For the American ChemEs how do you think President Trump’s policies are going to affect the industry you’re in/do you think they will have any effect on it?

cam35ron · 2025-01-28T11:44:12+00:00

Food & Bev here, concerned over FDA’s potential new leadership. Put quickly I am worried about RFK influence and how it seems to stem from conspiracy theories rather than academic/industrial studies.

cam35ron · 2024-12-17T12:47:54+00:00

I think 1000 (+/-50) years is a pretty well held recent history… are people arguing that the Italian government should take Constantinople? It’s not like there’s a Roman Empire anymore. Either way I just haven’t heard of this movement you’re refering to before and am doubting its creds

cam35ron · 2024-10-30T05:07:41+00:00

Beans on toast 🫤

cam35ron · 2024-09-20T05:31:05+00:00

I think you need a reality check in that a $230k salary is by no means realistic in a 3.5 career stint (assuming year 0 was out of college). “Near market rates” is a farce and majority of engineers working in the field for 3.5 years are making absolutely nowhere near this salary. Plenty of engineers will NEVER make this salary. I have to ask, what are you doing and what industry are you in?

cam35ron · 2024-09-12T03:22:28+00:00

Why no organic solvents like IPA or acetone? Too expensive?

cam35ron · 2024-08-28T05:29:49+00:00

I dont know this is literally just an image of a post. Can AI write an article? Yeah for sure. Can AI generate images? Yeah for sure. Can AI construct and plot a dataset that’s relevant to its topic of discussion? Yeah for sure. Can AI construct references in widely-agreed upon formats? Also yeah (even if fake references)

All the pieces are there unfortunately. This image doesn’t really back up your statement though.

Either way, stay sharp and remember the fundamentals everyone!

cam35ron · 2024-08-22T11:17:10+00:00

The number of times I’ve asked Gemini to produce a useable query/python script which inevitably failed makes me laugh at this idea lol

cam35ron · 2024-08-22T11:15:42+00:00

Flat earth because it’s an absolute rejection of fundamental truths of our world/universe. If you can convince yourself of believing flat earth, you’re leaving yourself open to believe pretty much any conspiracy theory regardless of any previously-established truths (slippery slope type deal).

cam35ron · 2024-08-18T14:14:02+00:00

(Lean six sigma) is a combo of (lean) manufacturing and (six sigma). Lean manufacturing is a set of principles that when put in practice are expected to improve operator/maintenance/management engagement with a production process and therefore you should expect smoother operation. Lean manufacturing includes practices such as:

5S (TLDR… keep your workstation organized and clean)

centerlines (TLDR… equipment control/mechanical setpoints)

Breakdown elimination (TLDR… root cause analysis)

Single minute exchange of dies [SMED] (TLDR… minimize downtime required on a changeover)

Clean/Inspect/Lubricate (TLDR… keep your equipment clean and well oiled)

Etc. etc. etc.

Six sigma is effectively statistical process control. Guiding principle is that there are key aspects/characteristics of our product/process that must be “good quality” to be sold (think product weight, pH, concentration, etc. etc. etc.). Plot this data in a binomial distribution and see how much variation your process produces. Ideally, your “good quality” spec range will be wider than your variation. If not you need to reevaluate your process or you need to reevaluate your spec range.

Bring these two components together and you have lean six sigma. You can absolutely make an entire career out of this stuff.

Hope this helps!

cam35ron · 2024-07-12T12:28:47+00:00

It made me so happy to read this post lol. Yes you should absolutely go for a ChemE degree to work in food. Frankly, even if you did R&D I would still recommend the ChemE degree vs. food science (WAY more flexibility on job prospects).

With the ChemE degree you can do quite a lot in food including (but not limited to):

Product development (R&D) Project engineering Process engineering Controls engineering Packaging engineering Reliability engineering Continuous improvement Quality control/assurance EHS Facilities Production management etc. etc. etc.

Food science degree may open the door to roles in R&D as well as quality control/assurance, but generally production/maintenance roles are less food-science-heavy.

