As you prepare for your next job, you must have the knowledge and confidence to tackle common questions asked in Biomedical Engineering interviews.
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Who is this Post Helpful for?
This post will be helpful for the following people:
Graduate Biomedical Engineers looking for entry-level positions who want to know what types of questions are asked in interviews
Biomedical Engineers with a few years of experience looking to move companies for the first time.
People applying for roles in Medical Devices companies as engineers, regardless of department*.
*The term "Biomedical Engineer" is very broad and merely acts as an umbrella term that all engineers working in the Medtech Industry should be able to identify with. If you are applying for roles within Quality, R&D, Manufacturing, or Process Development (this list could continue), then you are in the right place.
The Biomedical Engineer Interview Process
Before being invited for an in-person interview, it is common for a short phone call to be arranged with HR or the hiring manager to initiate conversations. This call is typically brief and serves as an opportunity for the employer to gain an initial impression of you as a potential candidate before proceeding with an interview. This will involve a discussion around your availability for an interview to support scheduling in addition to some basic employment questions such as where you are on your career path, potential notice period, salary expectations, graduation dates, when you could start, etc. This is what is referred to as a screening call.
The next stage of a Biomedical Engineer interview would usually involve two people from the department with the opening. You might be interviewed by two senior engineers or a senior engineer and the hiring manager. There may only be a screening call and a first-round interview for entry-level roles before an offer is made. For a more experienced position, there would typically be two interviews, with the second involving someone at the manager level.
Types of Biomedical Engineer Interview Questions
The questions asked in interviews will not vary massively for similar roles, which is positive for us. In an interview for a biomedical engineering position, you can expect to encounter three main types of questions that will allow employers to assess your suitability for the role.
Questions About Your Motivations for Applying
Firstly, you may be asked about your interests and motivations for pursuing a new opportunity or leaving your current role. These questions aim to gauge your passion for biomedical engineering, career aspirations, fit within the organization's culture, and reasons for leaving your current position.
When asked about your motivations for working in the open role, you must showcase your enthusiasm and alignment with the organization. Begin by highlighting the aspects that attracted you to the role, such as the department or the company's size. For instance, you might have applied because you wanted to work in R&D in a small company as you felt you would be given more responsibility, or perhaps the therapy area the device treats appealed to you greatly.
Next, discuss what you hope to learn and achieve within the company. Refer to areas of the job description and emphasize the specific skills and experiences you are eager to develop in the role. For example, if the position requires the development of new processes, describe why that excites you and how you are keen to innovate and become a subject matter expert (SME) on new technologies for the company.
Technical Biomedical Engineer Interview Questions
Technical experience questions will test your knowledge and expertise in specific areas relevant to the position. These questions may cover medical device design, research methodologies, regulatory compliance, or software proficiency. The particular questions asked will vary depending on the role. The job description for the position will provide good guidance about this.
When addressing questions about your technical experience in an interview for a biomedical engineer role, it's crucial to provide specific examples highlighting your expertise and problem-solving abilities. To effectively demonstrate your technical skills, follow these key points:
Introduce the Problem:
Start by describing the technical problem or challenge you encountered. Clearly explain the context, the specific issue you faced, and why it was significant in your role as a biomedical engineer. You want to create buy-in from your interviewer so they can easily follow your example, and a clear introduction helps with this.
Talk Through Your Actions:
Explain the steps you took to address the problem. Think about the work you completed here and try to provide examples of adjusting to time constraints, working with other team members/ departments, consulting with relevant SMEs, or the steps you took to experiment to find your solution.
Explain the Success:
Share the outcome or success of your actions. Discuss how your technical expertise and problem-solving skills led to a positive result. Quantify the impact whenever possible, such as improved efficiency, cost savings, or enhanced product performance. Highlight how your contributions made a tangible difference in the project or organization.
Addressing Gaps in Technical Expertise:
No one has every item on a job description covered. If you encounter a question about an area where you may be weaker or lack experience, it's essential to be honest and transparent. Acknowledge the gap in your knowledge, but emphasize your willingness and eagerness to learn and develop. It is worth mentioning that you are actively seeking exposure to this area when asked about it. This is often the case as people look to move into new departments or device areas, and showing a proactive, positive attitude to learning is critical.
A second point is emphasizing your ability to leverage your strengths to compensate for weaknesses. Showcase your versatility and highlight how your strong foundation in other technical areas enables you to grasp new concepts and apply them effectively. This would not apply to every area, but for things like project management, presentations, managing a bigger team, etc., you might be able to use previous experience as a basis for why you can grow into the requirements for the current role.
General Biomedical Engineer Interview Questions
The last group of questions you might be asked are general interview questions. These questions relate to broad topics like your organizational skills, conflict management, strengths and weaknesses, and achievements. There are a wide range of topics that could be covered here. Still, as a basis, you should prepare an example of conflict resolution, describe how you plan and manage work, your strengths and weaknesses, and think about your most significant achievements to date from a professional and personal standpoint.
You want to bring your interviewer with you when talking through your experience. Have a clear beginning, middle, and end in your mind for any examples you provide; providing easy-to-understand examples is critical.
