MSc Bioengineering - Job Opportunities

Kellzer · 20-03-2013 11:19pm

RoverJames wrote: »

If you have no interest in quality or manufacturing jobs in med devices etc you are essentially sticking the two fingers up to regulated environments.

Many of the issues these companies face with their products in the field or before the products get to the field are often design related and due to the design lads not having a clue about manufacturing etc.

Given the amount of actual med device and pharma engineers currently in roles that they reckon are a pain in the hole due to the regulated nature its not overly surprising that folks transferring into the industry aren't treated like gold dust.

Most of the successful "engineers" (you seem to not consider them true engineers as they don't pr1ck about on construction sites with clipboards under their arm, sweeping generalisations work both ways ) in med device and pharma would have primary qualifications in mech eng or science, they wouldn't have done bio med etc etc.

They work in med devices/pharma as that's their thing, they understand why it is why it is and also appreciate that every single piece of paperwork is required.

The R&D lads do indeed design stuff, but to get the product from design to the market is often done by manufacturing/project engineers, the very folks you reckon aren't engineers at all, and if the quality folk weren't keeping an eye on proceedings the end product would more often than not be dodgy as f**k.

If you genuinely saw no actual engineering you must have been either pigeon holed in the most basic role imaginable or you genuinely didn't/couldn't see the wood from the trees, I suspect it's the later as even students on work experience can appreciate what goes on in places while they are finding their feet

Your posts will no doubt be very helpful for many though, people need to ask themselves why back in the day did they chose the likes of civil eng etc etc.

I can accept some of what you're saying but to be honest the majority of the Quality work I saw really required nothing more than knowing the procedures and systems that are in place in the organisation (which takes a while to be fair). Manufacturing by it's nature is very repeatitive work and this really got to me quickly. The monotony of it seemed to get to me quicker than other people who had been doing the job for years. I still maintain that to call this engineering is a bit of a stretch thou. As far as I can see the only reason that they want someone doing this job to have a degree in Engineering/Science is because they need someone reliable who can be trusted and I suppose having a degree shows that you have some kind of work ethic, but that can be said for a lot of jobs in fairness. This kind of work really isn't for me and I know a few people working in this area now and a lot of them feel the same way as I do about it after transferring from other areas. I think if I had taken this job as my first job then I would have found it more tolerable because I would have had nothing to compare it to but given that I transferred into this industry I found it SO BORING because I've had jobs that didn't revolve around checking paperwork and ticking check sheets and know that most people in my boat feel the same. The reason for my post is to inform people thinking of going down this route about the reality of working in this industry as I found it. I'm not trying to be disrespectful to anyone doing this job but it's kind of hard to get my point across without doing so either so for that I'm sorry....Yawn...I'm falling asleep even thinking about the work....zzzzzzz

[Deleted User] · 20-03-2013 11:58pm

You must really have worked in a very boring role.

I worked as a line support quality engineer for 12 months a few years ago (unexpectedly), it was an automated (to an extent) production line manufacturing balloon catheters.

There was so much going wrong all the time it was far from boring.

I have met plenty of quality engineers who don't actually carry out any engineering function so I can see where you are coming from, they are another problem in the industry, many of the "gate keepers" have no f&cking clue about production, processes or how to apply the procedures in a practical fashion. They are best suited to reviewing batch records (best done by technical folk though to spot any fishy business with data etc at times) and redlining procedures to ensure the references are correct.

Now I can't comment on the majority of the quality work you've seen but to be honest it's quite obvious your experience is fairly limited, also as you struggled big time to find work in the industry I reckon the role you eventually got was fairly unchallenging

Civil engineering etc would bore the bollocks off me tbh, horses for courses

I wholeheartedly agree that most people who've chosen careers in civil eng etc are completely unsuited to working in the pharma/med device industries in roles that are product related so you're as well off out of it.

In saying that I know two carpenters who have gotten jobs as production operators on a transfer project and they are head and shoulders above their colleagues from a technical aptitude viewpoint. As it's all new to them they're both enjoying it though.

Cemic · 27-05-2015 2:52pm

Hi, im a newly graduated bio pharmaceutical chemist from NUI Galway. I'm currently looking at the bioengineering masters in TCD. I was wondering would I be accepted into the course having came from a chemical background rather than an engineering background. I do enjoy maths but have never did anything above 1st year Calculus and Algebra. I have did relevant modules such as drug delivery, pharmacology, industrial biochem.

Next, the course is expensive so obviously, I am hoping to gain employment soon after graduating. What are the employment prospects from the masters and would it be difficult finding a job without the engineering foundation and no experience.

I'm still on the fence about applying and could just as likely take my degree and attempt to get stuck into QA/QC if I am fortunate.

Finally, I like the idea of living in Dublin, however from reading these forums, its seems that all the relevant companies ;ie: medtronic, are situated elsewhere.

Read somewhere that the matter hospital, Dublin coordinates with this masters?

All help appreciated !

Dilbert75 · 27-05-2015 7:48pm

Unless the course content has changed dramatically since my time, I suspect the maths will be the least of your challenges. There was a lot of mechanics of solids, some electronics, materials science, etc. Without an engineering background these would be a fair challenge. But make an appointment to talk to the course leader to discuss it - he / she will have a better idea.

SF12 · 02-06-2015 9:03am

I just graduated from that course (although in a slightly different incarnation, there were 2 other colleges involved, but Trinity have since decided to go it alone).

Maths was not really a major feature in most of the subjects. Biomechanics had an element of maths to it, and some of the neural engineering stuff did too (interpreting readings measured from the brain). The toughest course for me was the biomaterials course, just because of the sheer volume of information. If you had no understanding of material science at all, that would be very tough to do, but I'd say you would be ok with your background.

I honestly don't know about employment prospects. Med industries are unfortunately mainly outside Dublin (And I'm stuck in Dublin

)

There was a huge variety of people doing the course with me. Many of the students from Trinity were European students. Backgrounds varied wildly - civil engineers, mech engineers, a medical student, architects with structures, a food science grad and even a financial maths grad

If they can do it, you absolutely can. I will say that many of the lectures we had in Trinity were some of the best lectures I've ever attended (and I'm a UCD grad:P). What I will also say though is that Trinity's bioengineering tends towards neural engineering, cell and tissue engineering, medical devices for physiological measurement and the like. UCD are more into the biomechanics and materials side of things. I'm not sure how Trinity handle that now. They also both share a lot of lecturers and work with a lot of the Dublin hospitals - they often share lecturers with RCSI etc too. It's a small enough pool of people, but it's very interesting.

Hope that helps. I suggest you also talk to the college.

MSc Bioengineering - Job Opportunities

Comments