[hkhanna]

I went from being a biomedical engineer -> M&A lawyer -> software engineer with a side legal practice.

I learned that law school was intellectually rewarding and the practice of law can be fun, but I could not stop thinking about software that I wanted to build to improve the practice of law. I took that as a sign that I needed to spend some of my working life being a software engineer.

I think what I have now is a great balance. A stable job as an engineer, with a law practice where I only take on clients that are nice to work with.

[antoniuschan99]

What was your route towards biomedical engineer? That’s the route that I find most interesting right now - especially as I’m getting older. Seeing lots of family in ill health and lots of new medical info we’re getting from then pandemic

[ska]

> What was your route towards biomedical engineer?

These days you can do an undergrad or masters level specialization in biomed, but that hasn't been true for very long. People make there way their from all sorts of paths, including (pretty often) mid-career moves.

One thing that impacts it is you are typically working in a regulated industry, so it's easier to make the change if you have some experience in this. This can be more of a jump for people in software who may haven never seen formal engineering practices. This sounds scarier/more annoying than it is (or at least, than it has to be)

Contrary to some comments here, pay wise it seems to mostly be pretty middle of the pack. Nobody that I know of is going head-to-head with FAANG for "pure" software roles, but overall seems comparable to similar jobs.

[the_only_law]

> What was your route towards biomedical engineer?

My guess is bachelors in an engineering field, particularly biomedical engineering.

Sadly I think they fall on the lower pay end for engineering fields.

[hkhanna]

That's exactly right. Bachelors & Masters in biomedical engineering. The pay is not great, even with an advanced degree!

[antoniuschan99]

haha yea but I have a feeling it will change in the future as the boomers age. I've looked at Bioinformatics and Genomics. Looks like a way easier route for software devs to get into the field and the pay I constantly read is that it's so low!

[tuckerpo]

Lower end of pay and almost zilch for job opportunities without a PhD, at least in the US.

[epmaybe]

I see that a lot, and as a former biomedical engineer I would like to reframe this a bit.

Regardless of field of study in college, be it engineering, humanities, science, etc, you learn valuable skills that are almost certainly applicable to beyond your field of study. I for one saw many of my peers enter software engineering roles, project manager roles, or even consulting roles that all pay well, likely 80-100k+ right out of college. Speaking to my siblings who graduated a year ago, they appear to concur, and many are being paid more. Could this be a factor of where you go to college? Perhaps, but I'd argue it's also a bit about selling yourself to wherever you are trying to go.

Additionally, there are many folks that obtain further specialization in a different area of study via a graduate degree, such as a PhD like you mentioned, but also Master's level degrees. They can do biomedical engineering in undergrad, pursue other engineering master's, and succeed in their desired career. I found many peers that pursued this route especially for computer science.

To further push against the thought that biomedical engineers are without opportunity: The US Bureau of Labor Statistics states the mean annual wage of biomedical engineers is around $98,000, and the growth projections are around 6% over the next ten years, while lower than the average of 8%, is not "bad".

Would certainly like to see any other anecdotes from other biomedical engineers to refute or support my statements above; I'm no longer an engineer and thus my insight is likely limited compared to currently employed engineers.

[marktheknife]

What was your road into software engineering? I’m a lawyer now, and make pretty good money, but I can’t quit the thoughts of how much better legal tech could make it. So I’ve found myself interested in software but not wanting to drop my pay…at least for too long.