Hello! I’m on my last year for chemical engineering, it took a while but I’m finally recieving my bachelors. I would love to know what jobs are usually available or ones I should be on the lookout for. Please share your experience good or bad. Thank you 😊

My petrochemical company has been going through a re-structuring since the beginning of the year. Something I’ve noticed is that many top level execs are willingly leaving along with site based mid-level managers (who likely would have been fast tracked to upper management) and intermediate technical engineers. The company is in a very bad financial state and obviously they are seeing/hearing news that is not making them optimistic for the future. I’m a lower level plant engineer with 3 years total experience, should I let this affect my decision? The position has been more challenging with the constant need to cut back spending but I do still enjoy the work for now and my colleagues.

I know you guys probably see about a hundred of these a day but I really just need some advice or hopeful words or something to keep me going. I have done everything throughout my school and career to try and set me up to be successful I did a co-op at a big company and also a more technical hands on one at a small company. I worked hard through school and even transferred from my small school to a bigger one for a better education. I have been applying since February and I’ve been denied from even the jobs that I have connections either where my brother works at. Made it to two final round interviews this summer just to be ghosted at the end and it’s honestly just made me feel like I might not ever land something. For context I am located near Boston which I know isn’t the biggest hub but most of my applications have been around this area, but I am open to relocating and have been applying to Texas California Arizona Florida etc.

I posted on the engineeringresumes subreddit and I didn’t get any responses so I figured I’d ask for advice here. Does anyone have any ideas that could help me become a more attractive candidate? I have good knowledge but get nervous in interviews but I still think they have gone well. Anyone have any ideas how to advance my career. I am not picky about pay or location I just want to get my foot in the door and learn as much as I can and get experience.

Hi I am an incoming college student majoring in chemE! I have heard the various streams of chemE jobs, but don't really know their salaries and would like to aim for something early and direct any future internships that way. Also how long does it take to reach six figures and mid six figures?

If it's not a strictly management or technical position, how do you like the balance? And would you have made the same career choice if you had to do it all over again?

I considering leaving my current role to pursue a masters degree in another country. (I am from the US). It’s a rotational program that I plan to finish in the next year. (I am a 2024 grad) I honestly really like my company and wish to leave amicably. I can’t really consider transferring because I am too inexperienced but I could see myself working for them again. This isn’t for another position or even an industry switch. I just believe moving is the best thing for me and this is the simplest way to do that.

How do I leave on good terms?

I recently graduated from a pretty good school and my resumé is packed. I have 2 co-op experiences, 1 internship, and my name is in a published paper from some research I did at CU Boulder. I did go to a different uni tho. I have been focusing on Colorado jobs for a few months at this point (before I graduated as well), but I can't seem to land anything at all. I even get rejected to technician jobs. I don't feel particularly strong towards any industry but I really want to work and make good money bc at this point, I'm out of money! I even tried to use connections to some companies in CO but NOTHING! Any advice or anyone know of any companies that are urgently looking for employees. My experience has mainly been in processing engineering and research. And I have great extracurriculars I did in college. Pls help T-T

Hey everyone, I’m a chemical engineering student with 29 credit hours completed out of 132 total, and my current GPA is 2.89. I’m aiming to raise it to a 3.6 before graduation. Is that even realistic at this stage? If anyone has made a similar GPA recovery, I’d love to hear your experience — how you studied, managed your time, and stayed consistent.

Where I’m from, graduating with honors (3.6+) comes with real advantages — priority access to top companies, better internship offers, and other opportunities that make a huge difference after graduation. Most of the best industries here specifically look for honors graduates.

Also, for those in ChemE: What’s your approach to studying core subjects like thermo, fluids, mass transfer, heat transfer, etc.? I don’t want to just memorize — I want to actually understand and retain the material.

If you have any Google Drive folders, solid notes, YouTube channels, or even social media pages that helped you through ChemE, please drop them. I’d really appreciate any resources.

Thanks in advance!

Hey guys i graduated this may. I hold a B tech in chem E with a 8.1 cgpa and i have to start a job at company( idk if i can say the name but its a huge energy related company more focused on electrical engineering than chemical but i have to work as a instrumentation engineer) and i gotta sign a bond of 2 years after joining the company. I wanna pursue higher studies so bad but im so clueless about what program and unis would be good for me. My question is should i work for 2 years and explore things a bit and then go study or go to work for 6 months before signing the bond and do research in the mean time and apply for uni for next year? PLEASEE HELP ME OUT!

