Exploring the Use of Resume Reviews to Understand Skill Sets Valued in Biomedical Engineers by Employers

Abstract

The breadth of opportunities in biomedical engineering (BME) creates both a diversity of career options for students pursuing the degree and a potential hurdle in communicating the relevance of their skills when applying for specific jobs. This conundrum has driven research efforts seeking to understand what is valued by BME employers. Our work explored this area of need through an analysis of researcher-designed resumes (DRs) based on skills potentially of interest to BME recruiters in industry and academia. DRs were distributed to potential employers through an online survey asking about their perspectives on the quality of a subset of four DRs based on their indicated area of expertise. We performed a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 12 industry and 6 academic responses and compared our results to existing BME resume evaluation rubrics. Our results confirm a quantitative alignment between existing BME resume rubrics and employer’s perceptions which was previously unexplored. Qualitative results pointed toward (1) the importance of how experiences are represented as an important differentiator in resume reviews, (2) the acknowledgment from reviewers that resumes are only one step in a job application, and (3) specific similarities and differences in the skills that academic and industry employers look for in BME resumes. Our work provides validity evidence from employer perspectives to support the use of existing resume guidance tools in BME. Our qualitative data analysis expands that guidance by making recommendations for additional tools to craft resumes that clearly communicate the relevant experiences of an applicant.