I don’t know if you can remove the undergrad stress over academics because you need that GPA for scholarships, internships and to make yourself more competitive as an applicant. I agree that you shouldn’t sacrifice an opportunity for co-op, research, or an internship out of fear of your GPA dropping a little. But I do believe that exposure to different environments will help determine which career path you want to pursue. Or at the very least, it will help you identify career paths you DON’T want to pursue.

I currently work in the industry. If I could give advice to my younger self I would say:
• push harder for corporate internships as well as research experience during undergrad
• understand than any experience is good for career growth
• pay attention to those lectures on FDA regulations
• use your network and speak to more people about the path that they took
• understand that there is a gap in academic lectures on jobs in the industry and do more research
• undergrad in BME makes you a “jack of all trades” but some companies want applicants that are more specialized or SMEs so develop your skills in coding and become familiar with multiple modeling programs

I finished my undergraduate degree last semester ad now, I am a continuing student in the Master’s program. I have not had real work experience but I’ve had internships in different hospitals and research facilities and it really helps me in learning more about biomedical engineering and engineering as whole, more than what I would learn in a classroom. I was also a part of the freshman orientation program that welcomes new students to campus and the advice that I always give them is to be proactive and to not be scared.
Be proactive. Look for resources that may otherwise not be obvious. Do work above and beyond what is asked for you. Properly perform procedures in order to reduce the chances of crating additional work with fixing and troubleshooting. Make the initiative in approaching others to make new contacts and acquaintances.
Don’t be scared. Failure is a part of life and the greatest teachers in life are mistakes. Don’t be afraid to try new things that might otherwise turn out to become amazing discoveries. Don’t be scared to try new things, they might turn out to be something you like.
Also, don’t waste your time on things that will not benefit you in the end. Make sure to take classes that will help you when you work. Take classes that sound interesting because you never know what you’re going to learn.

As a student and a co-op in industry, I would tell fellow students to take advantage of all the resources we have at NJIT. Attend career fairs, go to networking events, and create strong contacts with your professors. The professors are all very knowledgeable in both research and industry. Career fairs also help build your confidence with speaking to employers, and additionally a way to get hired.

My biggest piece of advice would be to seek internships and co-ops, research, or anything independent and specialized, as early as possible. Do everything you can to stand out to employers so that you are not just like every other biomedical engineering student.

I don’t have a traditional engineering background but my advice would be:
• Do an internship. When you’re looking for a job, they want you to have some experience. You also might be able turn your internship into a full-time job.
• Go to conferences. Meet people and connect with them and start building your network of contacts.
• Start looking at job postings for jobs you want. Read the requirements so you know what is required for you to get that job. I thought the jobs I was looking for would require a science background, but I soon found out they required an MBA.

I am currently not liking my job very much but seeing all of the great things everyone has said about having the co-op is amazing. If I could go back I should have started working earlier and then maybe would have been able to take more work related courses as my electives. This class really seems like its going to show me what else is out there. As a production engineer I deal mostly with updating and maintaining the current products and the processes that produce them. I do believe you have learn how products are maintained and it was clear how much work it involves to keep a product in production. While it didn't completely discourage me it definitely made me have more respect for how prepared you need to be before you develop and bring a product to market.

Just like akashranpura, I am also still in my senior year of undergrad. A lot of the posters above say to do an internship, and I do believe this will be valuable if the person is working as a BME. However, I am a pre-med in hopes of attending medical school next fall, and I do not know if it will be exactly useful. While I do agree that it will be helpful to understand the realm of BME, it won't pertain to me in the future. However, I would say that research is definitely valuable like the others said above. I do understand that research is not for everyone, but it can provide useful to figuring out your future profession. Since my undergraduate career is almost over, I would tell myself to take every opportunity that came to me. I hear a lot of people tell me to explore other options besides medicine, and they could be right. So I would give the advice to explore all your options and test out the waters for each aspect in BME.

My advice to current biomedical engineering students would be to find any form of work in engineering, or any STEM field in general. While the work may not directly use your skill set, getting experience in the field is more valuable than anything you can gain from a class. I currently work for a large pharmaceutical company, and while my primary job function is based heavily in performing biological assays (which i have zero interest in), there are many additional roles that I have taken on in order to gain experience in engineering. I have actively sought out these additional roles, and know they will provide me with greater benefit then my primary job role.

As a general rule of thumb, I also highly recommend students take classes in statistics and programming in statistical software. Quality engineering is a globally available position and does not require a specific type of engineering degree. Being comfortable with statistics and statistical computation will go a very long way in getting a steady position from which one can grow.

After working in the industry for two years, I can say two points: companies either want a highly skilled professional in one area or someone with a variety of skills who is versatile and can adapt to any kind of role in the company. Apart from having an internship or a list of projects, I think its important that your resume points to a direction in the biomedical field. It is good to have experience in different areas: instrumentation, tissue engineering or programming using MATLAB, but I think it gives a clear picture to the hiring manager if all the projects or experience point a certain direction like one specific area or one of many areas coinciding with the main profile of your resume. Conferences and workshops, being a part of or creating a biomedical blog are also some of the ways to showcase your skills as a biomedical engineer.

