Recommendations when applying:
There are statistics out there showing that many undergraduates who enter industry will enter into the quality control/assurance realms.
For those who have done a biomedical engineering bachelor’s degree as well as a doctorate, if you have not had a great emphasis on the mechanical/sensor side, you will likely be looking for positions such as: “scientist”.
For non-U.S. positions after a post-doc., I have heard that there are fewer stigmas with taking positions such as “Research Assistant”/”Research Associate”. I have been advised myself to stay clear from certain positions after receiving a doctorate. Keep in mind that that advice appears to be mostly applicable to the U.S., however, based on conversations I have had.
Other positions:
Patent Agents:
Keep in mind that there are many types of positions outside of “industry” and “academia”, such as “law” and “consulting”.
For example, within the U.S. (not sure about outside the U.S.), if you graduated from an ABET-certified university within an engineering degree then you are able to take the patent bar exam. You don’t have to go to law school to do so, as many believe. If you pass it, you can work as a patent agent/advisor at law firms making good money. Some law firms are also inclined to pay for you to go to law school in the evenings (while still working full time and possibly committing to working as a patent associate thereafter at their firm). If you do this then law school will take an extra year longer generally but may be exactly what many people are looking for.
The difference between you and patent attorneys would be that the patent attorneys write the claims and you would write the rest. Being a patent agent enables you to interact with the patent trade office.
Side note: Being ABET-certified for a department is very time consuming. I wonder what will happen in the years to come in terms of departments wanting to stay ABET-certified. For example, I heard Carnegie Mellon decided to bag being ABET certified. It saves them a lot of time and effort. Other universities may follow suit. Maybe you have have to be a big-name school to bag being ABET-certified. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out. I wonder if someone who goes to Carnegie Melon, earns an engineering degree, and then goes to law school, if they can even be a patent attorney in the U.S.
Consulting:
If you are going into consulting, I’d recommend that you obtain a yellow, green, or black belt within the Lean Six Sigma certification. I have found that it is super expensive to go outside your own university. Most people can get their certification for cheap through various programs their own university may have (i.e., $500 versus $8k).
Possibly look into the Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey, etc. Note, that Bain does not hire a lot of science-based personnel at the doctorate level. Mckinsey does.
A strong list of BME-related companies: