Hii! I am a 1st Year chemical engineer student and I just want to know what I should do during my college days to prepare myself. I am currently under a lot of pressure because I wasn't able to get a scholarship 🥹. I want to be at least prepared for what's about to come. Can anyone tell me what are the important things I need to know while I am still in College? It's hard for me to have late realizations and I had a lot of regrets. Tysmmm!!! 🫶🫶

What's the difference between the titles and which has greater seniority? Is Project Officer suitable for an engineer with 7+ years experience? Is it a good segway into a Project Management role?

I am very fortunate to just have received an internship at a local company for this summer. The internship is Monday to Friday, 8am to 4pm.

However, I planned on taking calc 3 in my local community college this summer too. Unfortunately it is not offered online. If I took the class, I would have to leave 1 hour early twice a week. So instead of working 40 hours per week I will be working 38 hours per week. There will only be 6 weeks of overlap for the course and the internship. Hopefully I can study ahead, which will make things easier.

If there are any employers / senior engineers here, I would love to hear your input on whether you would consider this to be cutting hours and give a bad impression. I don't want to risk my internship being rescinded!!

This is a small local chemical engineering company, so the whole team is very close knit, so I think the CEO would know that I will be "cutting hours".

I am worried would look bad if I tried to negotiate hours with my employer. Since I am paid hourly, I don't think I would be "cutting hours" as i will just be paid less. I can also offer to come earlier on the days I have to leave early, or leave later on other days, but I don't think it's plausible as the company operates 8am to 4pm. Moreover, I can offer to take half the duration of lunch break to make up for the hours. But I am unsure if they would trust me to do things on my own without supervision. I think I'm mainly helping them with the software aspect, but there are also dangerous chemicals in the company so I might not be able to do things without supervision.

I don't want sound egotistical but i think i can manage my math class with the job. I have previously gotten A's in math and i am confident in my abilities. Plus I rather take calc 3 in my community college compared to my university for the smaller class sizes and better instructors. I have taken the first week of calc 3 and my instructor explains in a way that helps me understand things a lot. I have heard horror stories from my university's calc 3 classes. I want to get ahead in math and avoid my university's hard calc 3 class.

Since the class just started, I haven't paid the tuition yet (thank god lol procrastination is helpful sometimes) and I still have time to drop the course.

Should i try to negotiate, or just drop the calc 3 class? If so, how should I word my email in a polite manner?

Thank you for your input!

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Been working as a process engineer at a plastics facility for the past 4 years. I’m considering leaving and taking a job at a refinery. Roles would be similar but different industry. Both of these companies are leaders in their respective fields but O&G revenue is much, much higher. Is it wise to diversify or is it better to specialize in plastics?

Hello everyone,

I would like to ask for your opinion. I am a rising senior with 1 year of process control co-op experience in a paper mill, I received a full time offer one year from now from the same company with a compensation of 80K, at the time I thought it was a fair compensation and I signed it, but I heard that people graduation from my school are going to the Petrochemical industry with a starting salary of 120K.

Should I apply to other companies to see I they would give me a higher compensation ? would it be alright to negotiate the 80K compensation if I already signed it ?

Thank you in advance for your help.

We are already in pharmaceutical manufacturing for the past 25years and now want to start a chemical manufacturing plant in Pakistan and looking for an individual with substantial knowledge in chemical manufacturing consultancy. To begin with we want to focus on chemical compositions that dont require heavy machinery/reactors and can be made by a composition of multiple chemcials, eg car coolants, liquid fertilisers to name a few. Anyone who thinks they can be of any value and confident that they can help us kindly reach out to me.

Im a junior at UTexas studying chem e and I had a quick question about getting an MBA after graduation. Should I enter the industry right away after I graduate, look to make some quick bucks and and get my employer to foot the bill on a new 100 grand education or is it a better idea to just take the loans and get it right after graduating. Also is it even worth the time/energy/money? I don't want to work at petrochemical all my life, but I can suffer it for a few years. Any advise?

I make TPE lures for fishing. To do this, I pour molten TPE gel into preheated silicone molds at 170C. The problem is that the silicone seems to absorb some of the paraffin oil contained in the TPE and this evaporates during the next preheating, despite cleaning with dishwashing liquid in the meantime. This oxidation produces an unpleasant odor, which transfers to the next TPE lures.

The oil seems to be "trapped" in the silicone mold. If I leave a cleaned and dry mold for 1-2 days, some of it simply migrats out of the mold and the whole surface ist greasy again.

The silicone I use is designed for high temperatures up to 350C and has been tempered for several hours at 200C as described by the manufacturer.

I have already tried boiling the silicone mold in baking powder/soda. I also carried out a test in a heated ultrasonic bath. Unfortunately without success.

Do you have any ideas on how to remove/suck the oil residue from the material after each pour? Perhaps a vacuum oven, which reduces the boiling temperature of the oil and thus leads to odorless outgassing due to the lack of oxygen?

I appreciate any tips! 🙂

Is there a cap to salary of a chemical engineer? Yes I understand that at a point you’ll be promoted to manager or something higher but just as an engineer is there a cap or range? I also understand the field makes a large difference. I’m in renewable energies

Is it possible to make 6 figures as a bachelors ChemE?

Obviously experience plays a huge role. I’m 10 months into a new company and just got promoted. I want to know if I hit peak

Would there be a high chance for a remote/WFH roles for a ChemE with experience as a QA Specialist and Project Planner working in Pharmaceutical Industry?

