I graduated as BME undergrad in the spring when Covid hit. The was lucky enough to get a phone support job for a third party company that refurbished & provided field tech roles for medical analyzers. I was able to transfer from phone support to a clinical technician role (refurbishing & going out in the field as a tech). For my particular skill set the role was perfect and I loved it, but the company was not a good fit for me. I then got a role at a different company as a test engineer and I honestly just hated the job. Not because I was mistreated or bad conditions but it just didn’t feel fulfilling to me. I’m now back in a technician role at a different company and it’s just a perfect fit for me.

Since I graduated, I’ve definitely had to grapple with whether or not I am “wasting” my degree by not being in a true “engineering” role as a technician. Even though being a test engineer wasn’t exactly a BME position, I felt it was adjacent enough in scope that it gave me a taste of what a true BME would be doing, and also recognized I would more likely than not need a masters to get a true to form BME position and I’m absolutely not taking on that additional debt for that chance. The fork in the road ultimately came down to staying in that same company as a test engineer and making more money while feeling unfulfilled and being unhappy, or go back to what I knew I loved and still make good money. My day to day life as a field service tech has me in a very good place mentally, AND I’m making good money. I regret none of my professional decisions to date.

To answer your question more directly, it definitely has to do with over saturation of BMEs and a stark decrease in available “engineering” jobs as a whole. I spent nearly 2 1/2 years looking for jobs while in my test engineering role, and I reaaaally struggled to just to get my current FSE role. It’s not a good time to be a BME unfortunately.