I have a stable job (in a different industry) in Europe, and I recently got an offer from Exxon in my home country (outside Europe). My current job is steady and not competitive, but I know that’s not the case at Exxon.

I’ve always wanted to work in oil and gas (though I’ve never had an internship in this field), so this feels like a really good opportunity. I know people often say negative things about Exxon, but I’d really like to know; is the competition really that intense? I’m still early in my career.

Hi everyone. I am 28 years old and have a bachelor’s in chemical engineering. I have spent all of my career as a typical process/contact engineer in manufacturing and chemical plants.

I have a certification in Six Sigma Green Belt and PMP certification. I am feeling a little stuck with chemical engineering for its job opportunities and location options.

My company offers some tuition assistance for education. I want to take advantage of this but my issue is, I am not sure what would be a good pivot with my technical skills. Has anyone pursued an MBA or even other degrees outside of chemical engineering? What are some career fields you have pivoted to with this?

I am looking for advice on things to look into to see if it would interest me. I want to have a goal in mind to purse, rather than just get a degree for degree sake.

I was looking at linkedin most of the people who did extremely well turned out to be actual chemical engineers, the ones who didnt do well even with coop went to lab tech route, supply chain, packaging. When I look at other engineering disciplines I never see something like this happening. Why?

Hey!

I work in the gulf coast and started off as a production engineer for a major petrochemical company. I hated the role so much, and after discussing with my manager they moved me to controls. So far I love it! The pace is much better I actually enjoy what I’m learning and it keeps me thinking.

I was having lunch with a manager at my company and she’s kind of a mentor to me. She said that she was glad I liked what I was doing but that to move up in the company they rlly need to see solid production/ ops experience. I mean I don’t care to be a manager now but does this mean if I stay in controls the chances of being a team leader is pretty much nothing?

Hello guys, I am a chemical engineer working currently as a Coating R&D Engineer, and I am thinking of doing a PhD in chemical engineering whilst working; however, I don't know if it is worth it or if I must look for something else to do in order to sharpen my skills as a chemical engineer. What do you think guys?

I am engaged in polyurethane-related finished products this year, such as tires, fitness equipment and mats, but I also found that customers have basically a stable supplier now, and chemical materials are more about serving customers, hoping that customers can make money. I am also very confused about how to develop big customers.

Can you guys share any extra skills that chemical engineer should acquire for better job opportunity.;)

I declined a co op offer in the fall because I wanted to graduate this year, was that a bad decision? I have 2 undergraduate research labs as experience but no industry experience. Should I go to my engineering career the next semester and find a co op after graduation or for the next semester, summer and fall? The co op I declined told me I could do a co op for them after graduation if I wanted.

I’ve been curious about how other chemical engineers are using AI in their work.

In my case, I once tried using our corporate AI model to help draft an isolation procedure — but honestly, it didn’t work out. The model struggled with the level of technical detail and site-specific context required, so it wasn’t reliable enough for safety-critical documentation.

That said, I can imagine AI being useful in other areas — data analysis, drafting reports, maybe even assisting with PFD/P&ID reviews.

Would love to hear real examples of how it’s working (or failing) in practice

Hey guys,

I would like to write something off my chest. 2 years ago I joined an EPC company as a design engineer. I was usually hanging around the office and having a nice time. But for the last 4 months now, I am stuck on this project to be commissioned far away from my home country and I feel so lost and helpless.

I am daily dealing with endless discussion with the customers, who is trying to bend the meaning of the contract specifications wherever he can and where he whishes. Lots of people who were part of the project team are either working in different departments now, quit, are retired and a fair share of them got laid off. All I am trying to do is getting the whole thing commissioned and working at the designed parameters, but it is so hard to adjust all the valves, inlets, outlets, fans to have everything running in stable conditions. Just to get the thing on target conditions from cold situation takes almost a week and my team and I have been working now for 11 days in a row, with each 10 hour shifts, which is not even legal in my country, and I just want to get home and dont work on this stuff anymore. I can rarely talk to my boss who then can't really help me, the software of the project is still a mess on a lot of levels because it was never quite ready, and I feel like everything I do is just useless and a waste of time. At the same time, project management is pushing very hard to hand over the project to the customer. The last days I was constantly thinking about my quitting my job, because I have never in my life felt so miserable. Just wanted to get this off my chest, if you feel like you are also in a horrible situation - we are not alone :)

I know that in the polymer industry the researchers are always the first to let go.

