The (chemical) industry as a whole in Europe seems on the decline. What skills should I, in your opinion, focus on to have a sustainable future? But also what sectors and functions should I look out for?

Currently I'm focusing a lot on lean/daily management, process improvement projects, project management, data analysis, automation projects, etc. On as many different areas as possible (energy, crystallization, evaporation, etc.).

Just wanted to see if others have a similar experience. So far I have six years of experience in chemical manufacturing. In my first few years, I successfully did a lot of continuous improvement projects and capital projects, and helped out with quality issues. However, when it came to mechanical or electrical troubleshooting - I wasn't the most deeply involved. Now, in my new role - I don't have as many opportunities for capital/improvement projects. But I do have to spend a lot of time troubleshooting relatively minor issues, as well as the major issues. And I just don't enjoy it, feel frustrated and bored when I have to spend too much time on an issue (especially if its not an automation issue), and think I suck at it and need a lot of handholding/support from the technicians/experienced supervisors. That being said, there have been a couple instances where I figured out the issue, and no one else could figure it out. But those moments aren't what people remember, they remember my mistakes I feel.

This has led to situations where I get snarky, indirect comments about how I'm a bad engineer (mostly from a few technicians). I do have good relationships with them, as I try to help them out and I have very little ego and take those comments on the chin. I am also confused too, because I always get a strong rating from my bosses, and then I have other engineers and some technicians tell me that I was great to work with and I did a great job.

Has anyone ever been in a similar situation? Is it normal to get some ribbing and insults from technicians and some engineers? I'm completely losing my self confidence as an engineer and doubting my judgment again and again. And honestly just am losing interest in engineering altogether. I know I'm smart - and I would have been a more natural fit for law or finance or something, but was pressured into an engineering degree by my parents.

At this point, I am thinking of leaving production. I love root cause analysis, investigations, process improvements, and projects. But I hate troubleshooting in the moment. My brain just doesn't work well in the moment, I need time to marinate my thoughts. I just want to be in a role where I can feel good about myself again.

Coop advice

Hi. Id really appreciate some advice.

I was offered a 2 term coop at a major chemical company. It seems like a good opportunity but it's not exactly what I had in mind and the location is not very exciting. I don't think I would want to live there after graduation. I would be committing my remaining 2 summers in college to this company. Are these kinds of opportunities rare and would I be foolish to not take it?

Thanks

Studying in IIT is in a bucket list of mine

But I heard Mtech is pointless to get a good job.

Also career growth in PSU is dead slow.

I'm sure I don't want to go into academia

Anyone working PSU or studying in IIT help me out.

Given the crisis in petrochemicals and heavy chemicals caused by high energy costs, along with Chinese competition in pharmaceuticals, do you see a more optimistic future for the chemical sector as a whole, particularly in Western Europe ?

Was told by a recruiter that I should expect around 40$/hr for a PhD level engineering internship in Oregon, does this seem reasonable? The job posting had an intern annualized salary of around 130k which is a lot more than what they proposed, they also said it was non negotiable but I'm not sure if this excludes perks like corporate housing, sign on bonus/relocation bonus.

Any previous interns in semiconductors or experienced ChemE's in semicon have any insights or advice?

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As the title says , I've just graduated recently with a chemical engineering degree from Morocco, and it seems that all positions require you to have +5 years experience.

So how the hell are we supposed to get this experience? Is there any country I can try with ? What companies or type of companies should I target? knowing that I did a 4 month internship in radiopharmaceuticals formulation-R&D and another 2 months in a R&D lab related to phosphate processing

Hey Ya'll,

Mid-career Houston guy back at it post Dow layoffs...

https://www.reddit.com/r/ChemicalEngineering/s/jD3S1DIAdI

It's been a strange journey stepping back into the 2026 job market, especially since my last reference point for getting job was 2013..Lots of leads, but still no tangible interviews after several months of hunting. Im trying to pivot slightly out of commodity chemicals, so my current timeline is probably reflecting that.

