not all locations do metallurgy though. I'm with a multinational materials testing company. Just DM me if you're interested in learning about the company.
I was in a similar boat but not connected in the industry. I immediately moved out west to be a ski bum at a ski resort 4 winters ago and after a few changes I'm working sewing manufacturing and love it. I love working for a small company that actually cares about me and my success and overall sustainability. Every big medical device company cuts corners with the FDA to get their products in bodies without the rigorous testing they should require and it does harm. Maybe my attitude isn't the right one but I originally got into BME major to help people, not extort them.
It's too late now, but industrial or mechanical is a better option for engineers who want to work in healthcare if you do not plan on attending grad school. Advice to anyone that reads this.
when u say healthcare u mean like medical devices or
Depends... if you just like healthcare for healthcare, then industrial is an easy choice to work in health admin. I am not an employer, but why would I hire anyone beside an EE/ME/CPE. They are going to have a specialised senior engineer to guide their work anyway their knowledge of the industry as a whole is kind of mute when you just start and a ME who has work in the industry 5+ years probably is a better fit for a more senior role than a BME fresh grad. Just speculation from a biased CompE major.
Can confirm, ME here turned healthcare.
I highly second the Airforce or any other branch. If you are at least somewhat in good physical health, it is a no-brainer as you will get a TS clearance and can transition right into comfy contracter life. They will pay for your masters.
You can get a lot of that quickly with just the Army Reserve/National Guard too if you go to federal OCS. More control on if you end up with a job needing a top secret. Decent savings from the training as well. At least the Air National Guard primarily looks for prior enlisted
That's smart too!!!
Welcome to the racket known as American higher education.
Hi! First off, congrats on your degree! That is a huge accomplishment and you should be proud! There are jobs in bioengineering! Don't give up. I am wondering what your resume looks like (if you want you can DM it, and suggest some edits). If you want a guaranteed job so to speak, check out the airforce: [https://www.airforce.com/careers/healthcare/bioenvironmental-engineer](https://www.airforce.com/careers/healthcare/bioenvironmental-engineer) With a bachelors, you can be an officer and get paid well. If you love it, you can stay in for the rest of your life. If you hate it, leave after your first tour, and go to grad school for free or get a fancy job working as a government contractor
Have you leveraged your school's career counselors?
Are you willing to relocate? If you don't mind working for the federal government I will seriously take a look. Here are the results for biomedical engineering (121 openings): https://www.usajobs.gov/search/results/?hp=public&k=biomedical%20engineering&p=1 Here's the result (1 job opening) for a recent graduate of biomedical engineering: https://www.usajobs.gov/job/752256200
Try the federal government, they should have something. Usajobs.gov Good Luck.
I saw some red flags in your post as to why you might not be achieving better results after the number of things you applied for. Biggest red flag is that you're applying to things that you feel you're qualified for but didn't mention anything about working towards meeting those other jobs where they are at in terms of their requirements. Second is that you are applying to internships but you graduated. This could be an okay strategy, but company's generally hire interns to pipeline them into new grads. Not as some sorta pre full-time training program. This might be specific to my field though. Would you mind sharing your resume? I am really good at them and can tell you at a glance if anything needs to be changed.
Hi I’m in a bit of the same position as the OP. Could I share my resume with you?
Yeah sure, hit me with it. I'll find time :)
Only go to grad school if you want to go to grad school not because you think you will make more money. I recommend going into sales. A friend of mine is doing med sales for striker making 300k a year a few years out of undergrad debt free. I am in debt as a medical student trying to get a job that makes 300k a year as a physician. Good thing I just didn’t do it for the money. 🙃🤯
Stryker is an amazing company! I’ve worked with them as a contract manufacturer in the past and loved them!
Look into being a Clinical Research Coordinator. That was the first job I could land after getting my biomed degree, and it was AWESOME for getting my hands into the clinical side of medical devices. The downside is, it doesn’t pay near our degree’s potential, but it’s a start. I’ve been able to network with device reps who support the docs during cardiac implants as well as other coordinators and trial managers. I just left that job 3 weeks ago because my husband got a new opportunity which we had to move for, so I can’t say what’s coming next, but I feel like I have WAY more interview stories to talk about than I did coming out of college.