In my opinion, the greatest advice that I would give to incoming BME students is to network as much as possible. Networking is a key tool to get internships and co-op experience. Industry experience is important to succeeding in the field. It will be very smooth transition for an individual with a co-op background and industry experience. Furthermore, another advice I would give is not to be “picky” when accepting an opportunity or worry about the salary. Most students lose the opportunity because they are too specific on the opportunity that they have been presented and not realizing the importance of the role. One always should start somewhere to succeed. My recommendation is to network as much and be open to the opportunity presented.

Networking and co-op/internships play are important. as per my experience, as a MS student coming from a BS in bio, taking a diverse courseload can be very useful in narrowing your list of potential careers in BME. Because my undergraduate background was not in engineering I was strongly encouraged to take graduate level materials and programming courses in my first year. while i haven't had the opportunity to work in the industry as of yet, I have a nice list of tasks that i know i don't/wont enjoy. this has significantly narrowed my focus for the types of Co-ops and jobs that I apply for. I understand the importance of getting my foot in the door, however once your in, it helps if you know where you want to go next.

Currently I am working at Bristol Myers Squibb on a process characterization team focused on bridging the gap between R&D and manufacturing for commercial medical devices. I also have previous industry experience at Ethicon, where I worked mainly on design controls and verification/validation projects involving legacy products such as surgical suture and mesh. My advice to current Biomedical engineering students would be to familiarize yourselves with regulations on products that you are interested in, specifically FDA regulations and the process flow on designing medical devices. Moreover, as I have learned through other courses Dr. Simon teaches and industry experience, the best tool that you can have, aside from technical knowledge, is that of project management. Getting certification when you start in industry can go along way and a great tool to have in this area would be lean six sigma certification as it can be applied to a broad range of roles within the industry.

I think the most important thing to do is to focus on getting an internship or co-op before you graduate. A lot of jobs require a year of experience and if your grades are amazing but you don't have any internships on your resume, they would not hire you. Also research is a big thing, big companies like to see that you are interested in what you are studying and have patience towards it. The more research you do, the more knowledgeable you look on papers. I advise all the BME students that are doing MS right now to try to register for the ME design master classes, they would count towards your MS degree in BME, and they will give you opportunity to explore SOLIDWORKS that is always used in the industry; that would open a lot of job positions for you and make you stand out.

Contacts, Contacts and Contacts. They will get you jobs easily. Visit job expos in multiple cities, talk to people what you wish to do, apply for internships/co-ops, follow up with your application until a decision is made, emphasize more on job requirements. One day you will succeed.

Undergrad students no matter what major they are need to take advantage of CDSlink which NJIT offers. There are many internships posted on there. And once they apply, they should keep following up on the applications to the companies. When companies realize you are very interested, they will offer you a position. Another advise is you should be constantly networking all the time. Someone maybe have contacts to where you would like to work. One last advice would be do not worry about your GPA so much. Companies like someone who has experience in research or industry rather than someone who has high GPA.

I don’t work in the medical device industry, but here is some advise I have for someone that is still and undergrad:
1. STUDY STUDY STUDY—get those good grades and high GPA. Unfortunately, one of the minimal requirements for an internship/co-op opportunity is a 3.2 GPA. The higher your GPA the easier it will be for you to get an internship.
2. Apply to internships/co-ops starting freshman year – one of my many mistakes during undergrad is not applying to internships until my JR year of college, which now I know is way to late. Typically when a company is hiring interns they are looking for interns for the following academic year, which means that as a freshman you should be apply to internships because they most likely wouldn’t start till your sophomore year.
3. Can’t get an internship? DO ANYTHING. Don’t just seat around and do nothing if you can’t get an internship, ask a professor if you can help with their research and reach out to career service or your BME advisor for more opportunities. Don’t be afraid to work for free- I strongly encourage it because any relevant BME experience you can put on your resume makes it stronger to find a job.
4. Go to EVERY career fair- Yes, I said every career fair. This is a great way to practice your elevator speak and put yourself out there to companies. Also a great way to get jobs, internships/co-ops, and make contacts.
5. Making contacts—if you don’t have a LinkedIN make one RIGHT NOW. Contacts is everything in industry. The more people you know the more opportunities come your way. Make sure that every time you meet a professor in industry to spend at least 5 minutes to introduce yourself. Don't forget about your classmates as well. Get to know people that are older than you and younger then you because in a few short years these people may be your co-worker, boss, or the person that hires you. Classmates is a great way to learn about Opportunities that they may have or know are available.
6. Update your resume & cover letter- a resume/cover letter is an artwork and will constantly change and should change for each position that your apply to to reflect the qualities and experience you have that will benefit the company. You should spend a couple hours every month updating and getting your resume reviewed by peers or professionals.
7. CDSLink- get way outside of the career fair to get internships/co-op opportunities
8. Conferences- attend as many conferences as you can. Many clubs like BMES society and SWE offer FREE conference passes to their members or passes at a discount. And if you every want to go to a conference reach out to the department and they will actually help you pay for the conference.