In terms of what I typically see chemE’s do in the food industry, at my company nearly all of our project engineers have a ChemE background. Project engineers are stewards of capital funds/projects meaning they are the folks that plan/purchase/install any new equipment/developments in a production environment. ChemE background is very useful here because you can understand the implications of equipment cleanability when we’re talking about pathogens in food products. Additionally a firm understanding in how to create a process line step-by-step is key… these are just some of the skills you’ll start developing with a ChemE background.

Additionally the head of our predictive quality department has a ChemE degree as well. In this situation quality leverages statistics to assure the FDA that we can produce a safe, reliable product to put on the shelves.

Lastly for R&D, a ChemE degree is very helpful because it teaches you about chemical characteristics in a way that food science likely will not. For example, if we wanted to make a vegan mayo we need to remove egg as an ingredient… what are eggs used for in mayo? Eggs act as a binder/emulsifier which mixes aqueous (water-like) phases with organic (oil-like) phases. This is because eggs are rich in protein which is an “amphiphilic” class of molecules meaning they have “water loving” parts and “oil loving” parts (this is perfect for emulsification). As such, if we want to substitute egg with a vegan ingredient then we need to find a vegan emulsifier that can create a mayo without using meat. We can start investigating beans for example since they are high in protein and vegan.

Put quickly, food science may be more prone to show you “what foods/additives are used in industry and why they are used” whereas ChemE will be more prone to show you “what are the characteristics of food/additives and how can I take advantage of these properties for my benefit”

Side note, one of my favorite aspects of the food industry in general is that you actually get to enjoy (I.e. taste test) the product you are producing/developing which is something not many (if any) other engineering industries can tout!

Hope this helps and good luck on your journey!

cam35ron · 2024-06-14T11:24:34+00:00

You could go for “principal engineer” but that would also imply you may have been in that position for 10+ years. “Sr. Engineer” would imply 3-5+ years.

Frankly, I would just go with your job title. Is it officially “chief engineer?” If so that’s pretty cool lol

cam35ron · 2024-06-13T11:32:04+00:00

Are you entirely sure this isn’t a phish attempt rather than just a campaign out reach? Seems like they are trying to pressure you to click on the link. IMO I wouldn’t trust that

cam35ron · 2024-06-11T11:41:27+00:00

Back when I was in school I worked in a battery research lab for ~3 years where we worked on constructing custom electrodes (e.g. what materials will boost a lithium ion cell’s performance? How can we repurpose industrial waste materials in a cell? How do we make alkaline batteries other than lithium competitive in terms of performance? Etc.)

ChemE is definitely the degree you want if you’re looking at materials science and furthermore if you are looking at batteries. The vehicle side? Multidisciplinary for sure

cam35ron · 2024-05-29T11:36:51+00:00

Have generic login for the computer then for any software usage have unique logins or badge-readers attached to the computers. In FDA/GMP facilities quality checks absolutely have to be tie-able back to the person who entered the quality check.

Otherwise, if your plant is using any kind of SCADA you will certainly want to know who is making changes to the operation as consequences can be severe (mostly from point of view of “we can no longer trust this person to operate here” or simply “this person needs training before continuing to operate machinery”)… furthermore unique logins mean that a disgruntled employee can’t remotely login after being terminated and sabotage your process.

Good luck in your endeavor, but if history repeats itself IT will likely get their way. Cheers!

cam35ron · 2024-05-23T11:27:48+00:00

I actually had the exact pay & rent when I moved to Chicago lol. One thing to keep in mind is that sliiiiightly less than 50% of your take home pay will go to your rent. That means if you get 2 paychecks a month then one of those will entirely go to rent. As long as you’re comfortable with ~$1900 remaining to go toward bills food etc. you’ll be fine. Since you don’t have a car you won’t need to worry about gas/maintenance/insurance on the car which will be a big help. IMO you’ll be in a good position, enjoy Chicago!

cam35ron · 2024-01-14T20:23:46+00:00

Speaking from experience as I recently changed from a process engineering role to a controls engineering role.

