I am a process engineer in oil and gas sector. Im trying to build my career around this and im making too less money. I just want to know how much i can expect as i get more experience.You dont even have say the exact figure you make, just tell me how much i can expect with relevant experience.

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!

I’m really curious to hear from people who are making $250k or more annually.
• What field or industry are you in?
• What’s your role or title?
• What steps (education, career moves, risks, etc.) helped you get there?

I think it would be super valuable to hear the different paths people took, especially for those of us trying to plan our own careers.

Hello, I'd like to preface this by saying I've been looking at this sub for a long time now, and I'm a rising junior in chemical engineering. I am fully aware that many people have said not to study chemical engineering, but it was the only engineering that I didn't hate so I chose it regardless.

I've been doing very well in my classes, and I think the concepts are interesting. I am doing a process engineering internship right now. But by GOD no one said it was this bad! Maybe because I'm in Texas but it is 100 DEGREES in the plant with pesky fans. It's LOUD, dark, hot and wet. I have no idea how the operators haven't revolted yet. It is really exciting to see everything in action and looking at all the ways things can go wrong, but it is only fun because I'm just an intern. I really don't want to be the person actually responsible for fixing these issues in 100 degrees heat while yelling at other people because we are all slowly going deaf.

And I genuinely don't remember any university or high school curriculum mentioning the "work all day get called all night" part of this job. Or the fact that it might be bad for minorities because you will be stuck in very very very small towns (some old people stare at me). I networked with an engineer in pharma hoping it would have a different culture and he said: "I loved being on call, it made me feel needed, even if it's at night, I like the satisfaction of being the one that saves the day."

I CANNOT do that! I think I would really enjoy a design based role, where what I do has real impact, and I'm willing to force myself to go into the plant once in a while, but I genuinely cannot spend 50% of my time supporting operations. However from what I have gathered, you really need to spend at least a few years paying your dues in the plant before you can be trusted to design, which is fair.

So please, help me, what do I do to avoid the plant life? Has anyone done anything untraditional with their degrees? Or maybe just work in a state that doesn't have weather like Texas.

For context, I have just completed a year long internship within the food and drink industry where I worked as a process engineer with project management (as part of a central team).

Almost every project I heard of during my time at this company, had either been delayed or site leadership teams didn’t want- mostly because they didn’t have the technical skill set to understand the concept of optimisation.

Is it common within the industry to come across multiple site leadership teams formed of personnel that don’t actually understand the process they’re managing?

I understand everyone has a different role to play within a manufacturing site, but as an upcoming engineer, is it actually ‘a thing’ to HAVE to take everything anyone says with a pinch of salt?

How can you expect someone to work 13+ hours everyday for 2+ weeks and you end up getting started back up on a Monday and make everyone work their full week? Everyone is all amped up to work the outage but it’s honestly just an excuse for companies to take full advantage of salary workers. I’m not political or anything but if I have to continue to go into this place after not seeing my family I’m going to go insane. I enjoy my job but too much of anything is a bad thing.

Hi Everyone,

I comment quite often on posts related to TSMC Arizona and get quite a few messages related. I wanted to make a post about my experience there and if after reading you still feel you want to apply and work there, at least know you've been warned.

A little background I was hired in 2021 and went to Taiwan that summer, being one of the original groups that went. I don't need to go into too much detail, but it was an absolute disaster. They changed our flight date multiple times, gave us laptops that didn't work, lied to us about the size/location of our living arrangements, etc. Anyways, I chalked this up to covid restrictions so whatever. Then we got to TSMC in Tainan and it continued to be a disaster. They didn't have a training plan ready, they barely had people that spoke English and for my group, they refused to help us because "Americans make too much money for us to help them."

Anyways, fast forward a few years of "training" in Taiwan with around 20% of the people quitting because the conditions and work style were already terrible, then we went back to Arizona. Obviously a new fab is going to have issues, but TSMC found a way to make everything terrible. Construction was behind because they literally didn't have any plans. They sent Taiwanese over to clean up because they just couldn't handle all the American blue-collar workers. They had engineers help out facilities that we weren't qualified or trained for. Putting us in extremely dangerous situations that we would have to refuse at the expense of "possibly getting a bad review at the end of the year" for sake of safety.

