Anyone have any advice on how to gain entry into the medical device industry, preferably in Orlando, FL or Philadelphia area? :confused:

My background stems from the aerospace and power generation industries
respectively. I'm trying to gain entry into the bio-medical device industry but I have been met with limited success as the industry is either very selective upon it's candidates, or you have to have a specialized degree.

I believe quality is quality, the only difference is product. The quality methods and applications are still the same so why so selective?

Does anyone have any advice thoughts?


Regards,
Rob

Anyone have any advice on how to gain entry into the medical device industry, preferably in Orlando, FL or Philadelphia area? :confused:

My background stems from the aerospace and power generation industries
respectively. I'm trying to gain entry into the bio-medical device industry but I have been met with limited success as the industry is either very selective upon it's candidates, or you have to have a specialized degree.

I believe quality is quality, the only difference is product. The quality methods and applications are still the same so why so selective?

Does anyone have any advice thoughts?


Regards,
RobIt's a regulated industry, so employers want employees experienced with regulators and the associated regulations. You may also be having difficulty if there aren't a lot of medical device manufacturers in the geographical area you are seeking ermployment or you're competing with candidates that have experience in the industry.

I sympathize with your plight.

As I recall, you missed passing the CQE by a "hair" in March.

Here's some simple advice.

Please read through these two threads
Tips to get past the "gatekeeper" when job hunting (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=9325)
Resume and cover letter - How good are yours? (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=10169)
to make sure your job hunting techniques are as efficient as possible
Try to find a way scrape the money together to retest and pass the CQE (With the CQE in your pocket, you can "wax eloquent" about the CQE Body of Knowledge and how that will help make you a strong, effective employee. Regardless whether the employer is enamored of the Certificate, he should be impressed by the BOK if you phrase your pitch well.)
If you really want to break into the medical device or pharmaceutical field, you have to be prepared to start at a lower rung than if you were making a lateral transfer within your field.
Read this post Trade magazines - free subscriptions (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=8544&highlight=magazine) and check out magazines in the field you want. You may have to "fudge" a little by calling yourself a "consultant" in the field to qualify for the magazine. Trade magazines often have websites where the magazine can be read in addition to print editions. They will have news of hiring or expansion of companies. Often, they have a job opportunity section tailored to the field.
Really do intensive research on ALL the jobs within the kinds of companies you are looking at - find the ones with job descriptions which fit you - ignore the job titles, since many organizations do not use "Quality" in the job titles for QE. but may use terms like "project engineer" or "test analyst" for folks needed to develop and run statistical analysis of lab tests or clinical trials.

Above all - approach your search like a real job and make yourself VERY GOOD at the task. Focus! Once you get hired and start collecting paychecks, you can consider it "deferred compensation" for your job hunt!

I worked in medical devices briefly after the semiconductor company I worked for closed. Even with, what I would consider, a good skill set it was very difficult and I started at a quality technicians level rather than the engineering level I was at in semiconductors.

In semicon I was involved in contamination control and monitoring or product and the cleanroom, carried out incoming materials inspection and analysis on chemicals, using methods such as hplc. My academic background was BSc in chemistry and a MSc in analytical chemistry from good UK universities but because I had no experience of GLP and GMP it was really difficult getting to the interview stage, partly due to agents that seem to have taken over the employment scene in the UK, I had a lot more success getting to the interview stage when applying directly to companies.

I eventually got a job with a large medical device comapny and didn't enjoy it that much. I only worked for the comapany for 4 months before I got job offer back in electronics that I couldn't refuse but my experience was that QA wasn't focussed on improvement so much but much more on compliance, system improvement still happened but the manufacturing processes were pretty much set in stone. Audits are also very different a lot of what you are looking for is regulatory compliance.

Focus on any experience you have had of regulatory requirements, I would assume there is some, lots?, in your fields of experience and heavily tailor your CV to suit the job spec as you will need to emphasise all the aspects of the job you do have experience of to make up for your lack of experience in the parts that you don't.

Good luck.

I made the leap from automotive to medical devices early this year. I put out my resume during the Christmas/New Years Holiday and this medical device company responded. I interviewed and got the job. The secret to my sucess? Blind Luck! This company is young and growing rapidly. They are looking to develop personnel with certain skill sets to meet their needs. They feel that if you have the proper personality traits, along with education and experience, you can quickly adapt to the regulatory requirements of the medical device industry. I was fortunate enough to work for Ford (Component Mfg.) for several years and got to be in the forefront of all of the different quality systems that have been introduced since the early 80's. That gave me a lot of experience as an auditor, procedure writer and as a manager of people and quality systems.

Bottom Line: Don't give up. Keep on plugging the resume and making contacts. Something may stick from the medical field and could turn out to be a good fit.

I'm certainly glad they did not factor in intelligence. That might have left me a little short! :bonk: