Vanwege het internationale karakter van ons bedrijf en onze medewerkers hebben we hun verhalen en ervaringen in het Engels weergegeven.

"Solving problems and answering all kinds of different questions related to our products, while I do not always immediately have the answer, gives me the possibility to learn every day."

Monica is Italian and lives in Belgium with her boyfriend. After graduating from Politecnico di Torino University with a Master degree in Biomedical Engineering in 2015, she decided to move to Belgium. Monica is trilingual: next to her mother tongue Italian, she is also fluent in English and French. The real challenge for her: learning the Dutch language. Since September 2016, she is part of Medtronic and works for our Cardiac Surgery Operations facility in Kerkrade.

Monica about her position at Medtronic

As a Manufacturing Engineer at the Cardiac Surgery Operations facility in Kerkrade, my main responsibility is to create and improve product designs in such a way that the customers’ needs are being met in the most effective and efficient way. The products which I design, are Custom Packs (CPs) for more than 600 hospitals. A CP contains all the disposable parts of an extracorporeal perfusion system for oxygenating the blood. This system replaces the heart and lung functions of the human body during cardiopulmonary bypass surgery.

I create technical drawings that schematically depict all of the components in a flow diagram. After that, the products are assembled with an extremely high level of precision and care.

Monica’s education and career path

After Politecnico di Torino University, I started my career as a Research & Development engineer intern at a small medical startup company called Synergia. I started my Medtronic career as Associate Manufacturing Engineer and I am currently in that position; however, I expect to become a Manufacturing Engineer soon.

I can really say that I grew as a professional over the past two years at Medtronic and now I am able to perform all the assigned tasks/duties by myself.

Most challenging in my current role

The main challenge in my role is to be able to manage all the different assigned tasks simultaneously. Sometimes it can be difficult to set the right priorities. For example, the Custom Pack requests we receive, are not all the same. We usually follow the order of date and time received (we start working on the request which came in first), but it happens that some of these requests are more urgent than others and you need to solve those immediately, leaving the older ones for later. Of course, prioritizing is not always easy, therefore a good evaluation is crucial.

What I like most in my current job

My job is certainly not boring! Every day, there is something new to learn and to experience. As mentioned in the previous example, we receive a lot of requests every day regarding perfusion products, and sometimes you do not know the answer right away and then you need to solve problems or figure it out first. This gives you the possibility to learn new things every day.

I like the quality of our products and of our work. Thanks to our commitment, we help people every day. What I like most, is our mission and our values. I really like people with solid ideals and with a mission in their lives. And I think that when working at Medtronic, you can find the same values here, but then in a company where you work every day.

What I like about working for Medtronic

Our mission to contribute to human welfare, guides my day-to-day work. I provide support to more than 600 hospitals: I support the sales force across the regions by means of creating drawings of their requests (designing perfusion sets) and technical guidance on the use of our perfusion products.

What ‘Further, Together’ means to me

‘Further, Together’ is the challenge that we took on as Medtronic employees, to improve healthcare. I think it applies in the following way: to listen to the customers’ needs and to provide them with the best possible products in terms of quality. As a biomedical engineer, it is an honor to work for a company with such values and ethical framework.

My most memorable experiences at Medtronic

Participating in the Options and Outcomes congress in Rome (May 2018). I liked the international environment and the possibility to face-to-face meet and talk to other Medtronic colleagues from other regions and end users of our products (physicians as well as perfusionists and surgeons).