Chemical Engineers Careers


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The average value of the Bachelor degree needed to become a Chemical engineers is $1,937,165.00.

Points of Interest

  • It is expected that total employment for chemical engineers will decrease by 2% over the next decade, largely due to the decline of traditional industries such as chemical manufacturing and hydrocarbon production.
  • The employment numbers for chemical engineers employed in the biomedical and nanotechnology industries are expected to increase greatly over the next decade as these emerging industries continue to grow.
  • A bachelors degree in chemical engineering is sufficient for most entry level engineering positions, but a graduate degree is often necessary to participate in advanced research.
  • Starting salaries for engineers are near the top for all graduates, and chemical engineers routinely obtain higher starting salary offers than other types of engineers.
  • Chemical engineering is considered one of the most interdisciplinary of the engineering specialties, as chemistry is a foundational subject in virtually any engineering field.
  • Continuing education is a vital component of any chemical engineer's career due to the constant pace of technological development.

Nature of the Work

Chemical engineers apply the principles of mathematics, physics, and above all chemistry to solving problems of a technical nature in the most efficient manner possible. Chemical engineering is often called the jack of all trades engineering specialty due to the almost universal potential for chemistry to be applied in a technical setting. For example, a civil engineer must choose what material will be best suited for a major construction project, and a chemical engineer's technical knowledge can be invaluable in determining the strength and durability of the various materials available. Likewise, a computer hardware manufacturing company largely staffed by circuit focused electrical engineers needs the expertise of a chemical engineer when designing a new computer chip in order to find the best combination of semiconducting elements to promote processing speed as well as to manage the process of producing the materials used in creating the chip.

chemical engineer

Chemical engineers are responsible for the design and production of chemically valuable products on a large scale and as efficiently as possible. Where chemists are tasked with discovering commercially viable compounds on a limited scale in a laboratory setting, the chemical engineer is responsible for taking this small scale discovery and replicating the creation of the compound on a sustainable, economically viable scale. The actual product produced varies depending on the industry - biomedical applications of chemical engineering involve the efficient mass production of pharmaceuticals, the computer hardware industry requires semiconductors of a particular element type or alloy of elements that are grown in crystals and then cut to a specific width. And there is, of course, the energy industry, where chemical engineers can specialize in petroleum engineering and the refinement of crude oil into gasoline and other petrochemical products.

Many engineers do more than simply design chemical production systems - senior engineers routinely move into management and maintenance positions. The management track involves coordinating the efforts of increasingly larger groups of engineers and support staff. There is potential for engineers in management to rise to the executive level; many chief executive officers of major petrochemical have been chemical engineers. Maintenance work for a chemical engineer does not mean physically repairing machinery, it is in effect the monitoring of an existing chemical plant to ensure safety procedures are followed and to troubleshoot technical issues that may arise as a result of day to day operations.

Finally, increasing numbers of chemical engineers are employed in research and development efforts. The skill set and knowledge base of a chemical engineer can be as valuable in the research stage of product development, a chemical engineer can advise other researchers on which research pathways may be more fruitful and me more efficiently translated into industrial scale operations.

The work environment of a chemical engineer varies with the industry. Engineers that specialize in petroleum extraction and refinement may spend months at a time at oil fields or even out on oil derricks at sea. They often work normal business hours but can be on call in case of an emergency. Chemical engineers in the healthcare field are more likely to split their time between a laboratory and a standard office environment during standard business hours. A chemical engineer working in a chemical plant will be exposed to an industrial environment which may include hazardous materials in the event of an accident. But just many chemical engineers work in an office environment or are even self employed, offering engineering consulting services on a contract basis. Engineers who find their way into academia may find that they are expected to perform teaching and mentoring work with dozens of students.

In all cases, impending deadlines or key milestones in the product design or development process may add stress to the work environment and increase the number of weekly hours the chemical engineer will be expected to work.