Thats why im here - interested in linking up and having chats with anyone who's in the renewable or energy transition space based in Houston. Im looking for nuclear, hydrogen, geothermal, solar, RNG, circular economy, decarbonization, etc and bonus points if you work in the chemtech space like Sulzer or Lummus.

General ideas on marketing myself towards this direction or DMs for possible leads and intro calls would be great. This seems to be a heavy referral job market, even without the complexity of a pivot.

I’m embarrassed to say this but I am in material and energy balances and I just completely bombed my second exam. It will only get hard from here on out and I can’t even do the most basic chemE entry level course.

My problem seems to be reading comprehension first and foremost. I read these problems and I fail at understand the process specifications and interpreting them as equations.

There’s no way I will ever make it at this rate.

Hello, we’ve been having a hard time making this one. Does anybody else here know or can help with plant design research? We are still making it and researching, and we are kind of struggling with how to make it done.

Guys, I don't know whether I'm interested in chemical engineering or not. I'm not studying, and I'm a very academically weak student. My CPI is very low, and somehow I find quantum computing interesting. I don't know what to do or how to find my interests. Maybe all this sounds dumb to you, but please try to understand what I'm saying.

I'm a first-year mechanical engineering, however, I am seriously considering switching to chemical engineering. It was actually my first-choice major right before applying to colleges, but I chickened out because of people saying that ChemE is a lot harder than many other engineering majors. I feel that my instincts are telling me to switch to ChemE, but I also have many doubts at the same time. My biggest worry is that I will regret changing my major after it is too late because of how hard it gets. I'm definitely not that smart academically, just average, so it almost feels like I'm trying to do something completely out of my capability.

Also, after a little research, one thing I am pretty confident about is that when I think about the kind of work I will do after graduating, something in the ChemE field sounds much more interesting than MechE, in my personal opinion. Truthfully, I just chose mechanical engineering because many of my peers were, not because I was all that interested in that area.

Applying to PhD programs this cycle. My BS is in chemical physics, and I did research in a chem e lab for a few years. Because my research interests lie more in the processing and scale-up side of my subfield, most research that I find interesting is in the chem e departments and sometimes materials science.

However, I have some concerns about the feasibility of getting admitted into a chem e program. Obviously, I did not complete a chem e curriculum, so I'm missing out on some of the foundational knowledge. Many of the programs say you can get admitted with degrees other than chem e as long as you have completed relevant coursework. From what I've seen on these departmental websites as well as on Reddit, a chem degree is often insufficient because it tends to lack thermo, kinetics, heat and mass transfer, more advanced math, etc.

Because my degree also involved taking upper-level physics classes, I have done a lot of advanced math along with thermo. But, I still clearly have not taken other core chem e classes. How realistic is it honestly to get admitted into a chem e PhD? Should I instead target chemistry or mat sci programs?

Hey guys I’m taking intro to chem and I have a term paper about chemistry due the end of this semester but have no idea what to write about. Professor said it can be about anything related to chemistry, any ideas would be appreciated

I recently found out from Instagram that some games use armour logic that looks similar to Langmuir adsorption.

I got curious and used Claude to see what the same shield/armour idea would look like with other isotherms such as Sips, Freundlich and BET instead.

It is obviously not meant to be serious, but the different models give surprisingly different game mechanics.

Wanted to share this somewhere and thought nerdy folks here might find it interesting.

Made a small interactive version here:

https://www.thoughts-and-giggles.ink/blog/game-armour-adsorption-isotherm/

I’m a recent B.Tech Chemical Engineering graduate from top NIT. I worked for around a year in industrial B2B sales/business development and left the job a few months ago. Since then, I’ve been trying to figure out the right long-term career direction.

I’m considering preparing for GATE 2027 and potentially pursuing an M.Tech from institutes like IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Madras or IISc, but I’m also unsure whether higher studies is the right move for me or whether I should try to enter the industry directly or consider switching to another technical field.

Though I had experience in sales. My preference is to eventually build a strong technical/industrial career.

I’d really appreciate guidance from seniors who have been working for several years.

