It isn’t uncommon to see in job descriptions for positions in the medtech industry with the words “Willingness to travel: 25%, 50%, etc.” That’s such an exciting prospect for someone like myself, being paid to travel the country and to collect the miles in the process. But the one thing that they always fail to leave out in the 3 word phrase is how exhausting travel can be sometimes – planning for the unexpected, exhausting all hotel and transportation options, finding ways to catch up on work once you do get back. The month of October was my travel month, starting with Costa Rica, then Austin, then Phoenix, then Austin again…let’s say I’m just glad to have my feet set back down in Houston for the next few weeks.
Especially with the stress of school work and projects, it is easy to lose sight of the primary goal of a professional Master’s program: learn and prepare yourself best to succeed in industry. Aside from all the schoolwork, one of the most important things to do when looking for an entry-level position is to network. It was an aspect of professional development that I never thought much of or capitalized on, but it has since been one of the most important outcomes of my travels this October.
My previous blog highlighted my time in Costa Rica, and from that time on we have been attending conferences for the primary purpose of networking. Given my time at both the Biomedical Engineering Society Conference (BMES) and the Society of Women Engineering Conference (SWE), I realized how important it was to have a structured career fair to facilitate my networking experience, which was the clear-cut difference between the two: BMES emphasized research, while SWE had a dedicated career fair with the (fingers-crossed) intent to hire.
Having been to BMES in the past to present a research poster, the experience was completely different when I traveled with the intent of searching for a job. I flew out earlier in the week with Tasha and Callie when we received the opportunity to visit Gore Medical’s Tempe site, which was a fantastic opportunity to understand the company’s culture and work life, as well as to network within the company grounds. Similarly, the next day we visited Medtronic’s facility, whose site specifically manufactures the microelectronics for products such as their newest and smallest pacemaker: the Micra. It was an incredible experience to see the inner workings of large medical device companies, which ultimately made the trip out to Phoenix worth it.
Checking out Phoenix’s NBA team…they’re swell
Gore Medical, AZ
However, the highlight of this month was experiencing my first career fair at SWE down in Austin. It was hectic. It was cutthroat. How do you impress a recruiter when there is a line of 40 other qualified engineers looking for the same position as you? From my short two-day experience, some of it comes down to luck of the draw – you just have to talk to the right people. For example, I met a field engineer who was working in the neuromodulation department at Boston Scientific, just as I had when I worked in Costa Rica this past summer. From the moment we identified that similarity, we cut right through all the typical screening questions and had an extremely informative conversation about how my knowledge would mesh well with Boston’s culture. It was from that 45-minute conversation that I had successfully networked with a person who can now offer a strong lead into the areas of medtech that I am truly passionate about.
We left space to the right for Ryan
In the end, here are some key takeaways I gathered from my experience at the career fair:
- Smile and be engaged – passion carries a long way with recruiters
- Talk to all the companies you are interested in, and those that you are not – it helps reaffirm the type of culture and company you can see yourself working for
- It’s a dialogue, not an interrogation – realize that you come in with your own skills and expertise, and you are also looking for a company that can help you grow professionally
- Follow up – they may remember you, but talking to a thousand people makes it difficult to recall everyone; don’t give them a reason to forget you
- Research, research, research – know the company you are talking to; there is nothing worse than walking up and asking what they do… when you should already know
- If you had a bad experience with one person at a company you like, go to another person – try and try again.
Just a classic trippy Austin piece of art
It’s nice to be back in Houston (I definitely missed my bed). Traveling around the country was challenging, but it helped me grow professionally in its own regard. I learned a lot from going out and experiencing it firsthand, something that would not have registered if I had simply heard it through word-of-mouth. I am following up on contacts that I made during my time there, and it has helped me understand how to approach people in a manner that will make me more memorable. Now we are hitting crunch time, in both work and in the job hunt, but we do find some times to have fun. We have an upcoming pie contest, we all celebrated Halloween together, and we even have debates about whether the photo below is blue & grey, or white & pink…thoughts?
