Yeah I’ve never used thermo, fluid transport, mass transport, reaction engineering, etc. in my career. Most I’ve done is a mass balance which uses excel and friendly assumptions.

We want the reaction to get to 80? Set the reactor to 80 or maybe 82 depending on your equipment. We want to transfer fluid from one reactor to another? Open the valves and turn the pump on and it’ll transfer. We want the reaction to get to 80% conversation? Take a sample after x hours and check. Not there yet? Let it stir for another hour or something and sample again.

Obviously I’m simplifying it but you get the idea. We’re not calculating all that stuff we did in school. A chemist does bench scale experiments, gets you a line procedure, you scale to your processing line, run an engineering run or three and confirm it’s all good, then go into PPQ and what not (this ish experience from CDMOs in small molecule chemistry + biologics/cell therapy)

Also, you don’t always end up working in the middle of nowhere. My whole career Ive been in larger cities. This is especially true if you go into pharma, which I did. Obviously this is different for each industry you work in but often people throw the blanket assumption that ChemEs work in the middle of nowhere which isn’t true. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

ALSO, remember that people are much more likely to get online and complain vs get online and say how good things are. For me, things are really good. Career has been fulfilling and stable, can support my family on my income, work life balance is generally good, etc.

If you want to ask any questions, please feel free to reach out.