The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory hosted its annual career fair on Thursday, Sept. 12, in the atrium of the Marcus Nanotech Building on the Tech campus.

More than 600 students from the Coulter Department and across campus attended the career fair in search of internships, co-ops, and full time positions, and 21 companies (including one that came all the way from Northern Ireland), attended the event, sending recruiters to meet the talented throng of BME students.

Kenneth McKee, director of human resources for Boston Scientific was particularly busy meeting potential candidates, saying, “I believe we were the last company to leave the fair on Thursday and we most likely saw over 400 students.” It was time well spent for McKee, who held 14 interviews and expects to make at least eight internship offers to Georgia Tech students for 2020.

“The candidates for our full-time positions and our new internship program with Georgia Tech are clearly prepared to enter the work force,” noted Chris Hardin, a recruiter from Alpha Omega. “That goes for both their technical skills and business acumen.”

In addition to Alpha Omega and Boston Scientific, other participating companies were: Abbott, Avanos, Biosense Webster (J&J), BW Design Group, Covance/Labcorp, Cryolife, Ecolab, Edwards, Epic, Halyard Health, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Metasystems, North West Cancer Centre (the company from Northern Ireland), Qgenda, Stryker, Varian, Veeva, and W.L. Gore.

In addition to the fair itself, students took advantage of additional information sessions and post-fair interviews. BME student Gwyn Lando praised a “more personalized” recruiting process, while Jillian Ortner said she got all of her questions answered, and Jared Brown got a couple of interviews. His secret? Preparation.

Brown did his research ahead of time, so he didn’t waste precious minutes standing in lines that weren’t recruiting for the type of position he’s looking for. On the other hand, he said, “standing in the correct line is a great way to network with like-minded students, so I would advise anyone to chat with whomever is in line next to you and expand your network.”

Ashley James and Brenda Morris, corporate relations managers for the Coulter Department planned and coordinated the career fair, information sessions, and post career fair interviews, and they’re already at work on next fall’s event, and have a spring career development week planned for the spring. Stay tuned.