(HARLINGEN, Texas) – Recent Texas State Technical College graduate Suhey Flores is taking her passion for the medical field to Utah, where she was offered a job with XOtech LLC.
“I was hired as a biomedical technician in Ogden, Utah,” the Brownsville native said. “It feels nice to start my career and begin a new life.”
Flores received her Associate of Applied Science degree in Biomedical Equipment Technology at TSTC’s spring commencement.
According to its website, www.xotech-llc.com, XOtech is a Georgia-based federal contracting company that provides services to the Department of Defense.
Barbie Best, a business analyst and recruiter for XOtech, described some of Flores’ job duties.
“She will service a wide range of medical equipment, from thermometers and infusion pumps to anesthesia and portable X-ray units,” Best said. “Not only will she perform scheduled preventative maintenance, but she will perform any needed repairs on equipment that returns from deployment.”
Flores first learned about XOtech through an online search.
“My former instructor (TSTC Biomedical Equipment Technology instructor Esmeralda Estrella) suggested that I send an email to the company and ask if they offered an internship,” she said. “Although they didn’t, I read more about them. That’s when I thought about applying for a job because I was going to graduate soon.”
“Suhey was challenged many times during labs, including when we introduced component-level electronics,” Estrella said. “It never deterred her from learning and improving her skills.”
Flores said the training that she received at TSTC prepared her well for her career.
“There’s always something to learn about medical devices,” she said. “My instructors did a great job by encouraging me. It taught me to look at the bigger picture.”
TSTC offers an Associate of Applied Science degree in Biomedical Equipment Technology at its Harlingen and Waco campuses, as well as an Associate of Applied Science degree in Medical Imaging Systems Technology Specialization at the Waco campus.
According to onetonline.org, the average annual salary for medical equipment repairers is $50,600 in Texas, where the number of jobs in that field was forecast to increase 18% between 2020 and 2030.
Registration for TSTC’s fall semester is underway. For more information, visit tstc.edu.