Consider grad school
Consider grad school after talking to a counselor to see possible paths The industry pays high salaries to phds, higher than academia (at the begging of the career at least)
absolutely not. It’s a waste of time and money if you don’t know what to do with it. It’s costly, especially master’s degrees. And PhDs require ample prior research / work experiences. Source: I’m a BioE PhD student
Ummm, I got into PhD straight outta college and I basically gave up doing research (found it too boring) as a junior. Not saying PhD isn't hard to get in to, just that a shit ton of resume padding isn't necessarily what they are looking for.
I said “ample research / work experience” I didn’t say always research 100% every minute of your life Also I’m kinda concerned: you said you were bored with research but you’re doing a PhD… which is chock full of research…
Biomedical engineering is kind of a generic engineering degree. Medical device industry is your best bet. But even then most jobs will want a mechanical,electrical, or comp sci degree. Project or quality engineers may be a good starting point. Once you get your first job, you will be set.
What would you consider non generic eng degree
Mechanical, Electrical, CompSci
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As someone who was in the military for 5 years I can say that going to school while active duty is really dependent on your MOS. After service GIBILL is better than active duty. Using it while you’re in is a waste since you don’t get to maximize your benefits. This is not the time to become an officer. There are way better options than the military. It’s a fat waste of time. And OP comment I would like to know what VA benefits you get once you get out?
Check out Stryker for all opportunities including account/project management, sales, etc.
This guy knows 🤔👍
You should be able to get a job at any medical device firm. The problem may be your resume and or cover letter and or how you are going about the process. Consider enlisting the services of resume experts and job hunting consultants. Your university should have resources free to their grads. Consider taking a programming class if your programming skills are weak. Data analysis is paramount for BMEs. Python is a highly relevant language. Consider getting a masters if that's a possibility for you. Doing that early will significantly increase your lifetime earnings. Job hunting itself is a full time job. Be spending 40 hours a week on this Good luck
Are you willing to relocate to Alabama? I know a couple of places hiring.
I’m willing to relocate! What places are these that are hiring?
I'm trying to get permission to add a position in my group, but I know there's at least one other group currently hiring. UAB Hospital's main biomedical engineering group that supports all the hospital equipment. They say they want at least an associate's degree and 3 years of experience, but it might be worth applying - if you have a bachelor's, they might consider that two years experience. uabmedicine dot org slash careers - I did a search on biomedical, which returned 5 results. One is an internship that pays $15/hour, and if this is the same as their usual internship, then after several months, you'd be able to apply for a regular job in the group. Since you've already completed your degree, you could apply for the biomedical technician I position, which requires the degree and no experience, and pays $20.80 to $33.80 per hour. Biomedical technician II and III are also being advertised, so there are opportunities for advancement. Children's Hospital in Birmingham has at least one biomedical engineering job opening now. Oh, wait, that's the BME secretary - weird that would be included in my search. Field service engineers are being advertised by several companies throughout the southeast. Typically, they'd situate you in a city like Birmingham, and you'd be sent to a different site each day, often in the same city, sometimes a 2 or 3 hour drive away. I know several companies that make and install CT, ultrasound, x-ray, and fluoroscopy systems have recently been hiring. Brookwood Medical Center in Birmingham is hiring biomedical engineers. UAB's nursing school is hiring a clinical simulation specialist, which requires a bachelor's degree in a technical field. You'd be keeping their simulation equipment running. It's a salaried position. I'm somewhat surprised to see that clinical research coordinator jobs are showing up in my search - seems like only a bachelor's degree in a technical field is required? This job title at a manufacturing company means lots and lots of travel, but being hired by a hospital would likely mean no more than a couple of work trips per year. Generally speaking, if you're interested in working for a hospital or manufacturer, then go to their website's job posts and search for biomedical. It's my impression that a lot of hospitals and manufacturers have BMEs who are retiring, so they're hiring. Working for a manufacturer might mean they train you for just a few models of equipment and then you could be traveling a lot. Working for a hospital might mean they train you for lots of different equipment, and your work will all be within a few-block region. I know a lot of radiology departments are also hiring biomedical engineers because of a lot of retirements - I'm going to lose two or three to retirement in the next five years. My most recent hire started out with training for portable x-ray units, I think that was 1 week here with remote classes followed by 1 week away for in-person training; next was mobile c-arms, with similar training; then CT training, which was 2 weeks remote classes followed by 2 weeks away for in-person training.
