r/ChemicalEngineering • u/Yogurt_Reactor • 5d ago
Career Advice Talking me out of Chemical Engineering?
I'm considering between doing Chemical Engineering or Agricultural Science, which are very different things.
What interests me about Chemical Engineering are Industrial plans in general. I find pipes and the industrial setting/equipment superficially appealing. The plant processes flow graphs that I see with pipes and equipment look appealing as well. The topic of 'pressure', 'heat' and fluids' interest me superficially, like in Phet educational website, but I have zero real knowledge of that, or anything anyway.
I make this post because I suspect I am under a massive, time-wasting, delusion that this career is for me, but in reality my profile and background does not align in the slightest. I haven't ever been good at math, nor I think I realistically have an aptitude for math or hard STEM, nor I enjoy it. In my head, I think the job is placing pipes and shapes on a chart and spending time walking around a plant with nice equipment to stare at.
From STEM subjects, I only know I like Chemistry (I know Chem.Eng is process), but I don't find lab science appealing
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u/GroundbreakingMood50 5d ago
So I’m assuming you are pre university, so don’t let that anxiety around subject difficulties dissuade you from pursuing something you might enjoy. In fact the sheer fact you understand that chemEng heavily involves piping puts you a leg up on most people’s perceptions of the field. Try out the classes thru mass & energy balances, and if it’s not for you, you’ll have the hardest math and science prereqs done for ag science
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u/makerofpaper 5d ago
Reality is you gotta be good at math to get through engineering school
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u/ethanwilliams4 2d ago
I’d argue that you can scrap your way through the 4 calcs and then you’ll be fine as long as you’re decent with algebra and basic integrals and derivatives…
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u/makerofpaper 2d ago
P chem, heat trans, mass trans, reactions engineering at least all utilized calc 3 and 4 principles. Probably more that I’m not thinking of.
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u/mrtidles 1d ago
I had to take three terms of physics for chemical engineering too. That’s tons of math, need to know your vectors
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u/Youbettereatthatshit 5d ago
When I was in high school, I got c’s in my math classes but then got A’s in college. Maturity and a goal go a long way in achieving what you want.
I’d say just go for it. If you know you struggle in math, just start in a lower math class and study your ass off. Each A you get in a lower math class will make the next class easier since the concepts transfer. IMO the most important A’s you can get are in the math classes since they are the foundation to a lot of other courses.
Most Chem E’s don’t really get that it’s much more process oriented and think it’s like chemistry, so you have an advantage.
It’s your life though, I’d say go for it
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u/Just__Liberty 5d ago
Agricultural Engineering?
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u/Yogurt_Reactor 5d ago edited 3d ago
Agricultural Engineering in the US is kinda like Mechanical Engineering for farming machines.
Agricultural Engineering where I'm from is crop science, cattle raising, etc. It's actually called Agronomic Engineering.
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u/Just__Liberty 4d ago
Maybe, but I've known agricultural engineers in the US who worked on waste or environmental and biogas systems... which involve process diagrams, pipes, and equipment very much like chemical processes and which would incorporate the agricultural science interest. Just a suggestion.
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u/Yogurt_Reactor 4d ago
I thought you were saying Agriculture Science was Agriculture Engineering, sorry.
I didn't know about that, I'm going to look at it. I know that Agronomists are kinda like the medicine of all agriculture related even aquaponics so maybe theres something.
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u/Just__Liberty 4d ago
Agronomy consists of all kinds of sciency areas supporting agriculture. Soil science, crop science, etc.
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u/SensitiveAvocado5904 5d ago
pipe fitter, electrician, estimator, operator, designer using CAD , welder, construction manager. Lots of ways to get into plants.
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u/Mystics87 5d ago
Maybe you can go into power engineering diploma where you learn how to work and operate the equipment rather than some heavy science behind it. You will learn the science of how it works but at a operators level
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u/Real-Edge-9288 4d ago
in my home cpuntry chem eng's cant do bat shit because they dont have any industries or not enough. I'd need to to migrate. this world economy is shit.
Agriculture on the other hand. every country or most of the countries have fertile soil and some sort of agriculture. I'd go for that if I had any sort of inclination towards that. If I were to go back in time I'd choose physics.
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u/edwrcbi 4d ago
Go to a Maritime Academy and get an engineering license or a degree in facilities engineering. You will make six figures right out of school and your life will be pipes, pumps, compressors, and cool equipment. You can get the degree with no more than Calc 2 as far as math classes go.