I'm a current chemE student, and after gaining a lot of experience/technical skills in the industry, I plan to pursue an MBA and go into management. If you've done something similar, have you stayed in the chemE industry, or have you branched out into other fields? I'm interested in hearing other peoples experiences!

Hey yall,

In your opinion would it be worth taking a ~$30k pay cut to move from O&G to defense? Currently, I graduated last summer and have been working at an O&G super major for a year and have an offer from another company in the defense sector. In my eyes, defense has always been the coolest of the two industries and I have no moral qualms, but I’d be dropping down from $108k to around $80k (roughly same benefits otherwise). Salary aside, I’m also concerned/unsure of job stability in the future, and don’t have a good read on the current job market with regard to it being a good time to swap careers. My main interest in the swap (aside from industry) was the location and change in pace/stress, as I’d be able to have a more enjoyable time outside of work and will be able to be with my longtime friends.

Are there any other ChemE’s who have made a similar change in careers? How did it turn out? Thanks.

I've toured a few plants recently, and I'm a little concerned. Outside of the big auto or semi-conductor companies, it feels like a lot of factories are stuck in the past. We're talking tons of manual work, very little adaptation of lean manufacturing, and some people are literally writing down numbers on a blank sheet of paper to track their KPIs

It just makes me wonder about the new folks just starting out. If you don't land a job at one of the big, automated companies, are you already falling behind? It feels like you could be missing out on key skills compared to your friends working in high-tech plants.

And that brings me to a bigger question: with China cranking out EVs and building these massive, modern factories, would any of you seriously consider moving there for a few years just to get that kind of experience?

Curious to hear what you all think.

Yooo as a chemical engineer what r the fields u can work in

Hi everyone! I just passed the PE Chemical exam and wanted to share my experience, hopefully this helps those of you preparing.

🎓 My background: - I graduated just a year ago, so most of the core chemical engineering material was still relatively fresh. - I was lucky to have interned at a process safety consulting firm, which really helped with safety-related questions.

📚 Study strategy (3 weeks, full-time job): I didn’t follow a big review plan or dive into textbooks. Instead, I focused entirely on practice problems, which I think was the most efficient approach.

Here’s what I did: - Start with a full practice exam (I used NCEES 2020) to benchmark myself: Identify strong/weak areas and get familiar with timing and question style - Thoroughly review all solutions, not just checking the answer, but making sure I could solve it myself from scratch. - After that, I re-took the same exam under timed conditions. If I scored 95% or higher, I moved on.

I went through: - NCEES PE Chemical 2004 & 2020 (very close to actual exam difficulty, 2004 doesn’t have official solution but I made 1 in another post) - Perry’s PE Practice Exam: a bit easier, had some typos, but still helpful - I skipped Matthew’s exam. I felt it didn’t reflect the actual exam’s difficulty or structure as well.

⏱ Exam-day tips: - The PE Chemical exam has 2 sessions of 40 questions each: • AM session: Mostly short and straightforward calculations. • PM session: More complex problems and theory-based questions that require reasoning. - You get a total of 8 hours, shared between both sessions. If you finish the first session early, you can submit it and use the extra time for session 2. I highly recommend doing this! - Average time per question is ~6 minutes, but you don’t need to rush. Some theory questions take less than a minute. I finished comfortably, and it seemed like most people did too.

💡 Final advice: - Take the PE exam early if you’re eligible. It gets harder to study as time passes and responsibilities grow. - Expect challenges in Plant Design if you’re early in your career, it’s more experience-driven. - Focus on practice, learn from mistakes, and don’t get discouraged if your first score is low. You’ll improve quickly with review and repetition.

🙋‍♀️ Question for the community: I’m currently working at an EPC company, but it’s a bit of a slow period right now, so I have some extra free time during work hours. I want to make the most of it and learn new skills that could help me become more valuable or at least reduce my layoff risk if the market gets worse.

What skills or certifications would you recommend picking up during downturn in an EPC role (process engineer background)?

Thanks in advance and good luck to everyone studying!