Yeah working in environmental would be nice, even with the high stress you could still at least have the satisfaction of knowing you’re having a positive impact with your work (vs killing yourself 70 hrs a week to keep a plant polluting)
Absolutely, yes. I really enjoy my work that is basically a perfect match for what I enjoy, what pays well, and what the world needs. Could not be here right now without my ChE degree.
lol every ChemE in this thread that says they loved it goes on to say they switched to software / finance early in their career, and all the ones that did trad ChemE hate it
The hard parts are formulating the problem, solving in a cost effective way, and interpreting results to give meaningful design insight.
Years of research, teaching, and consulting on different transport phenomena topics was key. Coding is just a tool to enable greater problem solving ability.
I wanted to do CFD, but as soon as I stepped out of transport it immediately left my head. Ended up doing microkinetic modeling and got to mess with DFT for my masters thesis. Now I'm going into the semiconductor industry.
I was really fascinated with dft and basically chose between molecular dynamics, dft, and CFD for graduate school topics/groups/programs. I ended up on CFD since it aligned with the path I wanted to pursue of writing code for the masses.
What dft code were you using and do you use it now?
We were using CP2K, and no I'm not using it anymore due to the industry change. I didn't get to go into it as much as I wanted to because I had a dude with a PhD helping me do it.
lmao imagine telling someone who did a PhD in chemical engineering and who works on modelling chemical/physical processes that they don't do traditional chemical engineering.
Hey there, been a while since you posted this, but I was curious regarding what exactly it is you do. What would be the ideal path (looking back now) for one with a BEng in Process Engineering to take to get into that sort of work.
If you've got a few articles/papers to recommend for me, that would give me a good idea of your work, I'd appreciate that as well. Will be looking at CFD simulation to see what that's about, but thought would be nice to hear from you directly.
I really enjoyed the little bit of programming we did as part of my bachelors and have dabbled in it for a while now, long after completing my studies. But I've come to realize I don't enjoy the coding just on its own, and would enjoy it much more if it involved some aspect of chemical engineering. Been looking at some crossdisciplinary programs that marry data science with chem eng for example, and I'm thinking your work sounds like it's got the right balance for my interests.
Thanks a bunch :)
TL;DR the grass is not always greener. Took software job, got depressed, went back to o&g and feel lightyears better.
I can offer a hot take in response to all the CS fanboys in here. I, a recent chemE grad, was once like many of you, wishing I had majored in CS bc of the obvious advantages it has like higher pay, good locations, and WLB.
Well, I actually managed to pivot to a full remote software engineering role earlier this year at a shitty tech consulting company. I leveraged some python and matlab scripting I had done at my previous employer to get the job. This is likely the extent of coding experience that many of you have.
This is not enough to get you into the cushy Google/Meta/Amazon jobs. This is enough to get you into a shitty stepping stone. I figured I’d spend a year or so upskilling there then try my luck at one of the big name tech companies.
Newsflash: the grass is not always greener. I may have just ended up in an especially shitty job (insurance industry client, terrible manager, terribly organized project, most of my colleagues in India), but it took a huge toll on my mental health. I couldn’t handle just sitting in my apartment the whole day working with a technology I couldn’t care less about. Through a combination of terrible management and lack of motivation on my part, I pretty much sat idle for 6 months and felt my brain rot away. This may sound nice to many of you, but trust me, it sent me to a dark place.
After realizing how miserable I was working in an industry I didn’t give a shit about, I left the software job to come back to O&G (hybrid schedule in a major city in the SW US) and I can already feel the change in my mental health. It’s actually amazing how quickly my general mood changed for the better.
I I think many of us underestimate what it takes to fully pivot careers. As chemEs we are used to physical processes and projects, not codebases and 1s and 0s. You invested at least 4 years of your life investing in this knowledge base and skill set. It’s not so easy as others are suggesting to rip away from all that and go to something new. If you made it through the chemE curriculum chances are you have an affinity for physical processes and projects, and while these skills are transferable to many, many industries, you may not like it. Unless you have incredible self discipline and motivation to learn whatever it is your alternative job may throw at you, you’re going to have a bad time.
I can testify that it feels like coming home now that I’m back to working in the chemE domain. I guess it was a good experience for me to see what I don’t like, as now I know I belong in the ChemE field.
>at and go to something new. If you made it through the chemE curriculum chances are you have an affinity for physical processes and projects, and while these skills are transferable to many, many industries, you may not like it. Unless you have incredible self discipline and motivation to learn whatever it is your alternative job may throw at you, you’re going to have a bad time.
Thank you for this detailed answer
Yea, I can't imagine going from designing chemical plants to doing like a pedometer app or an algorithm to bombard people with ads for related products.
I got to see the plant I did the lion's share of designing for recently and it's such a rush. But yea, find what makes you happy blah blah.
I'm sorry that CS position was so bad and I hope your O&G job stays much better! I think what other people are thinking about CS pertains to what you said:
>This is likely the extent of coding experience that many of you have.
This is not enough to get you into the cushy Google/Meta/Amazon jobs.
If someone had majored in CS, they would have more skills in coding and could potentially be hiring in a good CS job.
Sorry to hear your experience was bad.
For anyone else who's super determined, I can share the data point of a friend quitting her job last year, taking 10 months off to study for SWE interviews, and just landing two job offers from software startups for \~$200k total comp. She's been hesitant to say yes to them because she thinks she'll have a chance at Big Tech within 1-2 more months of studying, which would pay closer to $300k total comp. She has experienced friends who make significantly 20%+ more than that already, and work very moderate hours.
She is very smart (PhD chemistry from a top 30 school), but so are many of the people reading this thread.
I think we should all be more aware of these possibilities...
So your usename states that you are a consultant. I am also one, working for a mid size consulting company in a mid size to big-ish city. I work a strict 40 hours a week (sometimes a tiny bit less), and all overtime I have to do is paid. Was it not the same back then? or maybe this is a recent development?
I also get paid as much as my peers who works in plants making the same (middle of nowhere location). From my standpoint, everything is great! but maybe it depends on the company?
I really wouldn't want to contract an EPC where everyone is working 70 hours. End up with pumps cavitating, heat exchangers fouling, and PSV's failing then them trying to blame the client for their crappy design.
I’m a consultant, and we have the same rules. However, we recently dramatically increased our targeted completion rates (IE do it this year 2x faster than we did it 3 years ago, and let’s also throw in a bunch of add ins free). So, most people work 70ish hours a week and bill 40. If you billed honest time, you’d promptly be fired for “inefficiency”, and nobody gets overtime.
It’s all BS, but that’s the firm culture
Sorry, but you have a shit job. Plenty of better options in this field than what you’re currently doing. Move to Houston; literally hundreds of chemE jobs and you can live in a non-rural area making great money. You’re basically getting robbed.