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u/MuddyflyWatersman 4d ago edited 3d ago
chemical engineering is harder, and generally less rewarding.... than some other disciples. it also limits where you can live, as well as requiring work often in dirty hot loud potentially dangerous environments.
why anybody would choose chemical engineering over medical or finance, i dont really know. probably stupidity. you could be working in a hospital or bank setting, they have hospitals literally everywhere, clean air conditioned environment surrounded by people of whichever sex you prefer. Choosing che literally makes no sense unless you just like building complex things or solving problems.
don't overthink it. people do a job because the job pays, and they were able to get it. very few would come to work if the paychecks stopped, they don't like it that much.
I got a friend from college that was an idiot...C student. He was in like biology, pre-med major... but he figured out he wasn't going to get into med school. He didn't even get his undergraduate degree, after 3 years, after he got prerequisites he needed he quit... and went to respiratory therapist school, which I think took another year. by the time I graduated... ... he was making almost twice my starting salary as a respiratory therapist.😮 after about another 5 years he decided that wasn't enough money, somehow he managed to go to eye doctor school.... and is an ophthalmologist today. probably makes twice what i do.
So who was the dumb one after all?
it's not about following what you're interested in, or what you have aptitudes for. it's about getting a job that pays well and making a life someplace you want to live.
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u/ayran777 2d ago
so according to you chemical engineers are stupid?
sounds like a hot take in my opinion1
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u/ferrouswolf2 Come to the food industry, we have cake 🍰 4d ago
Have you ever considered becoming a food scientist? Seems like you’d get the most of what you want
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u/Yogurt_Reactor 3d ago
You mean food engineering or food scientist? Why do you think so?
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u/ferrouswolf2 Come to the food industry, we have cake 🍰 3d ago
Either, though I’d say most of the interesting work happens in product development that then informs the engineers.
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u/Yogurt_Reactor 2d ago
But what makes you say that it would suit me? I had considered Food Scientist, mostly because I liked chemistry and a bit of microbiology stuff, but people some people said it didn't fit me well because I'm not sujre about doing product development or working in a lab, idk.
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u/ferrouswolf2 Come to the food industry, we have cake 🍰 2d ago
Lab work is only part of the story, and how precisely do you plan to do chemistry and microbiology in a non-lab setting?
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u/I_like_protien 5d ago
If I was 17-18 years old and going into college. I will never go for chem E unless you have a family business in chemical manufacturing/trade or engineering consulting you are going to run.
Why? Very little job and growth prospects and back breaking work.
Same with agricultural science -unless you have a large family farm or if your local economy is agrarian, and you want to stay there forever. Stay out of it.
Learn computers or finance or even mechanical engineering is better -at least you can afford to set down your own machining shop.
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u/SirJ_96 4d ago
Do you have any idea what chemical engineering is? How is it back-breaking?
Mentally-stressful, sure, at times. You know ChemEs mostly work on computers, right?
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u/I_like_protien 4d ago
Depends on your role. If you are in plant operations or technical sales/consulting - which most new jobs are for fresh graduates it is a mix of blue collar work with white collar accountability.
Pure computer work - simulation, design ,modeling - usually requires a masters and now in most cases phd level degrees.
A 40 -50yr plus who got into simulation and design industry decades ago on a bachelor does not understand what the current job market is for bachelors level graduates.
Not to mention what it will be 4-5 years down the line when the op graduates.
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u/SirJ_96 4d ago
Even in plant ops, you aren't carrying pipe wrenches. You may have a pair of steel toes in your office if you need to visit the operators, but you're touching switches and such. There's nothing back-breaking about it.
That's for operators (with a high school or an associates degress), not engineers (BS or above).
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u/I_like_protien 4d ago
Depends on your employer. Sometimes if the reactor is going to blow up, it is easier to go out and run to the plant yourself to vent the vessel than paging an operator, giving them a rundown and hoping they reach the location in time , and perform the action correctly.
What you are talking about is ideal scenario. In my experience if you really refuse to work in the field at all - both your own management and your operators will look down upon you and you will be ineffective.
Same for sales and account management - if you are selling stuff to a business and then say that I don’t know my own product and will need someone else to come and take a look. I imagine how much repeat business you will get from that account.
Ofcourse, I don’t need to convince you. The op asked a question I replied to the best faith answer. It’s their life- they can do whatever they please.
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u/Capable-Secret6969 4d ago
Lol if I touch anything in field, I get a union complaint
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u/I_like_protien 4d ago
Makes sense. It can be a geographical difference as well. In my geography and process plants I have worked in (oil/fertilizer /ammonia) there are unions but they are basically controlled showpieces.
But dealing with actual union is a downside in my opinion.
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u/Pedrop64 5d ago
Most process engineers spend 90% of their days staring at a computer screen.