Deciding to Become a Biomedical Engineer 1

[meganw]

Hello, I am a high school senior, and I'm trying to decide if I want to become a biomedical engineer. I was thinking about creating devices that help disabled people live normal, (functional) lives. It seems to me that work like that would be really rewarding.

I have a few basic questions:

1) Why types of hours do biomedical engineers have? Can I work part-time? Can I have time to have a family, husband, etc?

2) Is making devices for disabled people a real type of job that I could have or is that type of position not open? (In terms of job-searching)

3) Salary? =)

 

[Jabberwocky]

This forum is a bit dead, you might have better luck in the engineer careers section.

For my two cents, though, #1 and #3 are pretty directly related. If you want to be making good money you have to put the time in. I'm sure there are a few opportunities for contract design work but that doesn't seem to be the norm...

For #2, there are certainly companies that just make prosthetics. I think you may be looking for 'Biomechanical' rather than Biomedical, which will at least get you away from the chemistry related things. Honestly you may be better off with a pure Mechanical Engineering degree, you can always take some Bio classes but if you want prosthetics it's mostly mechanisms.

Good luck!

 

[MikeHalloran]

From my distant perspective, I get the impression that biomed school focuses more on electronics and biochemistry than it does on adaptive/ prosthetic/ rehabilitative devices.

I also get the impression that most of the jobs advertised for biomed graduates involve either repairing broken laboratory instruments or doing technician work for PhDs. Both are honest work, but maybe not what you want. In particular, the PhDs (and MDs) who tell you they're a doctor before telling you their name don't distinguish between technicians and serfs, and think that all engineers are technicians.

If you want to design stuff, you pretty much have to be part of a team. Which is good news, because you don't have to be the entire team, and you can get time off, and the team can include people who insulate you from the worst of the PhDs and MDs.

You have more choices with a less specialized degree.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[bioedoug]

I graduated as a Bioengineer 6 months ago in Ohio. I am now out in California working for a small orthopaedic company developing wrist/hand implants. It is a full time, 40 hour a week, job with minimal travel. I make a pretty decent salary and have plenty of time to do extra activities after work. After college, I had to opportunity to go to medical school, graduate school, or industry. It is a very wide open field that can open doors if you are looking towards getting into the medical industry in any aspect.