So, after all that I thought okay whatever that was the growing pains part of foreign company starting up a new fab in the US, it should get better, right?.. Wrong! It got worse and worse. By this time, around 70% of the people I started in Taiwan with had quit, so we we're constantly going through training of new employees. Also, all of those I still talked to that had quit said they were better off. Every project comes from the "mother fab" in Taiwan and needs to be followed no matter what, excluding logic or reason. So there was zero place for innovation or even basic brain use. The job became show up, see what you're being told to do that day, have the plans change, fix it, be super behind, rinse and repeat.

I was a part of interviewing for interns/new employees in my group (my guess was because English is my first language and some of the interviews the Taiwanese would do were terrible). Anyways, the things I were told as prep before interviewing were very disturbing. I was given instruction to prioritize Taiwanese first, then anyone with a Visa after because "people that have Visas are easier to control". They don't want to hire an American that doesn't have immigration restrictions because they will quit once they find out how terrible it is there and they know it so they hold people captive, dangling the carrot green card in front of their face. I was also told to not hire people of Indian descent, and they even had a rude name for them calling them the "PhD people". 2 of the people that were hired that I interviewed, my boss told me they had the job before they even did a single interview and the interview itself was a formality. They all had some relation to people that had worked at TSMC. I understand the "who you know, not what you know" concept, but to have the nepotism be that strong was shocking. I was also told to emphasize on the "Taiwanese work culture" in the interviews, AKA you'll be yelled at daily and need to meet impossible deadlines, because the turnover for new employees was very very high.

The daily work was also a nightmare. They expect you to commit your life to the job. Hourly might be the way to go, but I was a salaried engineer and got paid the same amount no matter how much I worked. Some days working until 9-10pm. Other engineers in my group would work a normal 14-16 hour day.. normal.. Most people would be leaving around 8pm every day and that was on non-busy days. They intentionally would give projects at 4-5pm that were "urgent" and "need to discuss tomorrow morning", meaning you'd have to stay late to do it. The work culture itself is very toxic as well. The Taiwanese work on a basis that more than 50% of their income comes from their bonus. That bonus is not only performance based, but a popularity contest and most importantly how much you do or don't mess up. So, if you were in a situation where that much money was based on not messing something up, you'd probably hide in the shadows and not cause any disruptions, right? Well, that's exactly what most do. So, if you are trying to get help from someone, they will either ignore you or direct you to someone else, because if you mess something up that they told you, they would be to blame. It created a very toxic style of no teamwork, no one helping anyone, and overall delaying all projects.

You also have to remember TSMC is not only a Taiwanese company, but it's THE Taiwanese Company to most Taiwanese people. They are very honored to work there (and rightfully so), but as someone not Taiwanese I just didn't have the same investment into the company. I like to do a good job at work and learn new things, but I will not sell my soul to the company and most Taiwanese will. They treat work as the first and only option in life. Family comes second, which just wasn't for me. I work to live, they live to work.

Speaking of Taiwanese, they have a very different culture than America. They have very little exposure to other races and can end up being very racist towards non-Taiwanese. I've heard them make fun of people's accents, appearances, and disabilities. They will usually do this in secret or in Chinese, but I ended up learning quite a bit of Chinese while living in Taiwan, so I could understand what they were saying. Making fun of or talking shit right in front of someone. They end up treating work like high school. Everyone has their own little gossip groups, and they start dating each other at work because they have no outside life. They are also very sexist. There was a new girl starting while I was in Taiwan and before she was hired, the manager who just interviewed her, shared her Facebook/Instagram profiles with everyone so they could "rate" her, very disgusting. Anyways, she got hired and had gained some weight and didn't look exactly the same as the pictures. Her first day one of the Taiwanese guys went up to her and said "Wow I didn't expect you to be so fat!" and then ran off and giggled to his friends. She ended up crying the rest of the day and took the next two days off. These are adults that are 25-35 that were talking about.. Another quick story, one of the Taiwanese guys went up to a girl that was sitting, holding a banana below his waist. He put it right in front of her face and said "Hey! Want a bite of my banana?" So these are just a few of the fun things you can experience working there.

