r/ChemicalEngineering • u/Ashamed_Resolution76 • Feb 21 '25

Student Is Chem-e really tough?

So right know I am a highschooler and I was very confused what to major in but I found out about Chem-e and really liked it. I wanna know if it's easy to get a job after you graduate on the East Coast, do I need to be good at physic is my main concern???

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-6

u/benson1376 Feb 21 '25

Can someone explain how tf can you be passionate about pipes and chemical give me a sound example or I’ll think we are passionate about the $

9

u/AdOpening7045 Feb 21 '25

I love control valves

0

u/benson1376 Feb 21 '25

Sold. But fr pls give me a example this is a interview question I got 2 months ago and I fumbled on this one question

1

u/Ells666 Pharma Automation | 5+ YoE Feb 21 '25

I do controls because it's programming puzzles that actually solve problems / do stuff related to the real world. At the end of the day you're helping make some product, and that was more appealing to me than working in a purely digital ecosystem.

1

u/Character_Standard25 Feb 21 '25

I like to solve problems

3

u/Chozobill Feb 21 '25

Here’s what I would tell people (that is true) when people asked me why engineering. I have a chemical engineering BS, but I think it applies broadly. Also keep in mind, I had no idea what a ChE did and was lucky enough to like the concepts and course work and had good counselors that recommended I give it a shot because I liked math and chemistry. Not every body likes it or gets good advice.

I grew up playing a lot of video games. Mostly puzzle games, RPG’s, and strategy games. I enjoyed optimizing my crew in RPGs and trying to think about and understand puzzles.

It’s not that I have a strong affinity for pipes and chemicals. I had a strong desire to figure things out and understand. When I played games that really hooked me, I got a great deal of satisfaction overcoming obstacles and figuring things out. I found during school I felt the same way about my homework sets. Were they always fun? No. Was it often tough? Yes. But the satisfaction of figuring it out or finally understanding has made my nearly 20 year career very fulfilling.

Hope that helps.

2

u/logic2187 Feb 21 '25

Solving problems is fulfilling to me; problems involving pipes and chemicals are interesting to me and I'm good at them, so those are the types of problems I like to solve.

2

u/vtkarl Feb 21 '25

Me. Chemical reactions are magic in real life. Even boiling water fascinates me. Sometimes I just watch the index of refraction change on the bottom of the pot, then the nucleation sites form…and I try to tell my wife about it.

Once I had two job offers in hand and I went with the one where they showed me wet spinning of acrylonitrile fiber on the plant tour. I just fell in love with it. And it was more money, too.

100% love it and making money doing it. Everything around you is made by chemical engineers. EE would still be insulating wires in cotton and playing with tubes without us.

0% love the lean management consultants and corporate cost-cutters that come along with it.

1

u/hysys_whisperer Feb 21 '25

Dude, the whole plant is like a toybox, and the rules of the game are constantly changing.

Optimizing a unit is like playing a perfect game in Civ 5.  Shit's just all around fun.

Then you get to turnarounds, and while it's a ton of work, the whole place turns into an adult jungle gym for a couple of months.

That's without even touching the endless entertainment of inappropriate jokes by ops.

1

u/Character_Standard25 Feb 21 '25

I’m jealous of your plant. Sounds like you get money to make improvements lol.

1

u/hysys_whisperer Feb 21 '25

Not a ton, but some.

Mostly it's finding novel ways to turn the knobs you already have to 11 with a fan pitch here and a pump impeller there.

1

u/Character_Standard25 Feb 21 '25

We’re using chicken wire and duct tape ourselves lol

2

u/hysys_whisperer Feb 21 '25

Pro tip, baling wire is tougher than chicken wire, lol

1

u/Ashamed_Resolution76 Feb 21 '25

Tbh I kinda like chemistry and working with my hands and Chem-E was one of the high paying majors that I found. So yeah

1

u/True__Sight Feb 21 '25

Hi! You know the game Factorio?

Basically that