(2/7) Varvayanis Reflection Paper:

The beginning of this seminar made me reminisce of something one of my oldest friends said:
“Sometimes you’ve got to play the hand you’re dealt, and work with it, you know what I’m saying?” The
same principle applies to jobs as stated by Ms. Varvayanis, you never know where you might end up and
have to play the hand/job that comes your way. Of course, students can choose to accept & decline
offers but where people will end up is still sometimes unexpected.

Additionally, Ms. Varvayanis emphasized how important soft skills were to the interview
process, as these traits/characteristics were what interviewers looked for while asking candidates
probing questions. Furthermore, some traits such as cultural sophistications and technical competence
were more key than others and should be emphasized more by students while being interviewed.

The outlook of the industry is also another factor to consider since the biomedical engineering
background we have allows us to apply our skills across a variety of fields including but not limited to:
Regulatory, Quality, R & D, Patents, Clinical Trials, and many more. This is not including the more life
science centered industries (pharmaceutical/drug industry) or the more engineering focused industries
(medical devices).

A lot of importance was placed on self-actualization and exploring your passions/interests by

attempting new tasks and trying new experiences. Relevant to this, the best practices in grad level
education were also discussed with coursework, professional experience and research training being
some key ways of gaining knowledge/expertise and training on certain topics. Professional training (part
time and full time) in particular developed critical thinking skills and can expose people to other career
paths previously unknown or little known to them, making it an invaluable tool for grad students as
method for them to gain insights into fields they do not know or did not care about.

Lastly, Ms. Varvayanis mentioned the importance of having an entrepreneurial mindset and
embodying the traits that the mindset inculcates within students. One trait that seemed odd to me was
the ability to be comfortable with ambiguity; being engineers we focus on execution significantly, and
that requires a lot of details and instructions leaving little to no room for ambiguity. It almost seems like
the training of an engineer is antithetical to being comfortable with ambiguity and so maintaining a
balance between the two must be the battle the engineering entrepreneur have to evaluate.