You might ask, well what are the good things about working there? There are two that I think most TSMC employees will always say and I have counter arguments for both. 1) They don't layoff. This is true, I've never heard anyone getting laid off and actually getting fired there is almost impossible as well (has to be some huge, I mean huge mistake). So, you might think that is great and you have a job set for life. While it's true you don't have to worry about getting laid off/fired, it creates a very low quality pool of people that work there. Imagine you work at a place that keeps all it's worst employees. All the good employees leave/get promoted out of the group and the worst ones have found a way to survive and put up with the bullshit. So you joining that group would make you do extra work to make up for all the mistakes they have made. But if you do find a decent group and can put up with it, you truly will have a job for as long as you can put up with it. A true quote from my boss while I worked there might help explain it best "TSMC doesn't lay off anyone, they just force you to quit." 2) The Pay. Yes TSMC does pay very well. They will intentionally pay a little higher than your worth at first to draw you in. But after working for years the pay starts to level off and you'll soon be underpaid. This might apply to most jobs in this industry though and job hopping might always be the best move. As an example, when I left earlier this year, I got a 30% raise. So just know the pay may look great now, but it won't always be that way. Also, there is a reason they pay more, they expect more. It's a deal with the devil scenario and if you're paid 5-10% more than a competitor but working 50% are you actually making more?

My suggestion to anyone thinking of applying: I think their internship program is actually really well done. It pays well and you have an end date, which is the best part. They do trick the interns by intentionally being nice to them and not giving them anything too stressful (this was a direct order from my boss when I mentored an intern). So just know, if you do decide to go back for a full-time position, the stress/workload will increase drastically. I would say there are some situations that you can make TSMC work as a full time job. If you're desperate for a job because I know the job market isn't the hottest as of now. I also think if you are just out of college and looking for a first job, it can be a good place to start off if you are single, no family, no real commitments. You can make some good money, get some experience and then move on. I would avoid it if you have worked basically anywhere else before, because it will feel like a prison to you (can't use your personal phone, tracked 24/7, treated like your 12 years old with attendance in meetings, etc.). Also, if you are applying and see something along the lines of "were hiring for the expansion!!" it's actually very misleading. They will always be expanding and building more fabs, but probably 90% of the time if there is a job opening, it's because you are filling the position of someone that quit because the turnover is absolutely terrible.

As final disclosure, this was just my experience, so as with everything on the internet, take it with a grain of salt. I'm sure there are people that actually like working there (I never found anyone, but they have to exist, right?) and don't have the same experience that I had. It wasn't all bad and terrible, just a place that I saw wasn't going to progress my career or my mental health, so I got out of there.

I could go on and on and write a novel about my experiences there, but if after reading you still feel like applying, you can feel free to message me. Open to answering any questions or going into more detail on anything TSMC related.

I was talking to my cousin who is 28, he will be 29 in 5 months and he is a Chem Eng and is already worth 500k from 6 years of working.

Retirement-300k Stocks-50k Cash-70k House Equity-80k (430k purchase price)

He makes mid 130s . In my mind that’s really good, what do y’all think? I just wanted to hear what others experience is.

Hello all,

Graduated college about a year ago and started a position in pulp and paper. I am good at my job or so I am told, like the manufacturing environment, and will likely get promoted to a slightly higher role soon, but I’m not sure I really like the industry. It’s all I know, but I am underpaid compared with oil and gas salaries I’ve seen, overworked in that no one wants to spend enough money to actually fix stuff so you bend over backwards to make old stuff work and get called constantly when it breaks, and I’m living out in the absolute boonies.

My question is twofold: for people who have transitioned to other sectors from pulp and paper specifically, is it any better? Anecdotally I’ve heard pulp and paper is the worst but grass is always greener.. Secondly: how late is too late to transition to another industry if I wanted to?

Thanks!!!

Hi I currently am a high school student and planned to study chemical engineering. It sounds fun to me since I'm good at science and math and like chemistry very much. However I've seen many news talking about the incidents happened around the world on chemical engineers such as explosion in the plant and poisoning in chemicals, they look so dangerous and I can't be sure anymore whether I would go on in this industry... do you think I can still learn it or not?? Thank you for your advices.

