Tips for Success

The Prompt:

“How did you achieve your current employment/choice of study? Compare your current situation to what you had planned or envisioned upon graduation.”

My current situation is, overall, happening according to plan, although with some pleasant surprises. While challenging, the GT BME degree gave me the intellectual confidence to branch out and try new things. After graduation, I served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Swaziland, Africa to work on the HIV pandemic. Looking back to the great people and mentors I met through the BME experience as a part of undergraduate research, PBL, curriculum, clubs, etc, I often realize that the perspectives I gained at Tech helped me in Africa and [even do so] now, in medical school. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Mark Weng

3rd year medical student
Emory University School of Medicine
2000

I achieved my current employment by completing two months of away elective rotations at Emory during the earlier months of my senior year of medical school at Mercer. Over the remaining months of my senior year, I anxiously met one-on-one with the chair of the department, the director of the residency program, and other top faculty members. I also met with two key mentors at Georgia Tech during this time. Having realized that I was interested in imaging and that I had an undeniable desire to incorporate engineering into my ultimate career path, these meetings were to seek guidance and to learn options about my next career steps, as I did not feel like continuing on with “the herd” (i.e. my medical school classmates) directly into residency.

Honestly, I envisioned myself just “becoming a doctor” upon graduation from Georgia Tech. I wasn’t fully aware of the abundance of extra intellectual tools Tech supplied [that I could] apply to my career in medicine. During my senior year of medical school, I gained this knowledge and decided that I wanted to do MORE.

To future graduates of Tech’s BME program: seek out your mentors, and follow your heart. With hard work and determination, the possibilities are endless.

Christina Lurie
Research Associate – Radiology, Body MRI
Emory University School of Medicine
BMED – May 2005

I achieved my current employment and choice of study in public health based off of my desire to be involved in patient care. Taking courses, such as CODE and global health, also provided me with a deeper glimpse into the diversity within the public health field. Initially, I planned to go into research and design upon graduation. I wanted to have an impact on patient care from a technical perspective. My desire to impact has not changed. However, I now want to be involved more with the patients themselves.

Carrie Oliver

HIV Counselor

Emory’s Department of Emergency Medicine

May 2010

Network network network! A lot of informational interviews and meeting people goes a long way. Luckily, through my networking skills, I was able to get into the biotech industry and apply my BME degree towards developing manufacturing processes to make biological drugs.

Parika Petaipimo

Development Engineer
Biogen Idec
2004

“Being a BME/Pre-Med, my goal upon graduation was to attend medical school. Unfortunately, my application didn’t meet their criteria, so my time between matriculating and graduating from Tech was spent improving on my weaker areas. This included working at positions at local hospitals and moving half way across the country to work in clinical research. The best advice I would give would be to utilize your fellow BMEs and your contacts. If you know any alumni or have classmates with internships, let them know you are looking for a position and make certain they can have quick access to your resume. The main reason I found my most important job (which helped immensely in my acceptance to medical school) was that a BME from Tech helped my boss move a file cabinet! The personal reference can be the one thing that separates you from the countless other applicants.”

Norman H. Ward IIIClinical Research Assistant/Entering Medical Student

University of Texas Medical School at Houston

May 2007

I currently work in new product development at a large medical device company as a project engineer. When I started at Tech, I knew I wanted to be involved in healthcare in some capacity, and throughout my coursework in BME, I became more confident that device engineering was the place for me. To learn more about the device industry and how to become a part of it, I utilized many campus resources: professional internships, career fairs, resume screenings, lunch and learns, conversations with people in industry, and networking with alums, etc. The common theme among everyone I spoke with was the high level of impact they felt they had in patient care and improving quality of life. As someone in the industry now, I have seen firsthand the reward that comes along with producing a device that vastly improves and even saves many peoples’ lives.

Shelley Eckert

Associate Project Engineer

C.R. Bard

Graduated May 2010