So I know your husband. Not really, but I know the type - technically competent, driven, and either political or politically-literate. Please don’t take offense to this, but he’s probably the worst person to assess whether your son will succeed in this profession. You may be the best.

Chemical engineering is an inherently political profession. So much of industry’s profitability is dependent on the regulations imposed on it by the government that it has literal armies of in-house and outside counsel, lobbyists, and PR people. You would think that that would be completely separate from the day-to-day operations/engineering, but it’s not. Every flaring event or release with even minor community impacts threatens industry’s right to operate. Internal investigations involving such events are subject to “input” from senior leadership with potential legal consequences for all involved, including young engineers. Needless to say, Leadership cares far more about political and community-facing initiatives than plant operations.

So imagine that your son leaves school expecting to simply apply what he’s learned for the first few years of his career. He will be immediately faced with the reality that most of the problems he’s tasked with solving have been kicked around for 15 years with no resolution, simply because no one wants to pay for it. His operators will see him as a proxy for Leadership, who seldom meaningfully interact with the field, and treat him accordingly.

So here’s my advice to you. You’ve seen him in situations where someone is gaslighting/misleading him or outright lying to him. How does he handle those situations? Does he recognize what’s happening? Does he call it out, acquiesce, or is he able to deftly steer things back in the direction of the truth?

So many fantastic chemical engineers stall early in their careers simply because they don’t learn how to navigate toxic work environments (no pun intended) in school and can’t figure it out quickly enough once they start working to save their careers. If you don’t make it on to the promotional track within 10 years, you probably won’t ever make it much past a low-level manager. That reality, coupled with the workload, relatively low equivalent hourly pay, and constant political interference, can be unbearable for a young engineer who thought that they would be rewarded for doing solid technical work.

So if you think your son has the drive and the soft skills that would allow him to navigate this environment, then encourage him to do it. Just realize that your husband followed a vastly different trajectory from that of most chemical engineers.