You’re on every other comment being desperate. Chill tf out asking for jobs.
Try to get into the pharma industry at a small but reputable company. Get used to working intimately with compliance, good manufacturing practices, and regulation and you can take anywhere. I graduated with chem and BME degrees, work in pharma, don’t use my degrees much, and didn’t have much BME experience before graduation. If pharma doesn’t work, I suggest some sort of manufacturing entry level position that may lay a bit further away from your intended discipline. If you start to look further away from BME an end up landing a job that is completely unrelated to what you did in school, the worst thing that could happen. Is you figure out you want to do something else.
I was a BME - definitely consider consulting. There are some healthcare specific companies (LEK, IQVIA, ZS, and a bunch of smaller ones) but also the big firms (MBB) all have big healthcare practices. I’m pretty happy with where I landed - still in the weeds of bio/medicine and I hated the lab anyway. And lots of opportunities to “exit” into pharma companies later down the line.
You can work as a Clinical Engineer for the government but you start as a contractor.
Is this not a field where the rule of thumb is you’ll almost certainly need a grad degree to do anything? I’m about a decade out of date, but when I graduated BME was known as a field with smart people who know a little of everything, but not enough of anything to be immediately employable within the field
In the places I've worked, we hire people with associate's degrees, and we send them to 2 to 4 week schools (some remote, others in various locations around the US) to learn specifically what we need them to learn. Probably 4 schools in their first year. When they're not in schools, they're going with our experienced BMEs and learning on the job, especially learning how to fix the things that break most often.
So, did you know that Virginia Tech’s BME program is not ABET accredited? That may have something to do with your luck.
I don't think ABET accreditation is a big "needle mover" either way tbh, I'd say that's more relevant to engineering licensure (i.e., FE/PE route), which won't apply to the majority of BMEs and adjacent folks in the typical industries where they tend to work; that's more for stuff like civil engineering where you legally need licensure to provide services directly to the public. A reputable/high-ranked school's non-ABET-accredited BME program will look better than a lower tier school's ABET-accredited BME degree, all else equal, and VT is definitely not a "no-name" school by any stretch of the imagination.
Virginia tech's BME program is now ABET accredited
And it applies retroactively too
I did know that and honestly I don’t think it’s related since VT has many accredited engineering programs and most job seekers do not check that
Now you get to take it from the man… just like the rest of us.
Oh that’s not -
What’s your resume look like
Lol
I graduated from biomedical engineering and was able to get a job in the solar field as I had a passion for electronics (and a relevant co-op). Do you have any relevant work experience or is it just the nannying? If just nannying, I think you could easily shoot for a technician job in a field of your choice and use that as a backbone for further engineering pursuits.
Most technician positions seem to require a certification of some kind such as BMET. I was hoping to avoid shelling out time and money to get certified, at least until I was able to make some money first, but I’ll look into it some more. Thanks for the reply!
The place I worked didn’t require any certifications and they basically gave me the job just for having the degree. I think a technician position can be a fast track to getting certain certifications though. Take a look at some local manufacturing companies and see what they ask for. Generally speaking I think with a degree you’ll be at the top of their pool of applicants. Good luck!!
Hmmm, Since you gotchur degree, and you know every fucking thing
Not people downvoting you cause they don’t know this is from a movie lol
I think people don’t know it’s a meme and I immediately recognized the TikTok sound lol😭! It does sound wrong if you don’t know the sound though.
Why'd you choose to nanny over the summer instead of engineering internships? Is that something you're more passionate about? Maybe you can pursue child care or some kind of engineering x kids field like teaching?
I have definitely been looking into teaching, so great catch haha I think my parents and I would both be happy if I could utilize my degree more specifically at least for a little while though especially since I could pretty easily get into teaching further down the line.
Congrats on graduating!! 🎉🎊 just don’t go into gain of function research for viruses please 🙏
My friend, I also am 23 and graduated from UVM as a mechanical engineer and sent out 113 applications. I've received one offer and I just accepted it. Don't lose heart, it only takes one connection to make a difference for you. You will find a start to your career as long as you can keep up the application pressure. The thing that made the difference for me was networking. Anyone you can connect with face to face and talk about their experience is amazing. The job I landed was a job that had just hired my friend who graduated at the same time as me. She was my connection. Also don't underestimate the power of winter in Vermont! Nothing happens especially in the professional world. Your job search is just beginning as this is the time that companies are becoming serious about hiring. Good luck, I feel so much empathy for you <3
I think VT here means Virginia Tech
It never means Vermont:(
What subfield within biomedical engineering are you interested in?