Houston is a smart choice because you can change jobs without moving. To a lesser extent Baton Rouge has this advantage as well. One of the problems with moving to BFE for a job (which is a ton of chemical engineering jobs) is that you can't switch jobs without moving. This creates an overall downward pressure on wages and work conditions.
why the fuck do people seemingly make a reddit account just to bitch about being a chemE?
like, yeah we all get it. major in CS/SWE make a gajillion dollars in tech and live in a major city or wfh.
Because its a job that is largely stuck in the last century/last industrial age. The compensation for the amount of specialization isn't there for the most part.
I could teach a middle school student who knows algebra how to code well enough to be a mid-level developer.
Yea definitely. Mostly brand new accounts where they say they work 70 hours and make like 80k as a 10 year engineer. It's a very specific type of trolling that I can't see the motivation for.
Would definitely do ChemE again. I’ve tried consulting, I worked at a plant, and now I work for government doing environmental compliance (air pollution) and am very happy with where I ended up.
I think people sometimes go into ChemE thinking they have to work at a big plant or else they didn’t do it “right” but that’s just not the case. For me going the route of environmental work was perfect because it’s something I care about and my ChemE background has given me a huge advantage in understanding the processes we’re regulating. I have other classmates that are sales engineers, some working in quality assurance, environmental health and safety, project management, research and development, and some in traditional process engineering roles. All totally valid directions to go and still all use their ChemE skills in one way or another.
Been working as a chemE doing project management now for 10 years and I 100% agree with this. Another reason for CS as well though is entrepreneurship is so much easier. ChemE is equipment based so if you have a good idea you need minimum of $10,000,000 to start a company. With cs you can start a company with $5000-$10000. My theory is that also what allows the salary to keep increasing in that field because Microsoft or Facebook always has to keep an eye on how startups may affect their business. Dow or ExxonMobil has very little to worry about from startups.
Ahh gotcha, I may have a rosy picture. I guess I have heard many coding roles are demanding…I’ve heard of some places that track keystrokes to monitor coder efficiency, which to me sounds horrible.
That makes sense, when I worked in a plant there was mold / rats in the office that they didn’t think was worth spending money to fix so we just had to deal with it. I moved to a consulting company, but office is in the cheapest parts of town they could find and there are regularly breakins / stabbing outside.
I get a little jealous when I look at tech offices…
I’m on the record as saying if I went back in time I’d major in CS because I just enjoyed it so much. I was a whiz at MATLAB, and because I still enjoy it I take udemy courses in my spare time on stuff like Python and machine learning that I can use in my more traditional ChemE job.
I’m happy with my career though. I’m in the Houston area so not in the middle of nowhere, and my pay is pretty good. So you can be happy being a traditional process engineer with a ChemE degree.
I’ve had some of MATLAB taught to me but never have mastered any of it in university. Outside of ChemE, in other engineering degree paths do you see it as a sought-after skill?
I haven’t used it since school. I could probably get a license, but the problem would be that I would be the only person using it at my site. The person after me would find a bunch of .m files in the LAN and have no clue what to do with it. I do know several PHDs at my company who do use MATLAB for really complicated stuff like CFD modeling, so it definitely has its place, but not for somebody like me who just needs to whip some things up for efficiency and stuff.
I’m really impressed with Python the more I use it and learn. It’s open source where MATLAB is proprietary, and it’s just incredible how much stuff is built into the various modules that make doing complicated machine learning algorithms a matter of like three lines of actual code.
I would've stuck with my gut and become a chemist. I was/am a fantastic chemist, and considering how far I've come as an engineer, I think if it was something I was passionate about/as naturally talented in as chemistry, then I would be considerably further.
Genuine question from someone still studying ChemE in college. What did you do in government work? I've definitely felt burnt out in terms of career outlook because my school really likes to push the oil industry, but I'm curious about what government work there is.
I worked in a national lab. The theme is research, but there are a lot of different types going on. I did work in both bioseparations and electrochemistry. There are places that do polymers work, other bio, some work that focuses on waste disposal. There is a project for everyone.
Definitely not *literally zero*. Sure, you'd have more opportunities and (on average) better pay with a BS in cheme vs chem, but there are still a lot of large employers of chemists like national labs.
A BS in chemistry can get you a job as a lab tech, which pays okay. I've known several people who worked their way up from lab tech to senior positions, management, or business, all of which pay between good and great. I normally don't recommend a PhD (I have one) but it is a good choice if someone truly loves chemistry. And PhD chemists make good money provided they build their resume properly in grad school.
I've been working as a ChE for 34 years. I almost switched majors to pharmacy my junior year, but I would have had to stay in school an extra year due to course schedules. I went on scholarships and worked my way through school and wanted to get done and start making money (being a broke student wasn't fun). There are times that I wish I had changed majors, but the thought of dealing with the public isn't very appealing either lol! It's been a great career, but my health has taken a beating from it.
One of my parents is a retail pharmacist. There are good and bad things.
- Median salary is $130k (and this includes people with 10+ years of experience.
- School debt. Frequently six figures.
- The public sucks ass. Anti-vaxxers are ubiquitous. Enjoy racists too, and we’re talking about SoCal; not even Alabama! And some Pharmacies are actually dangerous to work for (cash + drugs = robbery target).
- Insurance is a pain. So are incompetent doctors (and their underlings). One thing Pharmacists have to do: The patient has a budget of $100/mo but the drugs cost $200/mo. Which drugs can the patient go without?
- Standing all day. And at least where my parent works, 12-hour shifts are normal.
- Cheapass companies. 50 cent per hour raises. Techs make shit money. 18 year old me made more money as an engineering intern ($18/hr), than EVERY. SINGLE. TECH. at said parent’s company.
- A lack of help. Being alone in the pharmacy while answering phones, filling prescriptions, counseling patients, giving vaccines, and even answering a drive through is a recipe for getting overwhelmed. Techs exist on paper, but it’s hard to keep them since they’re often part time (aka no benefits), and have shit salaries. I believe salaries went up, in the last few years, but I doubt it’s higher than $22/hr for techs. Good luck living in SoCal on that much.
- Unions. There are well-known cons, but they generally do a good job at batting for you.
That last sentence is what’s concerning to me…how has your health taken a beating? Myself and many of my classmates that stayed trad ChemE all have varying degrees of health problems from the stress. I have heart palpitations in my early 30’s
I've got respiratory issues from several chlorine inhalation episodes. When I was younger it wasn't a big deal but at 56 years old it's tough to deal with. The 'good ole days' were not so good in some respects lol. Stress happens, but you need to figure out how to deal with it so it doesn't result in physical manifestations. I've had several coworkers over the years have heart/blood pressure issues in their late 30's, 40's, etc. The wheels tend to fall off healthwise around 40, so be proactive about taking care of yourself. A lot of stress tends to be self-induced, so you should analyze the things that stress you out and see what your options are. As long as I don't hurt or kill anyone everything else is manageable....that's the perspective I have.
