Internship

Over the summer of 2021 I worked as an intern at Berkeley Advanced Biomaterials (BAB), a small medical device manufacturer that manufactures and sells allograft and synthetic bone grafts. BAB is a single facility with about 30 employees that produces a variety of implants which are manufactured from raw materials, tested, packaged and shipped from this location.

My responsibilities were to support manufacturing. It was my job to fill in wherever help was needed. This often included stocking materials, taking inventory, packaging products, and cleaning labware. Through this experience, I learned about hard work and gained some insight into what it is like being a part of the workforce.

Working at BAB taught me about how small businesses operate. I found it impressive how so few people can get so much done. On the internal website where I clocked in, I could see the goal for annual revenue and the graph showing where the company stood toward reaching that goal. BAB has roughly 30 employees but strives to generate a revenue of close to 20 million a year. It was amazing how this small team could take raw materials, turn them into products,and ship these products out to the customers so quickly.

Working with the other interns has given me many new insights. We learned how to work together and operate as a team as well as get along. Through this I also just learned a lot about the world. Two of the other interns had just graduated from high school and they taught me about the college application process and how to write college essays. The other was a senior in college who is studying finance at San Francisco State and from him, I learned about what college life is like and about the process of getting a job as a finance major.

I also learned how and why medical device companies follow good manufacturing procedures. Since it was a medical device company, we had to keep our product completely sanitized. When I started working there, my first few days taught me how to uphold and understand the FDA standards. For my job I often worked in clean rooms with various levels of security. For example, in the pouching room where the product was not yet sealed from the environment, it was very important to take every precaution. In this area, I had to wear a gown, hair net, face mask, gloves, and shoe covers. In the kit packing room things were more relaxed because the product was double pouched and sterilized therefore shoe covers were not required.

I also learned about how jobs are not necessarily going to be something you like. For example, I did not like the hours I worked. Since the work day started at 6:00am I had to be up by 5:20 to get ready and drive to work. The benefit is that I did get home at 3:00, but I was always so tired when I got home that I couldn’t really do anything. At the same time, the work I was doing was pretty menial. Some days I would measure and cut pouches for eight hours a day. Other days I spent endless hours in the warehouse counting supplies. This experience has made me more ethustaic going to college to hopefully avoid these mind numbing and labor intensive jobs. Despite these negatives,this was my first job and overall it was a really great experience. I am so glad to have gained these knowledge and skills about being part the workforce.