Training, Other Qualifications, and Advancement


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Virtually every professional chemical engineering position requires, at a minimum, a bachelors degree from an accredited institution of higher education. There may be a few positions in some companies that are chemical engineering specific that are filled by an internal hiring process that has identified an employee who possesses requisite engineering skills although lacking the bachelors degree, but this is a rare case. Coming from outside, a bachelors degree is essential in order to secure employment as a chemical engineer.

For many positions where detailed, in depth research is the focus of the work, a graduate degree in chemical engineering may be required. For example, major research organizations that look for chemical engineers generally want to see a job candidate have at least a masters degree in chemical engineering. University level teaching and research almost always requires a doctorate in chemical engineering or a very closely related field. Some professors at engineering schools do teach with only a masters degree, but they generally have many years of professional experience in the industry.

Entry into a bachelors degree program in chemical engineering is not easy. Applicants will be expected to meet all other university requirements relating to standardized test scores and gpa, and the engineering departments at many schools are far more strict than the university at large. High school applicants seeking admission into a university chemical engineering program need to have taken basic math - algebra, geometry, trigonometry - through at least pre-calculus. Strong grades are essential in all math courses. A year each of basic science courses in biology, chemistry, and physics are also generally mandatory, and just with the math classes good grades in the sciences are essential in order to gain admission to a university chemical engineering program - and especially one in a high tier school. Strong scores on standardized tests are also extremely advisable.

Earning a bachelors degree in chemical engineering takes time and dedication. It involves a full four year courseload that emphasizes mathematics and the sciences. First year chemical engineering students will take calculus, chemistry, physics, and some basic engineering courses in addition to any general education courses required at their university. The second year moves to higher level calculus with more than one variable, as well as organic chemistry and engineering courses in statics, circuits, and mass transfer/process control coursework. The undergraduate courses that are taken are the same nationwide - an organization called ABET accredits university engineering programs according to a strict set of criteria that specify that an engineering program will require a set number of academic credits in basic math and science as well as more advanced engineering topics.

The third year of an undergraduate bachelors degree program is where the chemical engineering curriculum truly intensifies. Third year courses will include thermodynamics, data analysis, advanced chemistry, and advanced chemical engineering courses. The third year also sees many students competing for internships in industry which are essential in order to obtain the best job after graduation. By the fourth year of an undergraduate chemical engineering program students will be capable of performing nearly professional level work in chemical engineering, and will round out their education with in depth chemical engineering laboratories that typically involve the real world design of a chemical engineering process and the construction of, at the least, a scale model to function as a proof of concept. This capstone experience is usually accompanied by high level chemistry and chemical engineering coursework as well as professionally relevant classes like technical writing and project management.

For research or university positions that require a masters degree or doctorate degree, the path is less clear cut. Strong marks in most undergraduate coursework is essential, as are good scores on the Graduate Readiness Exam. Once admitted to a graduate program the actual course requirements will vary depending on the student's research interests and the requirements of his or her mentor - a professor at the university. A graduate level degree in chemical engineering is generally granted only once the student has demonstrated a firm grasp of the discipline and made an original intellectual contribution to the field in the form of a thesis, dissertation, or innovative project. A graduate education in chemical engineering is not pursued by the majority of chemical engineers, but for students and engineers with a true love of the subject matter the graduate path opens up opportunities in academia and research organizations as well as corporate and government entities.

Any engineer who offers his or her services to the public at large must pass a licensure exam and meet requirements for licensure in their home state of practice. All fifty states and the District of Columbia have this requirement for any engineer who sells public services. While most chemical engineers work for specific organizations and so are less likely to hold professional licensure than other engineers, those that do wish to offer services directly to the public must pass the professional engineering examination in their state. To obtain licensure, a chemical engineer must graduate from an ABET accredited university chemical engineering program, pass the Fundamentals of Engineering test (which can be taken immediately upon graduation), and obtain four years of professional experience prior to being able to sit the Principles and Practice of Engineering test which is the final portion of the licensure process.

