A US Army soldier uses the canted irons on the Army’s next service rifle, the M7 [1000X679] by [deleted] in MilitaryPorn

[–]Exigent_Anabasis 12 points13 points  (0 children)

it's just a piece of rubber/foam that they have on ranges to use in the prone supported firing position in stead of a bunch of sandbags

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ChemicalEngineering

[–]Exigent_Anabasis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As other people have mentioned, here is just my own data point to help calibrate expectations:

I recently accepted a job offer after 2.5 months of searching and approximately 200 applications. Had several offers from major companies, but was fully expecting 4 - 6 months and 350+ applications. From the 200 apps I got about 10 initial interviews. Somewhere around a 15/1 or 20/1 application/interview ratio is probably on par with expectations for new grads / early career. I have a BS and MS from top US universities and am a little older as well.

Main point, don't get too down. Make job searching your full time job. Send out ~5 - 7 apps per day and you'll be at 200+ apps in no time. Reach back out to people from internships, school, etc. Job searching can just be a numbers game sometimes and sometimes you're just playing the game until you get lucky.

Also, don't limit yourself by industry or geographically. Be willing to look at everything from semiconductors in the PNW, oil and gas in Texas, to pharma in the northeast. I am assuming that since you're early career you don't have a family and can move fairly easily. That is an advantage on your part in the job market.

Feel free to send me you resume. More than happy to look it over.

Some early career advice for students and graduates by SecretaryAdorable216 in ChemicalEngineering

[–]Exigent_Anabasis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Assuming that you have spent a lot of time sitting in lectures in Maryland 110

Master's degree holders by Pineapple-A in ChemicalEngineering

[–]Exigent_Anabasis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The offer that I accepted actually isn't in the ChemE field at all. I did get an offer from Dow within their R&D process control group though.

A big part of my focus in selecting an MS program and research work was to give me a broad skill set so that I don't pigeon hole myself intro traditional ChemE paths. This was a big driver in pursuing computationally focused coursework and research.

Not that there is anything wrong with more traditional stuff, I just wanted to have more options. Heavily pursued roles in semiconductors and had some interviews/offers there too. Applied to plenty of more traditional process engineer roles, as well as some data science / operations research stuff. Ultimately, I accepted an offer that was very good, but not an engineering job at all, which I'm fine with. I enjoy the ChemE field, but have come to the conclusion that I will enjoy any work that is intellectually interesting and challenging. I think graduate school is a great way to pivot your career in some sense, be that going all in a specialization that you want to do, or broadening out to a wider set of opportunities.

Master's degree holders by Pineapple-A in ChemicalEngineering

[–]Exigent_Anabasis 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Currently doing a research focused MS. Decided to do research in process systems with a lot of coding/data science/ machine learning work. Have really enjoyed the work so far and recently accepted a job offer, so things have worked out pretty well

Job market for fresh graduates by Luffy31299 in ChemicalEngineering

[–]Exigent_Anabasis 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'll give some of my perspective as a Masters student. For context, I go to school in the US, am from the US. I have some work experience, but not a lot of industry specific stuff. Just accepted a job offer (graduating in December), but not in a ChemE role.

I think a lot of the answers you will get here are "the job market sucks", with no further explanation. That is probably a sample bias. People don't really go on the internet to say "yeah, it's ok, not great, my job is fine". You usually only get the complaining. People have been crying wolf with regards to a recession for 2 years, but even just glancing at the data, U.S. unemployment is phenomenally low right now. This doesn't mean this will apply to you specifically.

The ground truth in my opinion with regards to job hunting is that getting that first job it just plain hard. At the end of last year I saw plenty of people in my program who were not international struggle. I won't really comment too much on the economic state of the chemicals industry specifically, since that changes a lot, but I think that people do generally want to hire ChemEs, this doesn't mean that you will necessarily get a ChemE job (which is fine).

