I am not currently working in the medical device industry, but throughout my career as a Medical Technologist I have experienced what it is like to work in a strictly functional organization. Previously I worked for a company called BioReference where I would run cancer diagnostic FISH (Fluorescence in situ hybridization) assays. Currently I work for a company called Regional Cancer Care Associates where I run a breast cancer prognostic assay called Prosigna. Now in each of these organizations there was a strict hierarchy of president, vice president, finance, customer service, operations, marketing, etc. In BioReference for example there were even departments broken down by what test they ran. I grew to dislike the functional organization structure after a few years because there was too much monotony and repetitive work with no real room for upward movement or performance based promotions. I feel that I am best suited to work for a project based organization because of clear line of communication that there will be between the team members and the project manager, the feeling of accomplishment when key milestones are reached, and the experience that will accumulate rapidly over time from working on different projects. There is always the risk of being laid off after the completion of a project or if the company decides to go in a different direction and your skillset is no longer needed, but I feel the risk is worth the reward whether the reward be promotion based or a new set of skills that you can take to your next project.