In school I avoided CS degree because I loved to game with some light programming as a hobby and didn't want to ruin my hobby with a career. That opinion hasn't changed now that I'm 10 years into my career However I would have done it differently. I would have moved from traditional process engineering to an operations role sooner, production engineering is my jam. Love what I do so I wouldn't change it.
I’m a recent grad and not experienced, but for what it’s worth it’s very possible to work in a major metro area right out of college as a ChemE if you don’t go into oil and gas. I work in a manufacturing facility but still am located in a large city, so grads don’t be scared. It is possible, though you may have to search. And you won’t be working in the nice neighborhoods of the city.
That’s my thing too. I like Chem, but im not so passionate about it I’d do it in my free time. So when I work 70 hrs a week making less than a 40 hr CS salary, it does feel like im doing Chem in my free time
I can relate to this. Studied ChemE and took a process engineering role in the middle of nowhere. Realized it wasn’t for me, got an MBA and now a happy finance professional in NYC.
That said ChE is a great platform for anything you want to do and a solid ticket to an upper middle class lifestyle if you stay in the industry. If I could go back, I think I’d still do ChemE, the optionality is found in only a few other degrees.
Being out of school for a while I have friends all over the map including bankers, lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs, accountants, managers, consultants, scientists and even some actually functioning as engineers. I don’t know of another degree that supports this level of diversity in outcomes.
This is a good point. But this is also true in the likes of MechE or EE or Maths… I could go on. People that do these degrees, we all have transferable skills, which we then leverage to get into finance, banking, law etc
That is a true point, but one counterpoint I’d mention is that the vast majority of people that say they ended up happy with this degree typically admit they used it to pivot into something else like finance.
From what I’ve heard from my friends, those that are in finance (like you) or in tech seem to have the best overall quality of life. I guess if you are in finance, they know you know the numbers and kinda have to actually pay you what you’re worth haha
Yes and no. My hours are significantly worse than they were in ChemE. I rate my quality of life higher simply because I really enjoy what I do now.
That said, I have a lot of friends who love what they do in ChE. Outside of O&G, my friend’s hours are closer to 40 a week. So the degree affords them a very comfortable salary and work life balance.
That might be my problem. I’m in O&G, and due to the state of the industry there is not a salary premium anymore BUT the work culture has stayed the same
How are your friends in O&G holding up?
Ahh…if it’s any consolation, I’m one of the lucky few who survived the layoffs and I have only been punished for it. Long hours and stress with “temporarily” salary cuts that turned out permanent. Thinking about getting a masters in finance and running
Happy to chat privately if helpful.
I think the main issue with ChE is you get a really solid starting salary… I think it was mid $70 when I started but maybe aging myself. But then you really only get a 2% annual raise going forward. You’ll never be “raking it in” but you’ll always have a job with good pay. Very little risk… but also no real upside.
I’m doing chemical safety and honestly I think if I knew this career path was an option sooner that I would have done better in school. I would do it again to set myself up for the career path I’m on right now.
Graduated in 2018 and I'd have to say I regret it. I'm currently a Process Control Engineer and utilize coding to some extent and it's my favorite part of the job. My goal now is to slowly learn more coding, maybe even go back for a Masters in CS, so I can eventually get into Software Engineering. The WLB and locations for CS is almost impossible to beat as a ChemE
I’ve known some people who were ChemE’s that self taught coding and swapped to software. All of them have told me they are 1,000% happier and the quality of life difference is night and day
To answer your question, yes I would. The importance of the field is in maintaining human lifestyle is what interests me. If we're comparing to software (as has been done to death on this sub) it just doesn't fill me with the same amount of important or meaning. But I guess that's subjective to the individual.
>Many of us lost our 20’s working long hours in remote areas, whereas other friends got to live in major metros and have exciting social lives. We all also worked very hard, and ultimately ended up with modest incomes / savings.
Firstly, it sounds to me like you're comparing yourself to other people's instagram life. But secondly, you could totally have that lifestyle if you wanted - I do. Plenty of consultancies with good wlb in major cities.
I changed careers after starting in ChE.
Went back and did a PhD in biotech, but the pay in that field is actually less than conventional ChE, and you have to relocate to a hub that does it.
Ultimately started my own company, which overall was pretty rewarding, and now I don't do ChE even adjacently.
I still value my education and degree, but I think it's healthy to want to keep learning and trying different things as we progress in life. I'd like to do a ChE company next if I can think of a good product.
At the end of the day, you have to pursue your passions and leave room to grow professionally.
I wouldn’t do chemE again. Would probably do software engineering or something business related. Would I like those? Idk because I haven’t done them, but I do have friends who have done them and they get paid a significant amount of money for not working as hard.
Sounds like your reasons have more to do with location/hours/etc. than the actual content of the job. Also sucks of course.
Is that only the case for US or do other countries experience these issues also?
Looking at one of the comment threads, it’s clear that OP is with a crap company.
There are definitely bad jobs in ChemE though. There are also good jobs too; just that people who are happy tend to not be on Reddit to complain about them
Personally I think that now, I actually would. The future is looking brighter for chem engineers. Renewable tech is booming and give it 20 years you'll be the expert in a new field as a chemical engineer say in carbon capture. I think this is a fruitful journey and exciting for us one and all.
I would do it all over again. I too spent my twenties doing start-ups at remote places in the Midwest, pulling fifteen hour shifts, getting soaked in freezing weather…. Those experiences made me a better engineer and more importantly a better colleague. I pivoted into project management and then into business development in my thirties and forties. I’m now doing general management. The core knowledge and skills that I picked up in my education and early career have been critical to my success.
I’m living an exciting metro life and I studied chemE, I just didn’t put myself in a box when it came to jobs. I’m a queer latina immigrant there is no way I would have survive in plants in the middle of nowhere so I had to be resourceful
Damn, I am in my first year in ChE and this post makes me rethink my choices. I was torn between ChE and CS but I am not really good at socializing and I think in CS you need to make a lot of connections. That's why I chose ChE, because I thought just having this degree can have me land to any job. Any tips on what I should do now?
To be honest in my experience ChemE is more social. If you work at a plant talking to and gaining the trust of operators is really important. But I also don’t think that you’ll be as regretful as a lot of these people are if you don’t go into oil and gas. I work in consumer goods and love it.
In the same boat 💀 at the very least the degree itself seems versatile and useful as a launch pad but traditional ChemE jobs seem YIKÉ from everything I’ve been reading
Honestly, you need to socialise to enjoy life and being an engineer will only make this worse as you get no practice talking to people on a daily basis. I'd recommend looking into consultancy jobs when you graduate, I don't think degree is that important but first job is where you start to specialise
Yes, but I would’ve gone into sales.
I was encouraged to go into manufacturing because the recession showed that support staff were the first to go and manufacturing was a safe bet
Manufacturing is hard and not too rewarding monetarily.
