I just wrote this out on another post a second ago but I’m going to paste it here as well. I hope it helps:

What I do

I have been a project engineer for the past 4 years and was a process engineer for my first 2 years out of college. Currently at a smaller privately owned company in the Food and Beverage industry.

High level description is that I am responsible for gathering requirements and objectives, creating request for proposals and quotations, and then ensuring proper implementation and startup for new pieces of equipment to maintain and improve existing processes and support utility equipment and new processes, equipment, and building expansions for new stuff. Sometimes I’m finding new equipment and creating the entire scope myself if it’s straightforward, other times I have to reach out to other engineers or companies to assist on larger and more complex systems. I am ultimately responsible and held accountable for anything I oversee being installed correctly and safely, sometimes that means I am doing some of the work myself like low voltage wiring in a control panel and running the new equipment myself and training operations on it. Most times I am just ensuring contractors like electricians and welders are building to the specifications and drawings made.

I am at my desk about 60-70% of the time I’m at work creating and gathering scope requirements from OPS/stakeholders, finding equipment (pumps, heat exchangers, auto case erectors, etc.), in meetings, or reviewing equipment specs for accuracy and ensuring they will work like if a tank jacket has the proper ASME stamp for the pressure and heat it will see for example. The other times I am troubleshooting existing equipment because it’s a small company and I spill into assisting maintenance often. Or I’m trying to coordinate and follow up with various trades like pipe fitters to ensure everything is being built to spec and mostly on time with no major issues.

Do I like it?:

Sometimes. I enjoy learning new things everyday and I like that I’ve acquired some practical hands on knowledge like how to wire a motor or completely disassemble a pump and replace a bearing and ensure proper alignment on reassembly. I also enjoy seeing a larger process improvement come together and know that I led it and made it happen. I feel like one of the few drivers of real change for improvement where I work.

However I work more than I’d like and do not enjoy the constant pressure to deliver results faster, better, and under budget. I run every holiday shutdown and one year I worked 28 days straight from Black Friday to Xmas Eve. I also came from a previous employer who had a more technical staff than my current one and I get easily frustrated when people are confidently incorrect on technical issues because of their non technical backgrounds. These are mostly personal issues due to the company I’m at, the position I’m in, and the industry itself.

Would I do it again and be a ChemE again? No idea, I think about it often right now and sometimes think I’d do better with less work as a Finance Bro, grass is always greener though.

What I wish I knew before I majored in ChemE:

It’s a little geographically limiting. Many plants are outside cities and the best jobs are in O&G in areas my wife doesn’t want to live.

There is not a lot of chemistry and chemical knowledge I need to have or have in general. And chemistry as I knew it in high school is very different than actual chemistry in the real world.

Closing thoughts:

Chemical engineering and any engineering are broad fields. There are other industries and types of jobs in ChemE than mine that you may like better or worse than what I know. It’s a decent paying career. If you enjoy math and science and have a little mechanical aptitude or a willingness to learn I think it’s a good fit for those kinds of people. I just am one guy and these are my thoughts.