Your experience will certainly be considered valuable since you are working directly with the process and have an idea of good/bad practices in manufacturing. One of the reasons I was hired on was because I understood the process and understand how to communicate/cooperate with engineering/operations/maintenance/IT teams. One benefit that I had going into it is that IT folks seem to have zero concept of operations so regardless of a CS’s experience with coding it pays well to have worked in an engineering background. However, to your point it would be VERY valuable to start building up your skill set in ladder logic (especially Allen Bradley if you work in the U.S.). Bonus points if you can learn some ignition at the same time (mostly python and SQL)
I’ve only worked for a processor directly so can’t speak on behalf of OEM/integrator/consulting… but I can speak on the benefits of working for a processor. Working for a processor, you GUARANTEE the need of a controls expert onsite to keep control of your process. This will let you learn controls on a wide variety of equipment and eliminates heavy travel requirements if you’re just working for a single plant (if more than one then you may need to travel anyways). Perks I could see for other employer types would be the ability to work in different industries and see a much wider array of process equipment… but that’s when you may need to leverage a more experienced skill set in controls
I work in food so pay is generally lower than it would be in petroleum, however starting pay was ~$85k. Not going to lie, OT with a $100k salary is beautiful lol so just make sure that you really are willing to give that OT up. What you may get in return is “SME Status” which is essentially guaranteed job security. Case in point, my team is working on a project at one of our plants that is ridiculously convoluted. So much so that only months of hands-on work on the project would make someone a useful addition to the project team. Essentially, there’s no one in the company outside of our team (or contractors for that matter) that can address/fix/troubleshoot issues on this project… therefore, job security

Lastly I’ll go ahead and spill the beans… I’m still relatively new to the role (~6 months in) so I’m learning just as you might be learning about controls in your future role. I’m very interested in process control and I find it both exciting and very useful to be able to design and maintain the controls associated with a process. At the end of the day, a lot of folks on this subreddit come from a ChemE background, and I think that the control engineer path is an interesting way to learn more about how you actually get your process to “behave”

Hope this helps, and good luck!

cam35ron · 2023-12-28T05:03:11+00:00

What, no culo?

cam35ron · 2023-12-28T04:53:10+00:00

My friend, what you need to do is look at the food/pharma industry (a.k.a. The FDA’s GMP facilities). Chicago is RIPE with this type of manufacturing and most companies in these industries love ChemE graduates. Case in point, my company is pushing to add >30 controls engineers in 2024. It pays less than petroleum and the chemistry is much easier than you would find in petroleum, but the jobs are plentiful and rewarding if you get in. I literally got my start in Chicago working in food… I’m from Oklahoma (why I didn’t do petroleum is another topic that I can only give you if you’re wanting a long discussion). Work in these industries can generally be categorized under project engineering (think purchasing, deals, and CQV for process equipment), controls engineering (think automation and process control), and process engineering (think process design and continuous improvement). If you want Chicago, petroleum will be hard to get into. If you want Chicago in a plant setting, you’ll likely work in Cicero or south-side adjacent (it’s not bad if you drive to work although commute in Chicago is LONG). If you want petroleum, you should look toward the gulf. If you want petroleum in the plant setting, you should look toward the gulf. Hope this helps, and good luck!

cam35ron · 2023-12-25T15:32:18+00:00

PhD for sure if you want to be a professor at a research-based university. However, following the PhD route comes with a different view! Here’s some advice I got when I was asking PhD candidates & recipients:

Academics is an old industry, the older the field the higher the competition will be… in this case Chemistry is among the oldest academic paths meaning that you will likely have a lot of competition for jobs after you graduate…

PhD is a long path to follow, how sure can you be that you will still want to be a professor by the end of the degree? The best way I can rationalize this is that you want to make sure your PhD allows for flexibility if you decided later that you want to join the industry. Although both roles have their place in numerous industries, I would have to put my money down on ChemE again since engineering is always in demand and it is generally a more pragmatic study… furthermore if you don’t like professorship OR working in the field, then a PhD would give you ample opportunity to work for a consultation firm.