Applied for a Process Engineer role through a recruitment agency. I hold both a BSc and MSc in Chemical Engineering, with a year of work experience in a multinational manufacturing company. The job was advertised at £40k. Went through the interview process and got a verbal offer for £35k.

The role would require me to relocate up north to a very remote village, away from family and friends, so naturally I wanted to make sure the salary made sense for the move. I told the recruiter I’d be happy to accept if they could bring it closer to the advertised £40k. Recruiter said he informed the company and they’d get back to me. About a week later, they told me the company has decided not to proceed with me at all. No official written offer ever came - it was all verbal.

Feeling a bit blindsided, since I wasn’t trying to be unreasonable and I negotiated based on their own advertised salary.

Has anyone else had an offer pulled like this? Did I handle this wrong or was this just a bad employer fit from the start? I always believed the worst the company could say was no.

I have been applying to Full time roles for a while but haven't had any luck. Pervious Companies that I Interned/Co-op at are either on hiring freeze or don't have any full time opening.

I am also having trouble landing interviews. So if you can please take a look at my r*sume and provide some feedback on how to improve this.

Hey everyone,

I graduated this past May with a ChemE and have been job searching for the past 3 months. I have internship experience in the pulp and paper industry, and I’ve had a couple of interviews so far.

Right now, I’m based in Seattle, but I’m wondering if location might be limiting my options. I’ve been considering moving to states with more chemical and manufacturing activity, like Louisiana or Texas, to increase my chances.

Here’s my thinking:

Louisiana has a strong concentration of pulp & paper mills, petrochemicals, and refining.

Texas has fewer pulp & paper opportunities but a huge specialty chemicals, refining, and manufacturing sector that could value my process skills.

Being local could make hiring managers more likely to move forward quickly.

My main concern is whether it’s worth the cost and risk to move without a job lined up, especially since I’m already landing some interviews from here. I’m open to branching beyond pulp & paper if it means more opportunities.

Question: Has anyone here relocated early in their career for better job prospects? Did it make a noticeable difference? Would you recommend committing to a move now, or should I keep applying from Seattle until I have an offer in hand?

Soon-to-be new grad here. I feel like most of what I read is that people choose ChemE for the money. As somebody who is considering manufacturing, this has me a bit scared. I've enjoyed my manufacturing internships in the past because I like the feeling of helping to fix things, but seeing the conversation around ChemE leads me to believe that I may just be naive/inexperienced. I'm second-guessing my passion for the field. I've been contemplating whether I should just pursue higher salaried positions from the get-go (assume this is possible), or if I should work in manufacturing that feel like a better ideological fit to me right now.

I'm curious if you have a passion for what you do, or if your job feels fulfilling. If not, I'd also like to hear your opinions as to why you practice Chemical Engineering.

Thank you

I’ll try to keep this short, but give enough information to get useful advice. Basically, I’m a Lead Engineer for a manufacturing facility. I do everything from capital projects/expansion, maintenance projects, process optimization, utilities, etc…

The Engineering Team is spread out and I report directly to the VP at our corporate office. I have a Process Controls Engineer (let’s call him Brad) who had been reporting to a Process Controls Manager. The Manager is burnt out and leaving because he’s really good and everyone goes to him for stuff. He oversees several facilities including mine and gets calls 24/7. I was told that Brad will now become my direct report.

The problem is this Brad is a massive under-performer. He’s on a PIP right now. I’ve been on the up-and-up with this company they’re very happy with my performance and want to challenge me to get Brad performing. Brad is lazy, constantly on his phone, not a self starter, doesn’t understand the process flow of the plant, doesn’t like to leave his desk, cannot prioritize projects, frequently misses deadlines which delays my projects… I could go on and on.

Up until now I’d say Brad has been a peer of mine. I’m much younger (20 year age difference) and wondering for those that have dealt with a similar situation what’s the best approach? I’m thinking I take him out to lunch and just lay out the facts? Write down a list of things I’d like to challenge him to start doing and my general expectations? Make it clear how I’ll be evaluating his progress and what “success” would look like in his position. I feel like I can’t beat around the bush and just need to be direct, but also let him know he’s got my support 100% and I’m willing to help. Any advice or opinions?