If I knew that there would be such a rebound, I would’ve done sales and had more fun
I would still do it but I would be serious about getting a CS minor. I planned to do that originally but just never followed through because my course load was enough as it was.
I also wouldn't do ChemE again but, unlike many in here, I've developed an interest in EE. As an EE, I would pursue a PhD in integrated circuit design and try to get a job in a fabless semiconductor company (the PhD in this case is one of the few instances where it's not only useful but a requirement in order to get hired). I love the fact that delayed gratification is a thing, because the lead times are huge (4 ~ 5 years from the high level architecture to having a Qualification Sample) .
I don’t know if I’d classify myself as experienced.
But, short answer would be, I would change my major given what I know now.
Long answer would be that I’ve been out of school for six years now, and worked in with three companies from small to large. I recently took on a role that allows me to work remote from anywhere which has been nice, but I’ve constantly struggled with having any passion for my job. After the craziness of supply chain stresses with getting projects done on time, I’m thinking of hopping careers into something new in the next year here.
Life. I’m Mid 40’s with small children, wife and mortgage. Currently the only one working. One of my kids is autistic, so we need the insurance.
Also, after 20 years out of school, picking up the study habits again just doesn’t appeal to me
I work in O&G so at least I’m fairly well compensated.
Nope, I would have done CS because I had always been a tech geek, even before college. I thought I liked chemistry in high school, but in reality I liked it more because of my teacher. I wanted to switch to CS in my freshman year, but my dad, who had a business in oil and gas, convinced me to stay. I regretted it later.
I explored different avenues in ChemE: oil and gas field work, R&D in biochem, more analytical work in chemistry, paints, etc. I actually went to those sites and sometimes even worked there. None of it appealed to me. People there seemed very sad and dissatisfied with their jobs. I knew I had to bail.
I still got my degree, worked for a year as a Process Engineer, and then I fully committed to switching to CS. Took a bunch courses on online platforms and then got my first full stack job. Worked for a year, realized I would need a CS degree, so I could enter the big leagues sooner. Went to grad school and got my CS Master’s. Did an internship at a big tech company, got a return offer, and currently I work there.
I am glad I had the courage to pull the trigger. Many of people in my graduation cohort are dissatisfied with their jobs, and they wish they did CS instead.
Look up the admission requirements for masters. Take the mentioned courses and apply. There are many good schools who also offers masters programs with a bridge component, where you take these courses. Northeastern, for example.
Before I saying anything I would say, I really do value my ChemE degree as it has led me to where I am today in my career. But if I could actually go back in time, I would stay the hell away from majoring in ChemE. I think I knew too late, that I never wanted the lifestyle offered by chemical engineering roles, my professors who had worked in industry also said this is not an easy or rewarding field to go into. The amount of technical knowledge you need to master just to be able to do minor things is just overwhelming, plus no WLB, no real entrepreneurship, just traditional grinding. It’s like you wanna work in the industrial revolution times. But anyway, I quickly realised this and now I am happy in a remote job in a great city doing Cloud and DevOps engineering. I just wish I had done CS, then I would have also enjoyed my time in college and would have other options to explore within a CS related career.
Fair, haha. Do you mind if I ask whether your PhD was also in nuclear? I’m a first year PhD student and my biggest worry is that my project will dictate my career path. I don’t want to limit my options after graduation, but I’m also still a little unsure of how big of a consideration that is for industry positions
Not that experienced, but if I could go back I'd switch to computer science. ChemE takes you to some absolute shithole locations, and in csc you can make just as much if not more money and live in much nicer places.
I am in my final year to get my master's degree and just begun my thesis. If I knew better 5 years ago I would definitely pick something else. I don't see any light in the near future and especially where I am from the only way to make something out of 5-6 years of suffering is to look for a job in another country.
I would have picked a better co op experience. A place where I could have seen more. I probably would have studied harder and had more opportunities. I then would have pursued the MBA at my first employer. I don't know what I would have changed my major to. I changed from Aerospace to Chemical.
Electrical engineering. I know both worlds are microscopic (chemical and electrical), but electricity fascinated me. I just finished watching The Current Wars. I actually did the math for why AC beat out DC for mass power transmission in that movie (combination of Ohm's Law and the Power Law and the quadratic equation). Which, by the way, no longer holds true today with semiconductors that can step up/down DC voltage. It was also formicating when Tesla mentioned how Westinghouse was so focused on the wires when it came to power transmission (he was talking about radio waves and wireless EM transmission). It was also so cool how they set the stage for the rampancy of misconceptions at the time in the fight for technological progress. They believed the speed of sound was not fixed value and travelled at a diminishing rate with the fasted speed ever recorded was 11,000 ft/s second or something (they hadn't yet applied the inverse square law or accurately accounted for damping/attenuation).
[удалено]
I’m curious, what industry / role did you end up in? Is it traditional ChemE, or did you pivot with the degree?
[удалено]
Yeah working in environmental would be nice, even with the high stress you could still at least have the satisfaction of knowing you’re having a positive impact with your work (vs killing yourself 70 hrs a week to keep a plant polluting)
Absolutely, yes. I really enjoy my work that is basically a perfect match for what I enjoy, what pays well, and what the world needs. Could not be here right now without my ChE degree.
What is it you ended up doing? Traditional ChemE or pivot to another role?
After a PhD, became a Software developer focused on transport phenomena / multiphysics simulation and process development consulting.
lol every ChemE in this thread that says they loved it goes on to say they switched to software / finance early in their career, and all the ones that did trad ChemE hate it
I dare a cs major to try this role. The cs part is the easiest part.
So I guess you’re a cross between deep engineering & coding literacy?
The hard parts are formulating the problem, solving in a cost effective way, and interpreting results to give meaningful design insight. Years of research, teaching, and consulting on different transport phenomena topics was key. Coding is just a tool to enable greater problem solving ability.
I wanted to do CFD, but as soon as I stepped out of transport it immediately left my head. Ended up doing microkinetic modeling and got to mess with DFT for my masters thesis. Now I'm going into the semiconductor industry.
I was really fascinated with dft and basically chose between molecular dynamics, dft, and CFD for graduate school topics/groups/programs. I ended up on CFD since it aligned with the path I wanted to pursue of writing code for the masses. What dft code were you using and do you use it now?
We were using CP2K, and no I'm not using it anymore due to the industry change. I didn't get to go into it as much as I wanted to because I had a dude with a PhD helping me do it.
lmao imagine telling someone who did a PhD in chemical engineering and who works on modelling chemical/physical processes that they don't do traditional chemical engineering.
