Bioengineering

Wherever your career leads you employers will want to see evidence of the skills you have developed in your studies. These may include technical skills and academic knowledge if you’re seeking a job related to bioengineering and ‘transferable skills’ like problem solving, resilience and intellectual curiosity that fit a broad range of roles within and outside of bioengineering related roles.

The typical skills developed by Imperial bioengineering students during their degree are highly valued by employers and include:

• Problem-solving
• Analysis
• Project management
• Teamwork
• Communication skills
• Ability to learn fast
• Working under pressure

It’s good to reflect on your abilities and consider what skills you can evidence and which skills you may need to enhance. Use our Self reflection webpage to help you understand and document your abilities.

During your degree you will have many opportunities to develop and learn new skills. Employers will want to see what you have been doing to develop your skills and knowledge outside your course while you have been a student. Experiences such as student societies, part-time work, volunteering and sports can develop your skills and will be valuable additions to your CV. Work experience can also help develop skills and help you decide what career direction you want to go in and become more competitive in future job or further study applications.

As an Imperial student you can participate, or take a leadership role, in a wide variety of Students’ Union activities where you’ll develop many skills. You also have free access to LinkedIn Learning and can use this to develop or improve your knowledge and abilities with software tools and skills through instructional videos taught by industry experts skills.

You can learn and develop the skills required to be successful in the job or internship market. For example, you will need to know how to create a strong CV, write a good cover letter and perform well in interviews. We can help you to learn these skills. Start with the Applications and interviews section of our website, and by attending our skills training and workshops.

Once you understand your skills through self reflection, it’s a good idea to then learn about the range of career areas that might be of interest. Our what do Imperial Graduates Do? webpages contain our Graduate Outcomes data which gives examples of employers and further study options of previous graduates. You can search the data to find what Bioengineering graduates went on to do immediately after graduation and you may also find it useful to explore Imperial College LinkedIn Alumni Tool where you can explore the career paths of our alumni as their careers develop over time. However, don't feel limited by what others have done, but instead, follow your own interests.

For bioengineering students, it is helpful to consider whether you want to use your degree knowledge in a job. If so, would you like to be in the lab or working outside the lab? To help you begin we have listed some of the career areas that Imperial bioengineering students often go into which is taken from our what do Imperial Graduates Do? Graduate Outcomes data. Our Exploring options resources can help you to learn more about these sectors including desirable skills, responsibilities, professional development and salary expectations across different roles and industries. You can also meet employers from many of these areas through Careers Service events and fairs which are advertised on JobsLive and in our weekly newsletter. 

A lot of bioengineering students go on to pursue further study at MSc or PhD level.

If you are interested in continuing to use your bioengineering knowledge you could consider some of these industries, all of which employ bioengineers:   

• Pharmaceutical and biotechnology
• Manufacturing
• Information and Communications
• Financial and Insurance
• Professional, Scientific and Technical
• Public admin and defence
• Health and Social Work
• R&D
• Healthcare Science

Here are some of the typical careers outside science that bioengineers often go into:

• Banking
• Graduate management roles
• Civil service/government
• Consulting
• Data science
• Law
• Marketing
• Financial services e.g. accountancy, actuarial, audit, tax
• IT/technology
• Trading
• Healthcare science

Through your research you’ll see that there’s a very wide range of options open to Bioengineering graduates. Some of these are directly accessible from a first degree while others may require additional further study. This can create many questions that you’ll want to answer and speaking to a Careers Consultant through one of our one to one appointments may help after your initial research.

Apart from a few bigger companies, the labour market for Bioengineering related roles in the UK is mainly made up of small to medium enterprises (SME’s) and start-up organisations. These are generally quite difficult to find using simple google searches and have a wide variety of recruitment practices. To further support you, the Bioengineering department employs a dedicated Industrial Liaison Manager who works closely with the Careers Service to provide tailored support.

A professional body, association or society seeks to further a particular profession and the interests of individuals engaged in that profession. The body maintains an oversight of the knowledge, skills, conduct and practice of that profession and can offer accreditation or chartership. You can often use professional bodies to access training or networking events and explore related career options.

