<p>I'm currently majoring in pre-pharm at Purdue University; however, I'm becoming very interested in biotech engineering. As a result, I've been thinking about transferring to biological engineering with a biotech focus at Purdue. The problem is, though, I'm struggling to find much information in this field. So if any of you could answer the following questions or give any advice, I would greatly appreciate it.</p>
<p>1) What is the outlook of biotech eng in the United States? I've seen websites claim that it's a booming industry with a large need of biotech engineers, while others stress that there are no jobs.</p>
<p>2) Can anyone describe a day in a life of a biotech engineer? Just curious to read more information about this.</p>
<p>3) What would be an average starting salary with a masters in this field?</p>
<p>1) I would say very good outlook. Biotech would primarily focus on processes related to fermentation sciences and separations to create products derived from microrganisms. Such products include pharmaceuticals, biofuels, and bioderived chemical derivatives. There are many companies out there right now looking to hire someone with this background… such as myself.</p>
<p>2) A day in the life will depend on what that engineer is responsible for. They could be in research and be running experiments at a bench or pilot scale. They could be working with vendors, contractors, and designers to get the equipment they need to run the experiments or construct a facility to execute that process. Or they could be troubleshooting the poorly designed process they created a facility for… All pretty exciting stuff.</p>
<p>3) Starting salary will depend on where you live. Middle of Indiana with a MS will probably get you $70-80k. San Francisco will probably start you in the $90s.</p>