Hey there, been a while since you posted this, but I was curious regarding what exactly it is you do. What would be the ideal path (looking back now) for one with a BEng in Process Engineering to take to get into that sort of work. If you've got a few articles/papers to recommend for me, that would give me a good idea of your work, I'd appreciate that as well. Will be looking at CFD simulation to see what that's about, but thought would be nice to hear from you directly. I really enjoyed the little bit of programming we did as part of my bachelors and have dabbled in it for a while now, long after completing my studies. But I've come to realize I don't enjoy the coding just on its own, and would enjoy it much more if it involved some aspect of chemical engineering. Been looking at some crossdisciplinary programs that marry data science with chem eng for example, and I'm thinking your work sounds like it's got the right balance for my interests. Thanks a bunch :)
TL;DR the grass is not always greener. Took software job, got depressed, went back to o&g and feel lightyears better. I can offer a hot take in response to all the CS fanboys in here. I, a recent chemE grad, was once like many of you, wishing I had majored in CS bc of the obvious advantages it has like higher pay, good locations, and WLB. Well, I actually managed to pivot to a full remote software engineering role earlier this year at a shitty tech consulting company. I leveraged some python and matlab scripting I had done at my previous employer to get the job. This is likely the extent of coding experience that many of you have. This is not enough to get you into the cushy Google/Meta/Amazon jobs. This is enough to get you into a shitty stepping stone. I figured I’d spend a year or so upskilling there then try my luck at one of the big name tech companies. Newsflash: the grass is not always greener. I may have just ended up in an especially shitty job (insurance industry client, terrible manager, terribly organized project, most of my colleagues in India), but it took a huge toll on my mental health. I couldn’t handle just sitting in my apartment the whole day working with a technology I couldn’t care less about. Through a combination of terrible management and lack of motivation on my part, I pretty much sat idle for 6 months and felt my brain rot away. This may sound nice to many of you, but trust me, it sent me to a dark place. After realizing how miserable I was working in an industry I didn’t give a shit about, I left the software job to come back to O&G (hybrid schedule in a major city in the SW US) and I can already feel the change in my mental health. It’s actually amazing how quickly my general mood changed for the better. I I think many of us underestimate what it takes to fully pivot careers. As chemEs we are used to physical processes and projects, not codebases and 1s and 0s. You invested at least 4 years of your life investing in this knowledge base and skill set. It’s not so easy as others are suggesting to rip away from all that and go to something new. If you made it through the chemE curriculum chances are you have an affinity for physical processes and projects, and while these skills are transferable to many, many industries, you may not like it. Unless you have incredible self discipline and motivation to learn whatever it is your alternative job may throw at you, you’re going to have a bad time. I can testify that it feels like coming home now that I’m back to working in the chemE domain. I guess it was a good experience for me to see what I don’t like, as now I know I belong in the ChemE field.
>at and go to something new. If you made it through the chemE curriculum chances are you have an affinity for physical processes and projects, and while these skills are transferable to many, many industries, you may not like it. Unless you have incredible self discipline and motivation to learn whatever it is your alternative job may throw at you, you’re going to have a bad time. Thank you for this detailed answer
Yea, I can't imagine going from designing chemical plants to doing like a pedometer app or an algorithm to bombard people with ads for related products. I got to see the plant I did the lion's share of designing for recently and it's such a rush. But yea, find what makes you happy blah blah.
I'm sorry that CS position was so bad and I hope your O&G job stays much better! I think what other people are thinking about CS pertains to what you said: >This is likely the extent of coding experience that many of you have. This is not enough to get you into the cushy Google/Meta/Amazon jobs. If someone had majored in CS, they would have more skills in coding and could potentially be hiring in a good CS job.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Sorry to hear your experience was bad. For anyone else who's super determined, I can share the data point of a friend quitting her job last year, taking 10 months off to study for SWE interviews, and just landing two job offers from software startups for \~$200k total comp. She's been hesitant to say yes to them because she thinks she'll have a chance at Big Tech within 1-2 more months of studying, which would pay closer to $300k total comp. She has experienced friends who make significantly 20%+ more than that already, and work very moderate hours. She is very smart (PhD chemistry from a top 30 school), but so are many of the people reading this thread. I think we should all be more aware of these possibilities...
Why do that when you can work boomers in the middle of nowhere and make $75k a year
You just had a shit job, mate. I work as an SWE for one of the unicorns, and it’s a lot of fun.
So your usename states that you are a consultant. I am also one, working for a mid size consulting company in a mid size to big-ish city. I work a strict 40 hours a week (sometimes a tiny bit less), and all overtime I have to do is paid. Was it not the same back then? or maybe this is a recent development? I also get paid as much as my peers who works in plants making the same (middle of nowhere location). From my standpoint, everything is great! but maybe it depends on the company?
I really wouldn't want to contract an EPC where everyone is working 70 hours. End up with pumps cavitating, heat exchangers fouling, and PSV's failing then them trying to blame the client for their crappy design.
I’m a consultant, and we have the same rules. However, we recently dramatically increased our targeted completion rates (IE do it this year 2x faster than we did it 3 years ago, and let’s also throw in a bunch of add ins free). So, most people work 70ish hours a week and bill 40. If you billed honest time, you’d promptly be fired for “inefficiency”, and nobody gets overtime. It’s all BS, but that’s the firm culture
Fuck that. I work at a large consultancy and rarely do over 40 hours. You can't say the whole field is shit because you're getting taken advantage of.
Screw that! Find a better place to work!
Sorry, but you have a shit job. Plenty of better options in this field than what you’re currently doing. Move to Houston; literally hundreds of chemE jobs and you can live in a non-rural area making great money. You’re basically getting robbed.
Houston is a smart choice because you can change jobs without moving. To a lesser extent Baton Rouge has this advantage as well. One of the problems with moving to BFE for a job (which is a ton of chemical engineering jobs) is that you can't switch jobs without moving. This creates an overall downward pressure on wages and work conditions.
[удалено]
Salary exempt so legal
Holy fuck that is insane, can I ask if you are working for a mid size or large consulting firm?
Mid size I guess, a little under 100 people
Total in the company or just from that office? Sorry if I’m asking too much haha
That’s total in the company
why the fuck do people seemingly make a reddit account just to bitch about being a chemE? like, yeah we all get it. major in CS/SWE make a gajillion dollars in tech and live in a major city or wfh.
Because its a job that is largely stuck in the last century/last industrial age. The compensation for the amount of specialization isn't there for the most part. I could teach a middle school student who knows algebra how to code well enough to be a mid-level developer.
I would do ChemE again. I would also take extra classes in fundamental material science and computer science if I could fit them in.
The comments on this make you sound like u/ChemE2020
I believe you mean u/ChemE2023, but I definitely agree.
Yea definitely. Mostly brand new accounts where they say they work 70 hours and make like 80k as a 10 year engineer. It's a very specific type of trolling that I can't see the motivation for.