Advancement in chemical engineering is dependent upon an engineer's educational success, licensure status, and willingness to continually learn as technology and science advance. Engineers must be willing to engage in continuing education to keep up with new discoveries and methodologies developed around the world. The science of chemistry is continually moving forward, especially as applied to emerging fields like nanotechnology. A chemical engineer who does not keep abreast of innovations in his or her field will be less able to perform quality engineering work.

Many engineers move into management positions, overseeing the work of junior engineers as project managers or even running their own departments. A number of chemical engineers have become corporate executives in Fortune 500 companies, especially energy companies. Some chemical engineers move into technical sales, where their knowledge base and expertise can make them ideal sales staff members supporting highly complex products. Chemical engineers who do not diverge from the engineering core will find themselves offered increasingly complex work with ever less supervision as they gain competence and experience. Chemical engineers are well suited to conduct research that can result in a new process or product being covered by a patent, which may well result in the chemical engineer being given a high payout and a great deal of respect within the engineering community.

Employment

Chemical engineering is the smallest discipline among the big 4 engineering fields (civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical) but the one with the broadest application and relevance. Every other engineering specialty relies to some degree on the work of a chemical engineer, and in a sense chemical engineers provide the foundation upon which the other, more directly economically related disciplines rely. The concrete used by a civil engineer, the alloy employed by the mechanical engineer, and the silicon chip manipulated by the electrical engineer all have their roots in the work of chemical engineers. As such, chemical engineers can be found in virtually any industry.

The total employment of chemical engineers in 2009 was around 29,000 individuals. This means that of the roughly 1.6 million engineers employed in the United States in 2008, roughly two percent were chemical engineers. One caveat to this calculation - petroleum engineering is generally considered to be a sub-discipline of chemical engineering much the same way aerospace engineering is generally viewed as a specialty within mechanical engineering. If the roughly 22,000 petroleum engineers employed in 2008 is included this percentage increases - but not by much.

Chemical engineers are employed nationwide and in almost any industry that relies in any way on the manipulation of elements and compounds when creating a product. When looking at engineers as a whole, around a third work in manufacturing, a third work in professional services, and about twelve percent of engineers worked for the government at some level as of 2008. Chemical engineers can generally be expected to follow this breakdown due to their relative scarcity and varied skillsets, but are currently weighted more towards manufacturing - although this is likely to change as the United States economy moves away from manufacturing in general and more towards service occupations.

As far as specific numbers go as of 2009, around 4,500 chemical engineers were employed in professional services, 3,700 in chemical manufacturing, 3,500 in scientific research and development, 2,400 in synthetic materials manufacturing, and 1,800 in pharmaceuticals manufacturing. The highest concentrations of chemical engineers could be found in Texas with nearly 5,000 chemical engineers, New Jersey with about 1,600, Lousiana with around 1,200, and Delaware with close to 500.

Job Outlook

As manufacturing jobs are shed in old style chemical production companies, they will be replaced by chemical engineering positions in emerging fields such as nanotechnology and biotechnology, to say nothing of renewable energy projects. Chemical engineering is a changing profession, as dangerous and delicate industrial processes continued to be offshored to China and India, where land values are far cheaper than in the United States. Research, innovation, and demographic pressures are changing chemical engineering from an industrial to a service oriented discipline.

As masters of the movement of energy between materials and possessing the broad knowledge required to integrate cutting edge technologies with efficient production methods, chemical engineers' job outlook is brighter than the numbers would seem to indicate.

Projections

As a whole, chemical engineering is actually expected to lose about 2% of positions by 2018, several hundred to a full thousand off its peak of nearly 32,000 chemical engineers measured in 2008. The recessionary period of 2008-2010 caused a major contraction in the chemical engineering workforce, with the total numbers of employed chemical engineers dropping to 29,000 as of May 2009. Whether this drop encompasses the expected dip in total available positions remains to be seen.