Hey folks,

I’m someone who’s got a solid research background and published some papers, but honestly, I’m also the guy who can code just about anything, build hardware like analytical setups (currently building GC from scratch), handle electronics and circuits, 3D print parts, design crazy fusion projects, and develop math models.

Thing is, none of this feels like it fits neatly into any traditional chemical engineering career path. I’m not exactly working on typical process stuff or mainstream product development, more like figuring things out as I go, wearing a lot of hats. Currently in academia writing a book, publishing papers, the usuals. I don’t wanna get stuck in the endless loop of academia. Nor do I want to work with analytical equipment. I like to do whatever I feel is going to be rewarding, new skill and “cool”.

How do you deal with being “all over the place” skill-wise in CE? How do you find a career direction that values this kind of diverse, hands-on, experimental, and computational mix?

Has anyone else felt this way and managed to carve out a niche or pivot successfully?

Would love to hear your stories or advice. Thanks!

you study 4 years how to build chemical plants (into the microscopic details) but most people end up not working in chemical plants? some go software,finance (if they had a super high GPA). is that something that commonly happens? does anyone actually have passion for this?

I’m an American process engineer with about 3.5 ish years of experience in the chemical industry (Houston) at a fairly large company (with a lot of European assets) not well known outside the sector. It’s a tough job, but I learn a ton and I like my company’s culture. The people are also great to work with even if it can be hard to get recognized sometimes with all the existing talent on site. The pay is good but no WFH options. This company’s major locations are in Houston and I expect most growth opportunities to be within Texas

Ever since hearing about the downturn related to oversupply within the chemical industry, I’ve had this thought in the back of my head about trying another industry that’s more lucrative (ie consumer products, pharma, semiconductors) There’s very little room in the budget for new and exciting projects and the company is delaying a lot of bigger projects due to cash flow concerns. A lot of my capex projects are quick easy wins but my concern is that they won’t come to fruition due to factors outside of my control. I know this downturn is longer than usual (until 2028) but slightly worried about the opportunity cost associated with putting years of effort into the industry for it to not rebound until I’m past 30. Anyone have any advice?

.

Looking for insights from current students and professionals. With AI, new tech, and sustainability reshaping industries, what skills, tools, or focus areas would you prioritize if you were starting chemical engineering now? What do you wish you had focused on earlier to stay relevant?

What are some common and in demand remote chemical engineering career paths? I’m currently a female undergraduate in cheme and I plan to have children and raise a family, but I don’t want to be working in a plant in the middle of nowhere.

I have a relative who works remotely in consulting so if anyone knows more about that, please let me know. And I also know patent law is an option too.

Hii, im a year 12 student who is currently thinking about what course i should do. And im stuck between Maths and ChemEng. I only recently discovered a Maths course is just mainly proofs which isnt exactly what i was looking for. I absolutely love Maths and i really want to continue it in the future and I think the maths in engineering is my best bet as it is applied. But the thing is, i dont do physics so the engineering courses i could do are very limited. So i can really only apply for ChemEng.

My main question is “Is chemical engineering majority maths and roughly what percentage of the course is just maths?”

Never did co-op. Mediocre GPA.

Worked part time as an HVAC Assistant in undergrad.

Working currently as a lab analyst, testing water samples.

Strong at programming (python and VBA).

Applied to everything from operator, process technician, quality technician, to engineering roles.

Over 300 applications, and still stuck as a lab analyst.

Seems entry level roles don’t want to hire someone with a chem eng degree as they deem you a flight risk, and engineering jobs don’t want someone without co-op experience.

Is there any way out of this hell.

I’ve been asking people in industry regarding the job market situation in chemical engineering since I was in high school (2019). I am now about to graduate next year.

Throughout all those years, people have only complained about the situation.

“My company stopped hiring new grads now”

“This dude applied to 100 billion openings before landing 3 interviews and getting 1 offer”

“There’s no room for negotiation. Be grateful for the offer in this market”

This is all that I’ve heard all these years throughout my bachelors. I thought maybe by the time I graduate, things would be better. But with less than a year left, I don’t think the situation is going to change much.

This made me question. Has it really been that bad throughout these past 6 years? Am I graduating in ‘the lost decade’ or something? Or are people just complaining as usual, exaggerating the one off bad instances and downplaying the success stories?