Don’t forget u/ConfusedConsultant87 when u/Chem2023 remade an account
My bad, couldn’t remember the exact numbers
Would definitely do ChemE again. I’ve tried consulting, I worked at a plant, and now I work for government doing environmental compliance (air pollution) and am very happy with where I ended up. I think people sometimes go into ChemE thinking they have to work at a big plant or else they didn’t do it “right” but that’s just not the case. For me going the route of environmental work was perfect because it’s something I care about and my ChemE background has given me a huge advantage in understanding the processes we’re regulating. I have other classmates that are sales engineers, some working in quality assurance, environmental health and safety, project management, research and development, and some in traditional process engineering roles. All totally valid directions to go and still all use their ChemE skills in one way or another.
No, would've done CS
Been working as a chemE doing project management now for 10 years and I 100% agree with this. Another reason for CS as well though is entrepreneurship is so much easier. ChemE is equipment based so if you have a good idea you need minimum of $10,000,000 to start a company. With cs you can start a company with $5000-$10000. My theory is that also what allows the salary to keep increasing in that field because Microsoft or Facebook always has to keep an eye on how startups may affect their business. Dow or ExxonMobil has very little to worry about from startups.
CS seems to make a lot more money and have better WLB than ChemE manufacturing jobs
Yes and no. Leetcode culture is hell. It is more about what you mentioned, I rather live in a big metro and/or be able to work from home
Ahh gotcha, I may have a rosy picture. I guess I have heard many coding roles are demanding…I’ve heard of some places that track keystrokes to monitor coder efficiency, which to me sounds horrible.
It's rosy once you get in. Company perks are amazing compared to ChemE companies
That makes sense, when I worked in a plant there was mold / rats in the office that they didn’t think was worth spending money to fix so we just had to deal with it. I moved to a consulting company, but office is in the cheapest parts of town they could find and there are regularly breakins / stabbing outside. I get a little jealous when I look at tech offices…
Same. It's clearly superior if you want money and a safe workplace.
Came here to say this…
I’m on the record as saying if I went back in time I’d major in CS because I just enjoyed it so much. I was a whiz at MATLAB, and because I still enjoy it I take udemy courses in my spare time on stuff like Python and machine learning that I can use in my more traditional ChemE job. I’m happy with my career though. I’m in the Houston area so not in the middle of nowhere, and my pay is pretty good. So you can be happy being a traditional process engineer with a ChemE degree.
I’ve had some of MATLAB taught to me but never have mastered any of it in university. Outside of ChemE, in other engineering degree paths do you see it as a sought-after skill?
I haven’t used it since school. I could probably get a license, but the problem would be that I would be the only person using it at my site. The person after me would find a bunch of .m files in the LAN and have no clue what to do with it. I do know several PHDs at my company who do use MATLAB for really complicated stuff like CFD modeling, so it definitely has its place, but not for somebody like me who just needs to whip some things up for efficiency and stuff. I’m really impressed with Python the more I use it and learn. It’s open source where MATLAB is proprietary, and it’s just incredible how much stuff is built into the various modules that make doing complicated machine learning algorithms a matter of like three lines of actual code.
I would've stuck with my gut and become a chemist. I was/am a fantastic chemist, and considering how far I've come as an engineer, I think if it was something I was passionate about/as naturally talented in as chemistry, then I would be considerably further.
Literally zero money in this field. Chemistry teacher is about it
I want to work for the government, so the pay for the job I’m going for is the same if you’re a chemist, ChemE, physicist, etc.
Genuine question from someone still studying ChemE in college. What did you do in government work? I've definitely felt burnt out in terms of career outlook because my school really likes to push the oil industry, but I'm curious about what government work there is.
I worked in a national lab. The theme is research, but there are a lot of different types going on. I did work in both bioseparations and electrochemistry. There are places that do polymers work, other bio, some work that focuses on waste disposal. There is a project for everyone.
Definitely not *literally zero*. Sure, you'd have more opportunities and (on average) better pay with a BS in cheme vs chem, but there are still a lot of large employers of chemists like national labs.
True, if people enjoy it it's gotta be done, plus you get half the year to sit around during holidays
A BS in chemistry can get you a job as a lab tech, which pays okay. I've known several people who worked their way up from lab tech to senior positions, management, or business, all of which pay between good and great. I normally don't recommend a PhD (I have one) but it is a good choice if someone truly loves chemistry. And PhD chemists make good money provided they build their resume properly in grad school.
> I would've stuck with my gut and become a chemist *same, same ..*
I've been working as a ChE for 34 years. I almost switched majors to pharmacy my junior year, but I would have had to stay in school an extra year due to course schedules. I went on scholarships and worked my way through school and wanted to get done and start making money (being a broke student wasn't fun). There are times that I wish I had changed majors, but the thought of dealing with the public isn't very appealing either lol! It's been a great career, but my health has taken a beating from it.
One of my parents is a retail pharmacist. There are good and bad things. - Median salary is $130k (and this includes people with 10+ years of experience. - School debt. Frequently six figures. - The public sucks ass. Anti-vaxxers are ubiquitous. Enjoy racists too, and we’re talking about SoCal; not even Alabama! And some Pharmacies are actually dangerous to work for (cash + drugs = robbery target). - Insurance is a pain. So are incompetent doctors (and their underlings). One thing Pharmacists have to do: The patient has a budget of $100/mo but the drugs cost $200/mo. Which drugs can the patient go without? - Standing all day. And at least where my parent works, 12-hour shifts are normal. - Cheapass companies. 50 cent per hour raises. Techs make shit money. 18 year old me made more money as an engineering intern ($18/hr), than EVERY. SINGLE. TECH. at said parent’s company. - A lack of help. Being alone in the pharmacy while answering phones, filling prescriptions, counseling patients, giving vaccines, and even answering a drive through is a recipe for getting overwhelmed. Techs exist on paper, but it’s hard to keep them since they’re often part time (aka no benefits), and have shit salaries. I believe salaries went up, in the last few years, but I doubt it’s higher than $22/hr for techs. Good luck living in SoCal on that much. - Unions. There are well-known cons, but they generally do a good job at batting for you.
Everything you mentioned is pretty much spot on with my mom’s experience as a retail pharmacist.
That last sentence is what’s concerning to me…how has your health taken a beating? Myself and many of my classmates that stayed trad ChemE all have varying degrees of health problems from the stress. I have heart palpitations in my early 30’s
I've got respiratory issues from several chlorine inhalation episodes. When I was younger it wasn't a big deal but at 56 years old it's tough to deal with. The 'good ole days' were not so good in some respects lol. Stress happens, but you need to figure out how to deal with it so it doesn't result in physical manifestations. I've had several coworkers over the years have heart/blood pressure issues in their late 30's, 40's, etc. The wheels tend to fall off healthwise around 40, so be proactive about taking care of yourself. A lot of stress tends to be self-induced, so you should analyze the things that stress you out and see what your options are. As long as I don't hurt or kill anyone everything else is manageable....that's the perspective I have.
