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Implementation Project Manager
Agilent Technologies

 

Schedule the installations of our patient monitoring equipment. Coordinate engineering and clinical resources with hospital to schedule the installation. Ensure all product materials arrive on site in a timely fashion to maintain the installation schedule.

 

Engineering and project management degrees/experience.

 

 

Yes. However, I think a degree is a good choice all around. In today's society, it is not always about what degree you received, but the experience and knowledge that you can bring to the table. My BE degree got my foot in the door; however, my MSOE and personal experiences allowed me to open the door as well as many other doors.

 

Yes. MSOE is very well know across the engineering field and has an excellent reputation. MSOE is very difficult, but is well worth the adventure. MSOE allows you to gather many experiences while earning your degree. The Senior Design project allows you to gather some of the best experiences that you gain during the earlier stages of your career. Not only do you have to apply the technical knowledge that you have gained, but it also challenges you to interact with other members in your own group and even outside your group. This is something that I face on a regular basis every day at work. You need to understand everyone's personality and how to interact with multiple personalities. One of my project management classes defined people into five categories: family, friends, fencesitters, (f)phonies and foes. Once I heard this, it made sense and shows how you need to identify everyone, and more importantly, how you interact with them. Senior design challenges you with this aspect of life but is very important in work life to be able to read people.

 

During high school I knew I wanted a combined biology/medical and engineering degree. I did some searching and came up with biomedical engineering, and what schools offered it. At the time there were only a select few schools and I weighed the pros and cons of all.

 

One of the biggest deciding features for me was its small size and that there are no teaching assistants teaching classes. It helped that MSOE is known as one of the best engineering schools in the nation.

 

The wide diversity the BE program offers. You get a wide knowledge base of computer programming, and mechanical and electrical engineering with biology, anatomy and physiology.

 

Yes & No. One thing the engineering degree has helped with is to think outside the box to develop solutions to a problem (both technical and nontechnical). For the most part, I do not use any of my technical education during normal work hours. As a project manager, your main focus is the project management aspect, not the technical. I still need to have an understanding of how the equipment works, but I do not need to know the effects of changing a resistor. I do not get down to this level of design and therefore, I do not use all the technical knowledge that I gained at MSOE. MSOE provides so many different learning experiences. During my interview, I was never asked a technical question. All the questions were geared to me personally and what I would do in a situation. After the interview, I found out that they believed if I could complete my BE degree they should not have to worry about my technical abilities. Also while working, you leverage off of other people who are strong in areas you are not. It is a team atmosphere just like senior design.

 

The ability to manage multiple projects at one time and an engineering background to understand how the equipment operates and is connected together as a system.

 

Hewlet Packard spun off Agilent Technologies and Agilent sold the medical division to Philips Medical Systems. I was hired by Agilent Technologies as a customer engineer, responsible for installation, repair and maintenance of patient monitoring equipment. I was originally going to stay in this position for two years in order to get a good understanding and background of the equipment and then role into the project manager position. However, after five-to-six months, I rolled into the project manager position. I continued to help with installations and repairs for a short period of time to develop my product knowledge. Furthermore, work sent me to various project management classes and I have received my master's certificate in project management from George Washington University.

 

Good - I love my job. Agilent/Philips has been a great company to work for over the last three years. I have a lot of flexibility in my work, and the decisions that I can make to help the team be successful. My manager also teaches the team about the business, so I can understand and have the ability to make decisions that will affect the team. If a mistake is made, my manager makes sure we understand the problem so we do not make the same mistake twice. I do a lot of traveling, which is a good and bad part of the job. I currently cover Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota, Nebraska and western Wisconsin. I also travel to Boston, Atlanta and California frequently for training. It always is nice to see some new areas, but sometimes covering a large territory requires a lot of overtime. The overtime money is nice, but there also needs to be a work/live balance and sometimes that is hard to define. Being in a project management position means having a lot of pressure being placed on me as I am a key link to revenue recognition. The company does not get paid until the system is installed.

For information about MSOE's B.S. in Biomedical Engineering program, contact interim program director Dr. Charles Tritt at (414) 277-7421.