Name: James
Career: Scientist
Company Field: Pharmaceutical
Located In: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Grew Up In: Boston, Massachusetts
Graduated From: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Majored In: Biomedical Engineering
Graduated In: 2011

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After College Lifestyles

 

Biomedical Engineering Cambridge Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

James is a Biomedical Engineer in Cambridge, Massachusetts. James takes on the world with a highly analytical mindset. He explains that a lot of engineering work involves number and data crunching. This is something he believes everyone should have a good understanding about if they were to go into this field.

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Life of a College Grad Biomedical Scientist

My group collects data from our medical manufacturing site and makes recommendations for improvement. We also use this data to troubleshoot deviations and identify problem areas. All of our work is GMP-regulated and must be properly documented, and needs to follow strict protocols.

How To Get Into The Field

I studied biomedical engineering in college, mainly related to medical devices and prosthetics. I had also spent a lot of time in an academic research lab setting, focused mainly on microbiology, and spent a summer interning at my current company in Research and Development. Job search in the medical device field during last year of college did not go as anticipated, and ended up taking another internship at my current company in a different department through someone I had met the last summer. Internship turned into a contract position, and eventually matured into a full-time employee within a year.

What Do You Really Do?

A lot of work with spreadsheets. I would say that most jobs in science/engineering would require a lot of familiarity with Excel, statistics, and programming to a certain extent. There are also lots of reports that need to be written to properly document our work. Rules and procedures need to be followed whenever we perform any task, especially so in a GMP-regulated setting. If you are more interested in the Discovery side of the pharma industry, R&D is a better bet, but an entry-level scientist will be more of a lab assistant than a decision maker.

Pros/Cons of Your Job

Pro: Excellent benefits, a competitive salary, and co-workers who are easy to get along with.
Con: You may be frustrated, as at any large company, by the hierarchical structure and the difficultly in implementing new ideas (especially under tight FDA regulations). In a large pharma company and this position in particular, it is sometimes hard to feel as if your work is making an impact. In contrast, small start-ups are deeply impacted by the work of every employee.

The Life of a College Grad In Cambridge, Massachusetts

What's it Like to Live Here?

Cold for 70% of the year, Hot for 10%. 20% of the year is perfect weather. Everything closes too early owing to the horrid state of public transportation. Biking is preferable to being stuck in traffic or waiting for delayed trains. Lots of students and young professionals, and nightlife is generally catered towards this crowd.

How Did I End Up Here?

Weighing options between renting and buying a place, decided that buying was more financially smart given the low mortgage rates and high rental prices. Decided to buy a condo as opposed to a house, as its value is relatively stable and is easier to maintain. Lived at home with parents for a year after graduation.

My Set-Up

2 bedrooms, 2 roommate (older brother). Everyone is busy and has their own things going on, so not much contact. Shared groceries and household chore duty.

Closing Advice

It doesn't matter what your major was in college. It doesn't matter what field you want to get into. The most useful (and profitable) skill you can learn is programming. You will need this for anything you do. If you don't learn that, then really, really pay attention in statistics. The world runs on data and making decisions based on that data. If you learn neither of those, you better know someone powerful.

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