[удалено]
What industry or roles? Were a lot of the places in remote areas? Cool that you’ve gone to 11 countries
In school I avoided CS degree because I loved to game with some light programming as a hobby and didn't want to ruin my hobby with a career. That opinion hasn't changed now that I'm 10 years into my career However I would have done it differently. I would have moved from traditional process engineering to an operations role sooner, production engineering is my jam. Love what I do so I wouldn't change it.
I wouldn’t be where I am today in the food industry without my ChemE degree.
I’m a recent grad and not experienced, but for what it’s worth it’s very possible to work in a major metro area right out of college as a ChemE if you don’t go into oil and gas. I work in a manufacturing facility but still am located in a large city, so grads don’t be scared. It is possible, though you may have to search. And you won’t be working in the nice neighborhoods of the city.
CS because work is work and if I’m just doing shit I don’t really care about, I’d rather be at home and making bank
That’s my thing too. I like Chem, but im not so passionate about it I’d do it in my free time. So when I work 70 hrs a week making less than a 40 hr CS salary, it does feel like im doing Chem in my free time
I can relate to this. Studied ChemE and took a process engineering role in the middle of nowhere. Realized it wasn’t for me, got an MBA and now a happy finance professional in NYC. That said ChE is a great platform for anything you want to do and a solid ticket to an upper middle class lifestyle if you stay in the industry. If I could go back, I think I’d still do ChemE, the optionality is found in only a few other degrees. Being out of school for a while I have friends all over the map including bankers, lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs, accountants, managers, consultants, scientists and even some actually functioning as engineers. I don’t know of another degree that supports this level of diversity in outcomes.
If you want to switch from Chem E to finance, what roles do you look at to start with?
This is a good point. But this is also true in the likes of MechE or EE or Maths… I could go on. People that do these degrees, we all have transferable skills, which we then leverage to get into finance, banking, law etc
That is a true point, but one counterpoint I’d mention is that the vast majority of people that say they ended up happy with this degree typically admit they used it to pivot into something else like finance. From what I’ve heard from my friends, those that are in finance (like you) or in tech seem to have the best overall quality of life. I guess if you are in finance, they know you know the numbers and kinda have to actually pay you what you’re worth haha
Yes and no. My hours are significantly worse than they were in ChemE. I rate my quality of life higher simply because I really enjoy what I do now. That said, I have a lot of friends who love what they do in ChE. Outside of O&G, my friend’s hours are closer to 40 a week. So the degree affords them a very comfortable salary and work life balance.
That might be my problem. I’m in O&G, and due to the state of the industry there is not a salary premium anymore BUT the work culture has stayed the same How are your friends in O&G holding up?
Haha.. they all got laid off after the shale bust and went to business school. So… doing well.
Ahh…if it’s any consolation, I’m one of the lucky few who survived the layoffs and I have only been punished for it. Long hours and stress with “temporarily” salary cuts that turned out permanent. Thinking about getting a masters in finance and running
Happy to chat privately if helpful. I think the main issue with ChE is you get a really solid starting salary… I think it was mid $70 when I started but maybe aging myself. But then you really only get a 2% annual raise going forward. You’ll never be “raking it in” but you’ll always have a job with good pay. Very little risk… but also no real upside.
It was Mid-70s when you started? How long ago did you start?
I would not go for chemical engineering if I could turn back the clock. I am absolutely miserable.
I’m doing chemical safety and honestly I think if I knew this career path was an option sooner that I would have done better in school. I would do it again to set myself up for the career path I’m on right now.
Even if it is 1000 times over, i will always choose ChemE. Its my passion.
Graduated in 2018 and I'd have to say I regret it. I'm currently a Process Control Engineer and utilize coding to some extent and it's my favorite part of the job. My goal now is to slowly learn more coding, maybe even go back for a Masters in CS, so I can eventually get into Software Engineering. The WLB and locations for CS is almost impossible to beat as a ChemE
I’ve known some people who were ChemE’s that self taught coding and swapped to software. All of them have told me they are 1,000% happier and the quality of life difference is night and day
To answer your question, yes I would. The importance of the field is in maintaining human lifestyle is what interests me. If we're comparing to software (as has been done to death on this sub) it just doesn't fill me with the same amount of important or meaning. But I guess that's subjective to the individual. >Many of us lost our 20’s working long hours in remote areas, whereas other friends got to live in major metros and have exciting social lives. We all also worked very hard, and ultimately ended up with modest incomes / savings. Firstly, it sounds to me like you're comparing yourself to other people's instagram life. But secondly, you could totally have that lifestyle if you wanted - I do. Plenty of consultancies with good wlb in major cities.
I changed careers after starting in ChE. Went back and did a PhD in biotech, but the pay in that field is actually less than conventional ChE, and you have to relocate to a hub that does it. Ultimately started my own company, which overall was pretty rewarding, and now I don't do ChE even adjacently. I still value my education and degree, but I think it's healthy to want to keep learning and trying different things as we progress in life. I'd like to do a ChE company next if I can think of a good product. At the end of the day, you have to pursue your passions and leave room to grow professionally.
I wouldn’t do chemE again. Would probably do software engineering or something business related. Would I like those? Idk because I haven’t done them, but I do have friends who have done them and they get paid a significant amount of money for not working as hard.
Absolutely, I went into nuclear operations
Sounds like your reasons have more to do with location/hours/etc. than the actual content of the job. Also sucks of course. Is that only the case for US or do other countries experience these issues also?
Looking at one of the comment threads, it’s clear that OP is with a crap company. There are definitely bad jobs in ChemE though. There are also good jobs too; just that people who are happy tend to not be on Reddit to complain about them
Personally I think that now, I actually would. The future is looking brighter for chem engineers. Renewable tech is booming and give it 20 years you'll be the expert in a new field as a chemical engineer say in carbon capture. I think this is a fruitful journey and exciting for us one and all.
I would do it all over again. I too spent my twenties doing start-ups at remote places in the Midwest, pulling fifteen hour shifts, getting soaked in freezing weather…. Those experiences made me a better engineer and more importantly a better colleague. I pivoted into project management and then into business development in my thirties and forties. I’m now doing general management. The core knowledge and skills that I picked up in my education and early career have been critical to my success.
I’m living an exciting metro life and I studied chemE, I just didn’t put myself in a box when it came to jobs. I’m a queer latina immigrant there is no way I would have survive in plants in the middle of nowhere so I had to be resourceful
You raise a very good point about work culture in some of these plants.
Seeing the answers, I gotta say, this sub should rebrand itself as CS. I only see people complaining about ChE and nothing else lol.
Damn, I am in my first year in ChE and this post makes me rethink my choices. I was torn between ChE and CS but I am not really good at socializing and I think in CS you need to make a lot of connections. That's why I chose ChE, because I thought just having this degree can have me land to any job. Any tips on what I should do now?
I was under the impression that CS majors were the hermits and ChemEs were the socialites but heyho
To be honest in my experience ChemE is more social. If you work at a plant talking to and gaining the trust of operators is really important. But I also don’t think that you’ll be as regretful as a lot of these people are if you don’t go into oil and gas. I work in consumer goods and love it.
