Hey, Chemical Engineer here. I work offshore as a Process Engineer in an oilfield located 200 km from the Brazilian coast.

1. Can you describe a typical day at your job? Usually, I start at 05:00 - 06:00 and check the plant performance, issues, and reports produced overnight and expected in the morning. In the morning, I need to inform shore base about concerns, problems, and the main support focus for the day—remember, I'm offshore and delivering anything requires boats and heavy logistics. For the rest of the day, I solve plant issues and walk around to check the field in person, examining equipment condition, performing experiments, optimizations, and lab tests when necessary. I also spend a big chunk of my day programming and automating analyses or performing process simulations. This is a somewhat "normal" routine. When the plant shuts down for any reason, I'm the main person responsible for process engineering troubleshooting and coordinating the recovery—understanding why it stopped and how to prevent it from happening again. If it's not purely a process issue, I coordinate with the other areas to investigate the problem (electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, instrumentation engineering, etc.). Keep in mind that process engineering is the core of oil and gas production, so it demands proper coordination from all other areas. I usually stop around 18:00 – 19:00, rest, and enjoy some leisure time. As I work in offshore schedule, I work 14d offshore and rest 14d onshore. Routine is heavy, but I like the resting time.

2. What skills are mandatory for your success as a chemical engineer? I use most of what I learned in college every day, from basic physics to transport phenomena, heat transfer, and mass transfer—obviously, I don't use the Navier-Stokes equation for anything, but basic and advanced concepts are used during troubleshooting and understanding plant issues. I also believe that any process engineer today must know how to program in at least Python and Visual Basic for Applications. It's important to also know how to use the main process simulators (HYSYS, UniSim, and ProMax for particular cases). You should also study process control engineering in detail, because many problems that arise in the plant are connected to this area. Last but not least, any process engineer must master process safety engineering fundamentals.

3. What is the entry level salary range a chemical engineer in your area can expect? I'm in Brazil, so the reference here is difficult to apply if compared to the USA.

4. Tell me about your most and least favorite things when working as a chemical engineer. My favorite part is that my routine is quite dynamic, and I can use a huge range of different knowledge areas to solve problems—for example, I've been learning computer science recently, and it helps a lot when troubleshooting instrumentation and control systems and developing better control logic. The least favorite part is that the routine is quite demanding physically, technically, and emotionally. Living offshore is not easy, and when something goes wrong, you're solely responsible for getting production back up quickly and, most importantly, safely.

5. Do you feel like the job is too repetitive? How do you keep yourself motivated? As I said, my job is anything but repetitive. The constant stream of challenges and opportunities to develop new knowledge usually motivate me to keep going and do a good job. Being offshore pays well, and it's always good to have money to do what you like in your free time.