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/dirtgrub28 3d ago

you'll also meet people that have been there 15 years that have no fucking clue. the trick is being able to differentiate the two

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u/Iscoffee 2d ago edited 2d ago

Agree. Experience don't necessarily equate to knowledge and growth. There are employees who ponder about the things they see each day or at least every year at their work. On the contrary, there are some who just wants to end the day, and there are those who avoid being given tasks (my former manager is one). That differentiates the engineers to some operators (but not all).

Engineers are given the tools to analyze what's happening in their process. Albeit some engineers also become too engrossed with ego and experience that they become very reliant to abstraction and pure experience in a blind manner.

A good engineer is still able to relate equations and theories even after years of being outside the university or college.

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u/YesICanMakeMeth PhD - Computational Chemistry & Materials Science 2d ago

I had an experience with someone outside of work that had been an operator for like 20+ years. A well pump was having trouble moving water and he thought it was because the lines went too far below the water level, so a fluid 101 tier misunderstanding of how rated pump height works and is derived. Yes, I know friction does increase, but that's not what the problem was and not where his head was. He was just looking at the rated pump height and since the line length was larger he thought we needed to cut the lines.

I explained it, his reaction was "I've been working with pumps for 30 years, I know how they work." No, I wasn't a pompous dick, he just couldn't accept being corrected by a university student in his 20s, no matter how gently it was done. He did very graciously admit he was wrong when it didn't fix the problem lol.