As a recent graduate in the area of Biomedical Engineering, I have recently started to become more aware of the intrinsic difficulties of entering the job market. I am aware that the economy is not doing so well in many countries and, in a majority of situations, companies are not hiring.
I don't know how it works in many universities in Portugal or even in Europe, but at my alma mater, my older classmates are currently working as consultants or in investigation (PhDs). Please note, that by no means I am disregarding their choices or attempting to judge if they were the right ones or not. However, for someone who has no passion for those areas, it seems like a wrong career move. You might think at this moment, 'Passion? I just want a job!' And in fact you have a point, because we cannot survive out of air alone. Even if this might be a slightly childish approach, I believe that we at least to have some affinity for what we choose to do with 8 or more hours of our day.
Compared to when I first initiated my job search in June of last year (not having yet finished my degree), I have significantly altered my expectations of where I want to start off my career. This was a change brought on by the realistic conditions of the economic panorama which is hindering the entry-level positions.
Here, I plan to discuss a little of my many approaches to the current dynamic job search and the several areas Biomedical Engineers can act in. Scientific breakthroughs may sometimes find their way into the posts.
