r/ChemicalEngineering • u/DRJSAN • Jan 06 '23

Salary Where is the crazy money

What are the jobs that chemE’s can get that print crazy money.

I know for the most part engineers are well paid, but I’m wondering if there’s any shot to make ridiculous money (like the higher end of SWE or big 4 consulting) using an undergrad in chemE in conjunction with any experience or further degrees.

This may seem like a shallow question, and it definitely is. I’m happy with my degree and jog, I just really want to know what the top of the mountain looks like and how people got there.

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u/rabidthug Jan 06 '23 edited Jan 07 '23

Let me get this straight for you. ChemE is no longer lucrative. O&G is not what it used to be. Pharma and other industries are very cost focused now so forget big bucks there. Most ChemE’s I know making big bucks either 1) went all in on a PhD and landed a prestigious R&D role 2) switched to something else entirely like data science, finance, consulting. I switched to Consulting. Firstly, Big 4 pays like dogshit and has long hours. You want money? Go to MBB or boutique. I am in the latter and thankfully pay, benefits, culture, etc are very solid, and top tier compared to most of my peers across STEM programs for now (note I went to a top university for both my BS & MSc in ChemE). I do have to stretch but I’m not absolutely killing myself either. Like today I’ve done 2 hrs of work and am at the gym now (at 130 PM). Gonna work 3 hrs on Sunday night to make up for it. Expecting ~45 hrs work next week and maybe a tad more the week after (but this is also because I am on pretty grindy fast paced projects since those are what I find most interesting). Honestly my advice is to ditch chemE after getting an education in it. Good luck

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u/DRJSAN Jan 07 '23

Would you mind elaborating on how you made the jump to MBB/boutique ?

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u/rabidthug Jan 07 '23 edited Jan 07 '23

It’s easier to get into consulting if you apply while a student (I applied during my masters for an internship and got the full time return offer). These days it’s also easy ish to get in after college, especially early on in your career. Look at practice cases and show you can bring structure/logic to unstructured problems and that you are able to communicate your line of thinking. Those are the most important things in interviews and the job itself. The expertise and the actual knowledge of consulting and the industry you consult for will come with time as you do different projects, it’s okay to not know much coming in, in that regard