r/ChemicalEngineering • u/WannabeChE • 3d ago

Career Advice What they don’t tell you in school

You will meet people that have worked at the plant you work at that started off as operators 15+ years ago that are miles and miles ahead of you in experience. They will know the process and have a good understanding of what is happening. They will know their system and won’t need to (but can) trace lines. A degree does not make you smarter but it gives you a deep understanding of the physics and science behind something explaining why. It will put you at about the same level as an operator who has worked there for 10-15 years in terms of pay, but learning never ever stops! In my opinion the experience is so much more valuable to the company, but experience and understanding why is gold!

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u/Remarkable_Spare_351 3d ago

This is honest truth. Recently had a new run plant start and the operators won’t help him because talk down on them for not having a degree.

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u/Cool_Election7606 3d ago

That is so so bad when people with a degree act superior towards operators on many levels. Mutuals respect. And plenty of them are absolutely smart and hard working.

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u/friskerson 3d ago

I’ve always felt like the purpose of the degree was to teach you how to think, not to memorize things. Sure you will memorize and learn things along the way, but the problem-solving is the key. That was a focus at my undergrad and I’m really happy for it.
It is a blessing to be able to draw on the knowledge of the people who came before you, been there, done that, done it the wrong way a few times. Sometimes engineers learn late how to be more social, how to gain rapport and trust of operators, all in the vain, self-serving pursuit of personal satisfaction of proving their superior intellect. Good engineers realize that the job is about a mission, and all good teams are assembled of people with lots of different pieces of the puzzle to put together. I get really excited when I get to assemble teams of people to accomplish a big goal that nobody thought was possible, or where there was no light at the end of the tunnel. One of my favorite, but also least favorite jobs was one where we were making some incredible stuff, with some ridiculously unhelpful clients, trying to engineer things that had ridiculous specifications and requirements in the contract, and they had deep ramifications for the company’s future. That’s where a growth minded engineer wants to be.

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u/twostroke1 Process Controls/8yrs 2d ago

What’s funny is that I go to the operators for troubleshooting help far more than I go to the process engineers.

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u/Cool_Election7606 2d ago

Love this lmao, we had a super cool humble contact engineer who had even a phd lmao. He hung around the control room with us chatting about problems in the plant and shooting the shit. Everyone loved him work was great. Sadly he moved on but i cant blame him for the new fantastic job he got.

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u/theKenji2004 2d ago

It’s not like people don’t have a degree because they can’t get one life circumstances are different and some people just never had the funds/time or were taking on real responsibilities as a child or young adult.

That attitude just pisses me off so much. Without a ton of programs I wouldn’t even be able to attend school myself.

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u/Cool_Election7606 2d ago

You put it so well.