What are biomedical engineering employers looking for in new hires? A Qualitative Synthesis

This work in progress research paper describes part of a project that aims to understand what qualifications BME industry employers prefer in the hiring process. An inductive content analysis of 95 job postings relevant to upper-level or soon-to-be graduated biomedical engineering (BME) bachelor's degree students was performed to explore patterns in responsibilities and qualifications within these postings. Results from this work indicate a high emphasis on employees' ability to apply technical documentation and communication skills in the job setting. Codes related to job qualifications indicate industry employers prefer employees with general professional skills that allow them to work in a team setting and solve problems. Additionally, we found that employers are often open to hiring BME majors in addition to multiple other engineering and life sciences majors for the positions listed in the postings in this targeted BME job search. In future work, the results of this content analysis will be used to inform the development of a set of archetypal BME student resumes that will be used in semi-structured interviews with BME industry hiring managers. The interviews seek to examine the alignment between what job postings indicate as important, what hiring managers articulate as important in hiring decisions, and what hiring managers view in resumes as representing those qualifications. The overarching goal of this work is to understand the landscape of BME industry hiring practices and increase alignment in the goals of industry, students, and educators. Results have the potential to inform how students engage with BME education, how they represent their experiences in application materials, and how educators structure BME curriculum.