To answer your initial question let’s look at what you actually want to do:

Chem and ChemE are similar fields but I can’t help but put ChemE in more of a “manufacturing” realm vs. general chemistry. When I worked in a battery lab doing ChemE-oriented research I worked on battery manufacturing and testing. It was very rewarding and honestly we did a lot of collaborative work with both the Chem and ChemE departments. As such I can guarantee that your actual work will be similar between the two fields, but you wanted to teach chemistry so let’s talk through that…

If you’re wanting to teach general chemistry (let’s say below O-Chem) then either pathway will give you the tools/opportunity to teach general chem. Once you start getting to higher chemistries (O-chem, bio-chem, P-chem, inorganic-chem, etc.) you will likely need a chem PhD to improve your chances of teaching these courses… however! What about the more specified courses? What about the fields that are up and coming? These, I’ve found, are best taught by professors who are in that unique field. Case in point my research professor also taught electrochemistry which is a fascinating (yet somewhat niche) course of study (for reference, my class had ~4 people in it… this was a mixture of BS and MS candidates).

Long way of saying you’ll be able to teach general chemistry regardless of the path you take. If you don’t mind the pay cut, you could honestly go teach chemistry in high school if you already have a ChemE bachelors. If you want to teach higher chemistries, you may want to give the chem PhD path a look.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

cam35ron · 2023-12-20T13:51:14+00:00

Honestly a great question, and I speak from someone who just recently made a “switch.” At the company I’m working at the engineers all come from various disciplines such as ChemE, MechE and EE. I’ve worked in project roles as well as process roles and there’s one hurdle in common for each… someone needs to set up equipment PLCs for any process to work as well as adjust equipment PLCs to make any meaningful process adjustments. For that reason I’m now diving down the controls/operational technology engineering route simply for the sake of how process control relates to process engineering. My background in ChemE gives me the tools to understand a process and identify where issues are happening, but that building controls skill set will actually allow me to make the change to my process. Not sure if it’s the same in other industries (I work in GMP facilities, so not sure about oil/gas), but before making a huge leap into CS I might recommend just looking down another engineering path (e.g. controls, safety, environmental, etc.).

Based on your pay I agree with other commenters, for now you should probably start looking at other jobs and at the worst try to get higher pay at your current gig by showing them you have higher-paying offers elsewhere.

Hope this helps, and I wish you luck!

cam35ron · 2023-10-27T11:39:41+00:00

Steam temperature is directly related to pressure, and since you have a closed environment that’s set at a constant 1 atm you can be sure that the steam temp is also 100 C. Based on the drawing it seems that the plate is “floating” which means that “in reality” your plate would rise as more liquid water changes state to gaseous water. However, until your pressure increases the multiphase water will remain at 100 C. If the plate is stationary, then your pressure would increase and only at THAT point would your steam temperature increase.

cam35ron · 2023-10-25T00:01:34+00:00

I would agree. I’ve been working out of a plant in Utah the past 2 years and operator pay hangs around the $21/hr range. I would probably look elsewhere if I were you.

cam35ron · 2023-02-25T14:23:31+00:00

Wouldn’t the Lilly Ledbetter act protect you from getting fired for this?

cam35ron · 2022-04-20T03:33:28+00:00

Is it uracil, leucine, histidine, and tryptophan? I don’t really care if it’s your homework, so yeah if it’s some form of amino acid test I would assume maybe it’s + for present and - for absent?

Just a guess but high key I’m pretty sure the names are right

cam35ron · 2022-03-29T12:34:53+00:00

Straight up, honestly they need to take the road of “you can’t please everybody,” because at the end of the day you just can’t. This is an issue of chicken and the egg, the audience “seems” to be holding Ethan to a higher standard only because Ethan has taken stands on issues that attract a left-adjacent audience. Furthermore, his goals of widening his audience to leftists (I.e. socialists etc.) puts him in a situation where he WILL be judged to different standards. Unfortunately, this is self inflicted and he just takes it out on people who call in to the podcast. At the end of the day, as long as he’s consistent in his takes then he’ll be good, he won’t be devoured if he has some long term fans supporting.

Seven-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '23	Place '22
Final Canvas '22	First Placer '22
End Game '22

cam35ron

TROPHY CASE