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Keeping Perspective for the Spring

Being a biomedical sciences (BIMS) major, it is fair to say that most of us want to eventually go to professional school.

Most schools take holistic approaches in evaluating their students, so we applicants try to make ourselves as well-rounded as possible. As much as we don’t like to admit it, this leads to a certain amount of competitiveness between us.

Shadowing, volunteering, working, or research—these are all experiences that we all try to stack up. And I find myself comparing what I’ve been doing to what my peers are doing: She’s volunteering at St. Joseph’s Hospital and doing research! He’s shadowing in the operating room over winter break! These thoughts constantly pop up.

Last semester, I worked two part-time jobs, one as a lab assistant in Texas A&M’s health and kinesiology department and the other here as a BIMS Ambassador.

Academically, I was also taking “Organic Chemistry” and “General Biology II,” along with six other credits, while doing research as part of the Biomedical Research Certificate Program.

Time management skills were crucial. I learned the hard way that studying ahead of time was the only way for me to be successful in really understanding the material from my classes for exams.

I learned to take deep breaths and pace myself when things seemed overwhelming and like they weren’t accomplishable.

I have learned to accept that I am already trying my best and doing what I can as an applicant. Comparing and worrying will do me no good, thus my goal for this semester is to start out with a different mindset.

Everyone is striving to reach their own goals and working hard for themselves, but we can all be in it together and help each other get through the rough times.

I can already feel a portion of the weight that has been on my shoulders lift with this change of perspective of things!

Science Career Fair as a BIMS Student

“Hey, let’s go to the science career fair tomorrow!” my friend tells me as we get out of our organic chemistry night lab. I was tired from a long day, and my brain was stereotyping career fairs as events that are only for engineering and business majors. What good would a biomedical sciences (BIMS) major get from an event like this?

 

But something else in me also was thinking, “Why not? Why don’t I go and dress up all business casual, put on some heels, talk to some recruiters, and give out my resume?” So I told her “let’s do it!” and off we went to prepare for the spontaneous decision we made.

 

The following day I walked into a room filled with different companies and schools. It was definitely one of the most initially intimidating experiences going in—students were eager to show their most polished and outstanding sides, while the recruiters tried to give everyone equal attention and information.

 

I started off by going to stands with internship and co-op opportunities. Most of them were graduate or professional schools, such as Rice University, Baylor School of Medicine, or the UT Health Center. I had some great conversations with the people there and learned about all the different programs and experiences they had to offer.

 

Next, I moved on to internships, in general. It didn’t matter if they wanted my major or not—I just decided to take a shot and talk to the recruiters after giving them my resume. I talked to a couple pharmaceutical companies, Phillips 66, Fujifilm and Thermo Fisher. They were all happy to talk to me and gave me a lot of insight as to what their companies were doing.

 

By this time of day, my feet hurt from my heels, my voice was dying out from all the talking, and I was ready to end my time in the career fair. Even though I didn’t get any interviews on the spot, I thought it ended up being a great experience overall and was glad that I went.

 

Little did I know what was to come.

 

I later received an email from Phillips 66 saying that they looked over my resume and credentials and wanted an interview with me! I thought there must have been a glitch in the system, judging by all of the outstanding engineer majors at our university, but I soon learned that wasn’t the case.

 

The interview went extraordinarily well. My interviewer said he admired my ability to work two part-time jobs and be on two research teams, while keeping my grades up, and thought I was an over-qualifying candidate for their internship. I don’t know the exact results yet, but I think our conversation was very promising.