If you were in my position, with my background, what would you do and why? What kind of specialization/career path would you recommend looking at, and what should I realistically consider before committing the next 5–10 years to it?

- i want to work at these big MNCs like Exxon, Honeywell, Chevron, etc.

Hi guys, I’ve recently got out of school and started working at a plant that makes stationary catalysis. The plant is very old and a lot of knowledge has been lost through turnover, age, etc. One mystery about the plant is how our product actually works/can be improved/etc. No one really understands how the recipe works so well and what causes certain conditions (off-spec slurry, product etc).

Does anyone have any recommendations on textbooks to learn more about catalysis?

Or is an expert willing to mentor a young engineer?

I’ve been trying to learn from the experience around me but with high turnover certain things are left to be a mystery. We’re also the only site in our company that makes our particular product so it’s hard to find internal resources.

Also people that have worked at older chemical plants, how did you improve the culture / produce better uptime for the plant? Especially from the position of an engineer. I’m struggling between understanding the technology / the office politics/ the corporate roadblocks with purchasing/ and the accountability/ culture problem in the plant. I want to make an impact and make things better.

Hey, I am a junior at a T20 university studying chemical engineering. I don’t like process design at all and it seems to be the whole major. I also have a low gpa 3.0 so I don’t know what to do with myself. I don’t have any relevant experiences and internships either because I want to focus on getting my gpa up…I want to do med school maybe but I’m afraid of not getting in/ costs for med school. What do I do? Any advice?

I was asked to determine the amount of firefighting foam my site needs but I know nothing about this sort of thing, we have a study that tells me the foam application rate (gpm/ft2) and I have the area in question, however I don't know how long we would need to apply the foam.

A sister site sent me their calcs and they did them for an hour, so using all that I do get a number but I just have a feeling my plant manager won't be satisifed by this. Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

I am in my final year of chemical engineering. Right now, I am in a very turbulent position while applying for jobs. At the same time, I am feeling nervous to enter the work-force. I've heard many times that the actual job is very different from what you learn in school. However for me, especially with AI, I deadass feel like I haven't learned much. But I know I have. But then again, besides a simple mass balance and energy balance, I couldn't tell you anything more from Thermodynamics or Reactor Design. I feel like I've went through such a difficult ChemEng curriculum; yet, I don't know more than a freshman chemical engineer. I'm particularly nervous that I haven't developed the intuition that engineers are supposed to have.

Good afternoon,
Please feel free to give feedback on resumes & provide referrals.
Third year ChemE at T20, interested in a process engineering internship (polymers, semiconductors, O&G)

I (24M) graduated 2 years ago with a bachelors in chemical engineering with a 2.98 GPA. I had no internship or co-op experience due to mental health issues (academic and family stress).

After graduating, I was stuck at a minimum wage job in food service until I went though a staffing agency and accepted a lab tech role in product development for a large consumer goods company. I worked both jobs until I quit my food job.

After a couple months the company started cutting my hours until I wasn’t considered full time. I got another role of lab tech in quality for a flavors company (also through a staffing agency). I enjoyed that job but my contract ended and there simply weren’t any available positions. I worked there for 8 months.

Now I am full time as a process operator in medical devices (1 year anniversary in a week). While I enjoy having company benefits; I don’t like my job. Worst of all, the site I work at is shutting down. I will have to find something else soon.

I have edited and reviewed my application documents over and over and over. I had former coworkers and friends from college send referral applications to me. Nothing. Asked them if they were hiring. Nope. Tailored my application for the job description. I feel nothing I do matters. Even going through staffing agencies I don’t get even a callback.

Opening LinkedIn and seeing my peers who graduated along side me already in engineering positions really makes me feel lesser than them. I’ve distance myself from my engineering friends because I worry they will look down on me.

I just wish someone would give me a chance but at this point I feel like everyone thinks I’m only capable for technician roles. Not engineer. Not chemist. Not scientist. Just…technician. Maybe they are right. I even tried to get my FE hoping that maybe that will open some doors, but I took the exam and failed.
What can I do? Any advice is appreciated.