Upon graduating, I was fortunate enough to begin my career in industry almost right away. I began working, and still currently am working, as a “Test Specialist” at a dental prosthetic company. Before working in my company, I never fully understood what it was like working as a biomedical engineer in industry. Would I work in a lab? If so, what makes me a BME and not a ChemE besides my degree? Or would I work in an office in a cubicle? It was all very abstract to me and not being able to get an internship or a co-op certainly did not help. But during my time in this company, I not only learned what it truly is like because of the position I have, but because of the position everybody else has. As a test specialist, I work with R&D to test developing products, QA and production to validate new products, and of course management to align with the entire team. I’ve come to see, at least from my experience, that working as a BME entails a lot of collaboration, communication, and creativity. I am more than grateful that the job I have requires interacting with nearly every single department in my company because I have the opportunity to branch out seemingly freely within the industry in the future. In addition, I feel like the unique and valuable insight I receive can better prepare me if I were to pursue a managerial position.

From all of this, I’ve realized something rather critical. It should not be too difficult to explore and transfer to the different departments of a typical engineering company at first. However, the more experience you receive within a single “realm”, the harder it will be to continue with that freedom. Therefore, doing all that you can to gain skills and knowledge from every corner when you begin your career is more beneficial than you may think at first.