Everyone in this forum keeps stating “get an internship or co-op”. For a lot of people trying to break into the field, this is actually a lot more challenging then it seems. When companies are recruiting at schools, they have a limited number of roles open (usually 2-3) and can have between 50-100 students vying for these selective roles.

I had mentioned in the General Forum, that the best thing to do is learn a skill that will separate yourself from everyone else, especially as Biomedical Engineers. That skill I believe is knowing how to code in one or more languages. Knowing how to code even in Microsoft Excel Visual Basic can go miles ahead. Also, a lot of these coding languages can be learned online for FREE. I used Code Academy to learn most of the programming that I know today. One student previously stated that Matlab is very restricted to labs. I definitely agree with this and frankly, I think this is a language that shouldn’t be taught immediately as freshman without understanding the basics behind what coding is. To go back to the question of what advice to give potential prospects – learn a skill. If you want to learn to code, I HIGHLY SUGGEST starting with Microsoft Excel Visual Basic. Using excel is very common in industry and being able to know how to simply automate data is a skill that can get you hired.

The second piece of advice I would give is – create an outside project on your own or with a team. I found that trying to do an outside project with a team allows you to better your leadership skills and technical skills. For example, trying to create an app or webpage is a very reasonable project that you can do on your own or with a team. The project doesn’t even have to fully succeed or be implemented. The goal is when it comes time to talk to recruiters, you can have a project to speak of.

The third piece of advice I would give is something that sounds easier then what it is – write a decent resume. The best way to write a resume, I believe is following a simple forumla:

Accomplished X by doing Y measured by Z

This simple formula for writing bullet points on your resume clearly outlines to someone reading it, everything they need to know about what you did. Too many times people just state their responsibility and that doesn’t provide any evidence that you added any value to your role. Find a way to QUANTIFY what you accomplished. Also, the bullet points on a resume should be 1 – 2 sentences each.

So to sum it all up my advice is – learn a skill / create an outside project that you can speak of / write a decent resume