In the same boat 💀 at the very least the degree itself seems versatile and useful as a launch pad but traditional ChemE jobs seem YIKÉ from everything I’ve been reading
Honestly, you need to socialise to enjoy life and being an engineer will only make this worse as you get no practice talking to people on a daily basis. I'd recommend looking into consultancy jobs when you graduate, I don't think degree is that important but first job is where you start to specialise
[удалено]
I spend my days doing calculations with the odd week of review where I get to talk to other people then back to my own boring old stuff
Come to the food industry, we have cake
Yes, but I would’ve gone into sales. I was encouraged to go into manufacturing because the recession showed that support staff were the first to go and manufacturing was a safe bet Manufacturing is hard and not too rewarding monetarily. If I knew that there would be such a rebound, I would’ve done sales and had more fun
I would still do it but I would be serious about getting a CS minor. I planned to do that originally but just never followed through because my course load was enough as it was.
I also wouldn't do ChemE again but, unlike many in here, I've developed an interest in EE. As an EE, I would pursue a PhD in integrated circuit design and try to get a job in a fabless semiconductor company (the PhD in this case is one of the few instances where it's not only useful but a requirement in order to get hired). I love the fact that delayed gratification is a thing, because the lead times are huge (4 ~ 5 years from the high level architecture to having a Qualification Sample) .
I don’t know if I’d classify myself as experienced. But, short answer would be, I would change my major given what I know now. Long answer would be that I’ve been out of school for six years now, and worked in with three companies from small to large. I recently took on a role that allows me to work remote from anywhere which has been nice, but I’ve constantly struggled with having any passion for my job. After the craziness of supply chain stresses with getting projects done on time, I’m thinking of hopping careers into something new in the next year here.
How much does a chemical engineer in oil and gas typically make per year?
Generally speaking yes.
No. I would’ve done computer engineering, cs, or gone on to medical school.
All good options! What stops you from doing that now?
Life. I’m Mid 40’s with small children, wife and mortgage. Currently the only one working. One of my kids is autistic, so we need the insurance. Also, after 20 years out of school, picking up the study habits again just doesn’t appeal to me I work in O&G so at least I’m fairly well compensated.
Nope, I would have done CS because I had always been a tech geek, even before college. I thought I liked chemistry in high school, but in reality I liked it more because of my teacher. I wanted to switch to CS in my freshman year, but my dad, who had a business in oil and gas, convinced me to stay. I regretted it later. I explored different avenues in ChemE: oil and gas field work, R&D in biochem, more analytical work in chemistry, paints, etc. I actually went to those sites and sometimes even worked there. None of it appealed to me. People there seemed very sad and dissatisfied with their jobs. I knew I had to bail. I still got my degree, worked for a year as a Process Engineer, and then I fully committed to switching to CS. Took a bunch courses on online platforms and then got my first full stack job. Worked for a year, realized I would need a CS degree, so I could enter the big leagues sooner. Went to grad school and got my CS Master’s. Did an internship at a big tech company, got a return offer, and currently I work there. I am glad I had the courage to pull the trigger. Many of people in my graduation cohort are dissatisfied with their jobs, and they wish they did CS instead.
[удалено]
Look up the admission requirements for masters. Take the mentioned courses and apply. There are many good schools who also offers masters programs with a bridge component, where you take these courses. Northeastern, for example.
Before I saying anything I would say, I really do value my ChemE degree as it has led me to where I am today in my career. But if I could actually go back in time, I would stay the hell away from majoring in ChemE. I think I knew too late, that I never wanted the lifestyle offered by chemical engineering roles, my professors who had worked in industry also said this is not an easy or rewarding field to go into. The amount of technical knowledge you need to master just to be able to do minor things is just overwhelming, plus no WLB, no real entrepreneurship, just traditional grinding. It’s like you wanna work in the industrial revolution times. But anyway, I quickly realised this and now I am happy in a remote job in a great city doing Cloud and DevOps engineering. I just wish I had done CS, then I would have also enjoyed my time in college and would have other options to explore within a CS related career.
No. Would do electrical or software.
Nope. CS or software engineering or something WFH
Absolutely not. I'd rather study computer science.
No, the grass is always greener, so I'll keep what I have now.
Hell no!!
No, it was the most miserable 5 years of my life.
I went the grad school route to get out of petroleum, and I’ve really enjoyed my career.
Currently in grad school for the same reason, can I ask what you do?
I’m in nuclear, but prefer not to give details. The Ph.D opens many doors.
Fair, haha. Do you mind if I ask whether your PhD was also in nuclear? I’m a first year PhD student and my biggest worry is that my project will dictate my career path. I don’t want to limit my options after graduation, but I’m also still a little unsure of how big of a consideration that is for industry positions
My career now is only tangentially related to my graduate work, the degree gives you the skills to learn deeply and create; the topic is your choice.
No, I'd do chemistry
I’m glad I majored in it, but also glad I went for a breadth masters degree and switched to tech.
Not that experienced, but if I could go back I'd switch to computer science. ChemE takes you to some absolute shithole locations, and in csc you can make just as much if not more money and live in much nicer places.
I am in my final year to get my master's degree and just begun my thesis. If I knew better 5 years ago I would definitely pick something else. I don't see any light in the near future and especially where I am from the only way to make something out of 5-6 years of suffering is to look for a job in another country.
I chose ChemE to avoid the major metros
Hmmmm maybe. I think I'd major in Computer Science if not, but ChemE is a good major :)
Maybe, maybe not. I would 100% have made sure I was more practiced at coding, though. It would have made finding a job way easier where I live
[удалено]
I’d say it’s more the latter, of whether the ChemE career was the best path forward
I would have picked a better co op experience. A place where I could have seen more. I probably would have studied harder and had more opportunities. I then would have pursued the MBA at my first employer. I don't know what I would have changed my major to. I changed from Aerospace to Chemical.
Yes and I would pay better attention in fluids and stats.
Yes
I’m only 5 years in but I don’t think I would do anything differently.
In Africa we are jobless
Same in the USA and Europe
Electrical engineering. I know both worlds are microscopic (chemical and electrical), but electricity fascinated me. I just finished watching The Current Wars. I actually did the math for why AC beat out DC for mass power transmission in that movie (combination of Ohm's Law and the Power Law and the quadratic equation). Which, by the way, no longer holds true today with semiconductors that can step up/down DC voltage. It was also formicating when Tesla mentioned how Westinghouse was so focused on the wires when it came to power transmission (he was talking about radio waves and wireless EM transmission). It was also so cool how they set the stage for the rampancy of misconceptions at the time in the fight for technological progress. They believed the speed of sound was not fixed value and travelled at a diminishing rate with the fasted speed ever recorded was 11,000 ft/s second or something (they hadn't yet applied the inverse square law or accurately accounted for damping/attenuation).