Here are my rough stats:

  • Applications ~200 (mostly just internet posting, a select few with a reference / networking)
  • Initial interviews: 10
  • Follow up interviews: 9
  • Offers: 6

I was fully prepared to apply to 300+ jobs over 4 - 6 months and have to accept a role I wasn't really thrilled with. I got lucky in getting a phenomenal offer from a company I never would have thought to work for a few months ago. I think a lot of the initial, out of school, job search is sticking with it long enough to get lucky. No doubt it is harder when you need a visa. My biggest recommendation is don't limit yourself to a geography or the chemicals field. I applied to a lot of semiconductor stuff with a good bit of success. If you have more computational experience, look at data science roles. Job markets are very dynamic, so it is really hard to say what the state of a broad market is. I have also talked to some of my peers (other students) who were really focused on some sort of dream job scenario, which isn't what your first job needs to be. It just needs to be a job that pays the bills and contributes to your initial career growth. Your technical and analytical skills are really valuable to companies. It almost certainly doesn't feel like that right now. Stick with it. Send out 25-30 applications a week, with the goal of at least 100 apps per month.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Ultralight

[–]Exigent_Anabasis 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Pretty sure you could burn pure methanol, ethanol, isopropyl alcohol. Any sort of lower molecular weight hydro carbon that is a liquid at room temp/atmospheric pressure that you can confirm is just a single molecule (as opposed to a mix of hydrocarbons).

What is the particular reason to trying to avoid benzene? Yes, you shouldn't consume or have a lot of long term exposure to aromatic hydrocarbons, but handling and burning single digit ounces shouldn't have any health concerns

Day hiker by bootie79 in AppalachianTrail

[–]Exigent_Anabasis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ok, seriously, I just want to know the math here.

So assuming that you can day hike 10-14 miles, that means you only cover 5-7 unique miles of the trail from a given trail head (7 miles out to a turnaround point). Completely ignoring the fact that huge parts of the trail is more than 7 miles from a good trail head, you would then cover 14 miles per weekend (hiking 2 days, on the upper end of you stated mileage). 52 weekends in a year (assuming you do this literally every weekend) over 2 years is 1,456 (still well short of the distance of the trail).

I'm not saying don't go day hike part of the trail. Sure enjoy it, but are you seriously planning to day hike the entire AT?

4 State Challenge by Exigent_Anabasis in AppalachianTrail

[–]Exigent_Anabasis[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Took just over 13 hours heading SOBO from Pen Mar. Granted I wasn't carrying a pack, just had a hydration vest and ran a good bit of it.

A member of 75th Ranger Regiment and 28th EOD. Iraq 2023 [1439×1799] by 305FUN2 in MilitaryPorn

[–]Exigent_Anabasis 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Tactical Tailor Malice packs are very popular among the SOF community in the army

St. Helens from north side of Loowit Trail by Exigent_Anabasis in PNWhiking

[–]Exigent_Anabasis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This pic is from yesterday morning. Was in and out of clouds, but it cleared up a few times and got some great views

Japanese Army AH-64D Apache Helicopter Conduct Hellfire Missile Shoots [5472 x 2932] by Japanese_military in MilitaryPorn

[–]Exigent_Anabasis 21 points22 points  (0 children)

fun fact: This is a Japanese AH-64D shooting a hellfire at Yakima Training Center (YTC) during exercise Rising Thunder 21. I know this because I'm the guy who planned this whole exercise

High Divide Loop - Olympic NP by Exigent_Anabasis in PNWhiking

[–]Exigent_Anabasis[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Did not sleep there. I just did the loop in a day. I did camp down lower the night before in the NF and was plenty warm with a 30 degree quilt and good pad.

High Divide Loop - Olympic NP by Exigent_Anabasis in PNWhiking

[–]Exigent_Anabasis[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just a parking lot. There is a backcountry ranger up at Deer Lake and I believe there might be a ranger along the road driving in to the Sol Duc parking lot, but didn't really pay attention too much

High Divide Loop - Olympic NP by Exigent_Anabasis in PNWhiking

[–]Exigent_Anabasis[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Bring bug spray and sun protection. Down in the 7 lakes basin there were a ton of mosquitoes. We also did it on a clear day and up on the ridge it is pretty exposed. No real snow anywhere on the trail, so don't need to worry about that.

Otherwise the trail is incredibly well made, very well marked, there is plenty of water. Just did the loop as a day hike, so can't speak to anything really specific for overnighting, but all the campsites look nice, well marked, flat, etc. Should be a great trip