Work experience is heavy on QMS and Project Planning. I am a bit rusty in core ChemE work 😅 Anyone knows any company hiring for remote roles?

Hi, not quite sure if this is the appropriate subreddit for a question like this and maybe someone can guide me to some resources. I will post it in one other subreddit as well if any of you see it there and wonder if it’s spam.

Due to differing water regulations in another European country it would be convenient to be able to filter higher concentrations Iron and Ammonical nitrogen out of the water to be able to dispose it into the sewage system.

Iron should be of a lesser worry IMO, though I haven’t found a solution for Ammonical nitrogen yet. Does anyone have the right direction to push me to or any ideas where to find? The only solutions I found are very small filtration systems for fish tanks.

If anyone has a viable solution that we end up implementing, I will give out a letter of recommendation from my company if you want that or can give you an internship at a Chem company in Germany or Italy.

Thanks

Hey I’m in Germany and I wanna study at an Fh (University of Applied Sciences)what are the best in Germany for chemical engineering?

Thinking of doing something like data engineer or finance at the big banks/chemical company in the future via internships, but do I need to go back to school for like an MBA to do this? I know for the former its more of a training and projects but for the latter I feel like I would need to do extra schooling. Theres some project engineer/consulting role for chem eng that I am interested however that requires constant travels to client sites. Not sure if I am a fan of that to be honest. I did a project engineer role but I didnt need to travel to client side but it was a great experience, so I learned a thing or two about supply/purchasing aswell. I definately dont envision myself working at the same plant optimizing a specific process for years, I rather do projects or process development because I find it more interesting but you have billable hours too.

So I am at the crossroads of what to do, and even so how can I market my degree to be able to pivot into other roles. Like with project engineer I can definately pivot to project management in other industries.

Been seeing a lot of posts related to careers suggesting that chem eng jobs are usually remote located in the middle of nowhere. Just curious how you get to work and how long it takes to get to the office/plant/facility/lab. Please mention your location if you don’t mind.

Anyone here working in hydrogen production, specifically working with Eectrolysers. How difficult was it to get a job in that field and what would you recommend for a student to do to better their chances at getting into it? Also any other information about the industry would help appreciated!

Where can I find all relevant regulations on anhydrous ammonia handling?

I am trying to address a safety issue with a truck load out system and our EHS has this expectation that there is either an OSHA, DOT, EPA, or CSB code book for the design of an anhydrous ammonia load out.
Is there?
What is the API code book for anhydrous ammonia load out?

Since I was a kid I always wanted to be an engineer. For the past year I have been looking into Chemical Engineering and it definitely interests me the most out of all the engineering majors. However I have heard many things. I have been told that the job market is extremely bad for ChemE majors, the salaries are low compared to the course load, and the work-life balance is bad for most jobs. I am not sure if this is true. But I would like to raise a family and have a good work-life balance post grad with a decent paying job. I am looking for advice and opinions from others, thanks.

what should i do to get my first internship while being a student, should i call the company, search on linkdin? if so what position or keywords should i search for? , who should i contact? can i dm a recruiter or an hr of a a company asking if they need any interns or does it feel odd? can i network with with people whom i havent met before? those are the question that are going through my mind, i will be pleased if anyone will help me with it.

Hi, i have a question on which I am not able to find a lot about online. For a CIP system in a food manufacturing facility I am looking into swapping demineralised water for softened water, aiming for cost-effectiveness. This means a significant increase in sodium content in the water.

Does this sodium concentration increase affect the CIP performances of the system? Or does this actually mean that less NaOH / KOH needs to be dosed during CIP?

Looking forward to your thoughts. Thanks!

Hello there people of the community, I am new here and i wanted to ask regarding the possibility of CO2 electrolysis modeling in aspen plus v12. I'm failing at creating a bloc that does the electrolysis and i wanted to know you guys thoughts. Is it even possible?

Please provide some details about role and company size/sector.

Hi, I got into the undergraduate course in Oxford for Chemistry and Imperial for Chemical Engineering. Can't decide which one to choose though. Oxford's got the name, but from what I heard a chem eng degree tends to have better graduate opportunities and earn a higher salary down the line. What do you think? How much will a name like Oxford help in finding jobs within and outside the chemical industry around Europe? Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Hi, I'm thining of switching from biomedical engineering in Unviersty of Central Oklahoma to Masters in chemical engineering in either UK or Australia if it is possible. Any opnions, suggestions or guidelines on this matter? I found out that my passion is more into chemical engineering, but Univeristy of Central Oklahoma did not have chemical engineering in degree so had to take biomedical engineering. Please let me know about the job outcomes of both. Thank you very much.

I am an international student got direct entry in college of engineering in University of Washington seattle and UW Madison and want to do chemical engineering as major.
Which should i go with in terms of

1)college life
2)academics
3)opportunities
4)Overall reputation
5)Campus Safety and facilities

I have heard lot for uwmadison in chemical engineering but have no idea for UW seattle

UW seattle is ranked higher in overall QS rankings but UW Madison is ahead in chemical engineering subject rank.

It could be all P&ID diagrams of a related process like a brewery or something else.

For those working in industry - is your company downsizing (headcount)?

I am a chem eng student at Mcgill and I want to know if there's really any difference when it comes to employers, like does a better university guarantee a better salary?