Sample Interview Questions and Answers for Graduate Biomedical Engineers
Entry-level positions will focus mainly on your college coursework and whatever relative work experience you might have from a college placement. Try to get a lot of information into this answer and mention what your day-to-day tasks looked like.
Q. Tell me about your experience on placement/internship.
“I did nine months as a placemnet student in company X. During this time I did two rotations where I got to spend time understanding how manufacturing lines work for commercial projects but also got to see the early R&D side of development . In the manufacturing position I had to meet with operators daily and get updates regarding build progress and yield issues so I could report them in the daily production meeting to the senior engineer. I also did work going through old work orders to track defects and inputting this into excel. This helped the team decide what areas of the process needed improvement. In R&D I worked with an engineer developing test methods and designing fixtures. This involved drawing things in SolidWorks and completing 3D prints of parts to trial the designs.”
This answer provides good insight into the activities you completed and allows the interviewer to ask several follow-up questions about your interests and competencies relating to this.
Q. Tell me about a large project you completed in college.
“For my final year project I completed a lot of work investigating X. The project ran for 7 months and involved completing initial research reviewing articles related to X to get an idea for the work previoulsy completed on this. I then spent 8 weeks completing development work in the lab where I kept detailed experimental logs of my trials. I would have used microscopes, SEM and tensile testing machines for gathering data. The project ended with a large report detailing my results and a presentation was held to my supervisor and a cross examiner for grading.”
This question would be asked frequently for entry-level positions as a large project is common in final-year engineering, and it can be a significant talking point in the interview. Some important points would be to mention equipment used or data processing techniques used as applicable, these often have cross-over with working in industry.
Q. How do you work as part of a team?
“I feel I work well as part of a team. I have played team sports since I was young so I am accustomed to the importance of getting on well with your team mates and how it is vital that everyone is aware of their roles. I also would have been on several group projects throughout college and I always enjoyed when we were able to work on group projects together. One of these was a project looking to develop a new type of device where we...”
Or
“I feel I work well as part of a team. I was on several group projects in college and always found them very enjoyable. I enjoy being able to break out tasks between a group of people to get something knowing we all have our roles and I feel it is very enjoyable when the entire group does well after an assignment. One of these was a project looking to develop a new type of device where we...”
The above answers are simple but address the main aspect which is really that you are able to work with others. Most engineering roles involve a lot of interpersonal and teamwork skills, so this would be something that is commonly asked in entry-level positions. Mentioning the type of project you completed can lead to good follow-up questions about how work was divided out and possibly about any conflict you may have had in these groups, so look to prepare examples for these also.
Sample Interview Questions and Answers for Experienced Biomedical Engineers
Q. When was a time that you had a conflict at work?
“On a previous project I had conflict with a vendor over the lead time for tooling. They were frustrated by the tight timeline I had requested the parts by and were refusing to process my parts earlier. This was going to delay our project milestone. To come to a resolution for this, I got in contact with other engineers who had orders placed and was able to provide the vendor with a priority list based off both my requirements and the other engineers that allowed them to prioritise my order while not impacting my team members deliverables.”
Try to think of a technical/timeline-focused example for this question. Another good direction to take here is showcasing an example where you disagreed with someone not following procedures for an important task. The critical point for this type of question is to display how you can address conflict yourself and come to a resolution while keeping the company/project priorities to the fore. You don't want to choose an example where the only resolution was that you escalated it to your manager.
Q. Tell me about a challenge you faced at work and how you dealt with it.
”A challenge I faced was in relation to dealing with a low yield on our production line as parts were being scrapped for burning defects. This issue was costing the company significant money in rejects, so I initiated a root cause investigation with the team and worked with the operators on the line to identify possible causes of these failures. We managed to track the failures to a particular station on the line and identified that one of the pieces of equipment in use was not capable of meeting our throughput which was leading to overheating and burning of parts. To solve this, I identified new equipment with a vendor, completed trials on our parts to confirm they still met our specification and finally installed it on the line to prevent any reoccurrence of this issue. This led to an 8% improvement in our final yield that was a significant cost saving to the company”
For this type of question, you want to discuss a topic you know well with a clear beginning, middle, and end and a clear resolution. Being asked this in an interview is an excellent opportunity to highlight some of your strongest experiences.
Q. Why are you looking for a change?
“I am looking to gain more experience around catheter development. In my previous position I mainly focused on the development of implantable devices so I did not get the opportunity to work directly on the delivery system. I am hoping that this role will give me that kind of experience as I want to develop into an SME for device development and I have a good knowledge of implantable components already. My previous company was also much larger, and I am hoping that working for a smaller company here will grant me more responsibility and opportunity to learn.”
Avoid saying anything negative about your previous employer/ manager.
Instead, say that you hope to broaden your skill set in this organization, are looking at moving from a design/ process/ quality, etc. role into a different one, or want to gain experience with a new therapy area/ device element. Try to spend more time discussing what draws you to the new role rather than making you want to leave your previous one.
If it is a case that your move isn’t into a new area for you, try to identify a key difference between your current role and the new one that would explain why you are moving. Location might also be a critical factor in your decision, which is a valid answer, but always try to relate it to the open role where possible.
If you found this helpful, look at our Interview Questions Guide for a comprehensive overview of the interview process and 20 pages of interview questions and answers for Biomedical Engineers.
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