MAVES Conference Reflection

So this past Saturday, I went to the Mid-Atlantic VAD and ECMO Symposium held at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD with my colleagues and 3 of my clinical instructors.  VAD stands for Ventricular Assist Device and ECMO stands for Extra Corporal Membrane Oxygenation, two valuable ways of perfusion used by Perfusionists.  It was a day conference held on Saturday and it was time well spent.

When loading up the car, my clinical instructor saw my garment bag and commented, "Is that a suit? Steve you're taking this too seriously."  I replied, "I would rather be taken to seriously than too lightly and if I am overdressed, at least I'll be sexy."  

Here's what I wore:



Some of the presentations were very interesting and had people taking notes and nodding in agreement while some of them were kinda boring and had half the room sleep.  The networking aspect of the trip is what made it all worthwhile.  I was armed with my binder with 15 copies of my resume and business cards, I was talking to whoever I could.  I met another student named Melissa who goes to perfusion school in South Carolina and will be done in May, just like me.  Just by talking to one person led to talking to someone else and contacts being made.  All and all I met a few contacts that let me know of a possible job website site that I had no idea about and hospitals that may be hiring.  It's true what they say, "it's not what you know, its who you know."