Below are some links to professional bodies that deal with various areas related to Bioengineering. Many offer student membership which can give you access to job listings and careers information while offering great networking opportunities. Some memberships may even allow you to register your CV to vacancy matching services or to be viewed by other members of the community.

• Alliance for Regenerative Medicine 
• Association of British Healthcare Industries (ABHI) 
• European Medical Writers Association 
• Institute of Mechanical Engineering Biomedical Engineering Division
• IOM3 (Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining)
• Orthopaedic Research UK
• Royal Academy of Engineering Panel for Biomedical Engineering
  
• The European Bioinformatics Institute
  
• UK BioIndustry  Association
• United Kingdom Science Park Association (UKSPA)
  

For further links, please visit the Bioengineering Industry Database for students via the Bioengineering Careers Blackboard.

There are many well-known Multinational Companies (MNCs) offering graduate level jobs but Small or Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), defined as organisations with fewer than 250 employees, also offer a wide range of interesting and unique graduate level roles. Due to a smaller marketing budget SMEs can be harder to find and they often rely on you approaching them speculatively to show motivation and interest. They will sometimes engage with universities through incubation hubs to help them grow skills and expertise. The Imperial Enterprise Lab often run events to help students understand and network with SME and start-up communities.

• The Engineer (medical and healthcare section) – A trade magazine with the latest information and updates from the sector
  
• One Nucleus organisation for a cluster of life tech and Bio tech companies
  
• MERU – a charity that builds assistive equipment for people with disabilities – potential for volunteering opportunities
  
• Remap – More volunteering opportunities
  
• Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) – representing innovative research-based pharmaceutical companies in the UK

Sector specific job sites:

• Emedcareers – jobs board for Pharmaceutical, medical, Biotech and healthcare jobs
  
• F6S Founders and Start Ups - Website for start up companies internationally. Has a searchable jobs page with listings of jobs in London start-ups
  
• Gradcracker – website focused on STEM jobs
  
• Hyper Recruitment Solutions – providing recruitment solutions for specialist sectors including BioTech and Pharma
  
• Jobs.ac.uk – Research, Science, Academic, Teaching and Management jobs and studentships in the public and private sector
• Matchtech – provide clients with complete recruitment solutions across Engineering, Technology, Professional and Skills & Employability sectors
• NeuroTechX - jobs board with job roles in a range of organisations
• NHS Jobs – Official jobs board for the NHS
• SRG – an award-winning resourcing company dedicated to the science, clinical and engineering sectors
  
• WorkinStartups – jobs board with job roles in a range of start-up organisations
  

To find further agencies operating in the area you may want to explore The Recruitment & Employment Confederation (UK) Membership Directory or speak to people within the industry to see where jobs adverts are placed.

Below are useful websites to find SMEs relevant to bioengineering:

• The Bioengineering Careers Blackboard page contains a list of small and medium (SME) Bioengineering related companies both in the UK and abroad.
• The UK Science Park Association contains a members list of science parks where you can find information on the SME based on these specific science parks.
• One Nucleus is a membership organisation that brings together life science and health related SMEs. They also have a jobs board for their members.
• The Association of the British Healthtech Industry has a members list of health tech related organisations.
• Cambridge Network has a list of local tech companies around Cambridge and is good for biotech and IT especially.
• Work in Start-ups is a jobs board however it can be used as a research tool to find names of SMEs which can then be used on other websites like LinkedIn to explore further.

Career planning often takes time and can sometimes feel overwhelming. It’s a good idea to set aside a small amount of time on a regular basis to maintain momentum. Below are some things to get you started:

• Sign up to the Imperial Careers Newsletter by checking the relevant box on your personal profile on JobsLive
• Learn about the timescales for applying for further study, work experience and graduate employment
• See our What's on webpages to find out about the different types of events that we run, including: workshops, careers fairs, career talks  - and hear from alumni and employers about different types of work
• Learn the skills that will help you succeed on the job market in the Applications and interviews section of our website, and by attending our skills training and workshops

If you feel stuck with your career planning, you can book a one-to-one appointment to talk it through with a careers consultant. Rebecca Guppy is the careers consultant for Bioengineering but you can see any of our careers consultants for your first appointment.