Career‌ ‌in‌ ‌Biomedical‌ ‌Engineering

Like many thousands of kids before me, I moved to Kota in 2006 to study at the famed Bansal Classes and to get into IIT. I hailed from a humble background in the middle of the rural state of Chattisgarh. My family believed that moving to Kota was the best option available to provide myself that best chance to make it to IIT. While at Kota, I experienced large swings in batch placements and along with it, in my emotions.

However I was always surrounded with excellent teachers and friends who made the journey enjoyable and memorable. I secured an All India Rank of 3580 (general) in IIT-JEE 2008, and joined the 4-year B.Tech program in Biotechnology at IIT-Guwahati.

Pursuing‌ ‌a‌ ‌funded‌ ‌masters‌ ‌in‌ ‌biomedical‌ ‌engineering‌ ‌at‌ ‌FIT.

At college, I wasn’t the most studious type, but I made sure I kept up my grades. My memories of IIT span far beyond the classroom. Majority of my extra curricular activities were dedicated to the annual technical festival hosted on campus (Techniche), of which I was involved in the sponsorship team. During the year I was in the so-called ‘core team’, we were responsible for raising around 40-50 lakhs rupees. It was an intensely challenging but rewarding experience.

The friends and connections I developed as a result of this engagement are still present, and provide a source of a very fulfilling and fond memories. In my opinion, participating in Techniche related activities was the single biggest avenue of professional development using my time at IIT. In my final year bachelors project, I worked with a professor in mechanical engineering looking at how to exploit the temperature differences between tumor and healthy cells to identify their depth using surface skin temperature measurements.

I like to assume that he was impressed by my work, and encouraged me to pursue a masters in biomedical engineering at Florida Insititre of Technology (FIT). I had already applied to serval college for MS that fall without much success (in schools that I could afford). The recommendation from my advisor landed me a funded MS program (which I later realized was almost unheard of) at FIT. At FIT, I worked on the interaction of pulsed lasers with tissues which spanned multiple journal articles and a book chapter.

Working‌ ‌on‌ ‌a‌ ‌DoD‌ ‌funded‌ ‌project‌ ‌as‌ ‌a‌ ‌PhD‌ ‌student.

While at FIT, I came across the research labs at Vanderbilt university and the research they performed about the interaction of pulsed infrared lasers with excitable nerve tissues. My prior background in the field and credentials were sufficient for me to land a spot on a Department of Defense (DoD) funded project as a PhD student. My experience in USA (both FIT and Vanderbilt) were very enriching in terms of experience and learning the American work culture.

During my time at Vanderbilt, I had a chance to think deeply about my work and my career aspirations. Driven by a deep belief in hypothesis driven decision making, and my desire to create impactful solutions in a fast paced setting, I decided to pursue management consulting as a potential career option.

After about a year of training for interviews and multiple setbacks, I will be joining a healthcare management consulting firm (Putnam Associates) in Boston later this year. I also recently defended my dissertation and currently in the process of finish and publishing it. I hope my journey helps others, who are in a similar position, help in navigating their careers.