Choosing a career after graduation from an Au.D. program can be an exciting endeavor. There are numerous settings that employ audiologists, including the hearing aid industry. Careers in industry can be very clinical in nature as products are audiologically evaluated throughout the stages of development.
ReSound’s Erica Koehler, Au.D., Tammara Stender, Au.D., & Sarah Klett, Au.D., highlighted career options available for audiologists in industry, as well as externship opportunities for current students at the 2013 AudiologyNOW! conference.
Below is the typical process for hearing aid product development. Let’s take a look at where an audiologist “fits” into this process and how an audiologist is able to add value.
Research
• Assist in algorithm/feature development and testing
• Service as the “audiologic expert” on different teams
Product/Brand Management
• Expert on your brand
• Marketing materials development
Sales
• Interact with customers in the field
• Negotiate pricing
Training
• Train customers on products and software
• Be the hands on product expert
Technical Support
• Be the expert
• Be the problem solver
As a student in an industry internship or externship with ReSound, you will be exposed to a number of clinical activities such as audiograms, immittance, REMs, fittings and fine tuning, as well as non-clinical activities such as test box measures, examining trial data, competitive analysis and fitting software testing. Through these activities a student can benefit by:
• Learning about and getting involved in the process of hearing aid development?
• Sharpening hearing aid fitting and fine tuning skills
• Expanding knowledge about hearing aid signal processing
• Exploring ways to verify hearing aid gains, outputs and new features
• Publishing a paper or poster based on an independent or team research project
ReSound offers an exciting and rewarding intern/externship program with flexible summer, 6-month and 12-month options. Interested in working with us? Please contact Tammara Stender at tstender@gnresound.com for more information.