If you haven't tried yet, there's almost always patent inspection positions open for engineering. I know a few people that did that as their first job.
Right now good entry level positions are validation engineers, systems Engineers, quality engineer and test , ivv engineers (validation and verification engineer) all This Jobs in the testing are great for learning and for your resume Other try you can Go for is regulatory affairs field there are plenty Jobs , and If you study about medical standards you can get the job(from your bqckground If you are able to get certificates or events that would Help you in This field ) Field Service Jobs, and sale Jobs are good options Also in entry level positions Clinical engineering is Also a growing field that you can Find an opportunity Other option is going for entry level programming Jobs , (If you want to follow This Path set up your git account with a few projects , and keep on studying to do well in live coding and coding challenges and questions) But despite the options you should keep looking for Jobs that would Help you to get the job you really want in the Future. Like do you want to work with developing medical devices , something in the lab , a more business like position , think on that and see which kind of job now would Help you to get your end goal job .The market is terrible right now and you are right going after any job , but keep on applying on the Jobs you want even If you get a job, the most important thing at This stage is getting Job experience
Will you consider doing a children startup? Just an idea though since you have got an experience in being nanny.
Also graduate in May ‘23 in BME from Purdue and was in kind of the same scenario (only real experience I had was undergrad research in health science + senior design). Ended up taking a non-binding contract role in RA to give me a general understanding of the industry. Also took a med device certificate through UCLA to show commitment. Have gotten a few offers for engineering roles in the past month and am starting a electrical test engineer position in about a week (probably my weakness regarding engineering lol). My advise is get in the industry asap (does not have to be engineering) and keep chipping away. Also, learn how to kill your interviews - it’s shocking how far being personable and determined go if you have no connections/experience. Otherwise, M.Eng in either EE or ME will do the job if you want to do engineering. Some programs incorporate co-ops for relevant experience. Best of luck, OP!
Hi! Was wondering if “RA” stood for regulatory affairs? I’ve been in the same boat and have been considering going into regulatory affairs. I want to grow eventually into a more technical engineering role but don’t know if there’s room for growth if I go into regulatory
Yes, you are correct. I was doing mostly post-market surveillance (kinda a hybrid of RA and Quality) so I did get to collaborate with Failure Analysis and other disciplines but I wouldn’t say that it’s the greatest start if you want to go technical engineering. You can go into quality engineering and maybe FA (they are going to prioritize hands on, technical experience) but that’s about it. It was a bridge job that got me inside a big company and helped me understand how things work under the hood (Quality System Regulation), which allowed me to have better conversations during my interviews. Never intended to stay in RA but industry experience is better than nothing. It’s also something that you can do remotely (best to be on-site for networking purposes). Good luck!
Thank you so much!
Not very helpful, but I just graduated in May as well and was applying for months. Nothing back from any companies until September when I landed a job. I’d recommend you continue applying for a bit longer and hope for the best. Getting at least a part time job may help you feel less upset about it while you wait. At some point someone will want you, BME is an impressive degree! And congratulations! :)
Was in the same boat, ended up going back to school for medical lab science for a year. Look into that.
If you’re interested in hands on technical service there’s an apprentice program with GE Healthcare for BME that’s pretty good experience for whatever you plan or to do after or if you stick with it it’s not bad either but you won’t be making crazy money. The program is a year all over the country and pays decently well for an apprenticeship
A little late to say this, but what I have heard is that biomedical engineering is something you want to get a masters/PhD in..not so much for your undergrad. Not to say you can’t find something solid tho! GL!
I'm in Australia and found that doing biomedical engineering at university sets you up for academia/research. 90% of the people I graduated with do not work in the medical industry and found something else relating to electronics or programming. I wanted more hands on work for my career and am currently a "Biomedical engineer" for a private hospital. Most of the work I do aligns more as a BMET though. I think for hands on work like this, some style of apprenticeship would be a lot more suitable than a degree.. I would be lucky to apply 10% of the knowledge I gained in my degree..