The 2% drop anticipated is not an optimal figure to use because it conflates chemical engineers working in different industries. Chemical manufacturing is anticipated to decline over the next decade as part of the general decline in United States manufacturing output. However, the service sectors are expected to increase their hiring of chemical engineers significantly as the US economy becomes ever more knowledge based. As large numbers of chemical engineers retire over the coming decade, the loss in overall positions may be matched up with a simultaneous shortage of qualified job applicants, making the seemingly weak job market outlook actually quite robust.

Earnings

Chemical engineers are near the top of the earnings statistics for all engineering disciplines. The median annual wage for chemical engineers as of 2009 was nearly $90,000 per year. The average starting salary for a chemical engineer fresh out of college in that same year was $65,000 - a far higher starting salary than offered to virtually all non-engineers with only a bachelors degree. Indeed, the only engineering discipline with higher starting salaries than chemical engineering is petroleum engineering.

Breaking down the earnings of chemical engineers by percentile shows that even the lowest paid ten percent of chemical engineers earn at least $56,000 per year, and this likely corresponds to engineers who are starting out or in semi-retirement. Twenty-five percent of chemical engineers make at least $70,000 dollars per year, and fifty percent make at least $88,000 per year. At the top end of the spectrum, the top twenty-five percent of engineers earn over $108,000 dollars in annual salary and the top ten percent bring in around $130,000 a year.

All in all, chemical engineering is one of the most lucrative professions, and the top ten percent of chemical engineers make more than the top ten percent of engineers in any other discipline save for petroleum engineering and aerospace engineering.

Wages

The wages earned by chemical engineers varies depending on industry and geographic region. Nationwide, the bottom ten percent of chemical engineers make around twenty-seven dollars per hour, while the nationwide average is about forty-four dollars per hour and the top ten percent pull in over sixty-three dollars per hour.

Industry plays a role in the average hourly wage earned by chemical engineers. Chemical engineers earn anywhere between forty-two and fifty-five dollars per hour on average. The low end of the pay spectrum occurs in artificial elements manufacturing like textiles or rubber - both industries in relative decline. At the higher end is scientific research, which pays over forty-seven dollars on average per hour - which in truth is quite justified considering that most researchers in chemical engineering hold a masters degree or higher. Oil extraction pays the most: fifty-five dollars an hour on average. Clumped in the middle at around forty-four dollars per hour are the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, and professional services industries - all of which pay a remarkably similar per hour wage.

Geographic location is another significant driver of wage fluctuations within the field of chemical engineering. Although there are only about eighty chemical engineers in the state of Alaska, on average they earn over sixty dollars an hour - most likely working in oil extraction. Chemical engineers in Delaware make, on average, almost fifty-six dollars an hour on average. The metropolitan area where the chemical engineer is employed makes a significant difference as well. The mean hourly wage for chemical engineers in Texas is around forty-seven dollars an hour, but chemical engineers in San Antonio, Texas make around sixty dollars an hour while those in Victoria, Texas have a mean of only forty-two dollars per hour.

Related Occupations

The most closely related occupation to chemical engineering is that of petroleum engineering. There is significant crossover between petroleum and chemical engineering, and a bachelors in chemical engineering generally serves as a sufficient degree to get a job in petroleum engineering.

Chemists are similar in many ways to chemical engineers - so much so that many schools forbid earning dual degrees in chemical engineering and chemistry because they are redundant with respect to one another. Chemists focus on smaller scale chemical reactions, while chemical engineers scale them up with a mind towards efficiency.

Materials engineering shares many traits with chemical engineering in the same way that petroleum engineering and chemical engineering are related. Materials engineering also makes heavy use of chemical knowledge and chemical processes to create new polymers and composites for a variety of uses.

Environmental engineering is closely related to chemical engineering as well. This engineering discipline focuses on managing waste water and other human impacts upon the environment, and utilizes a great deal of chemical knowledge to understand human effects on the ecosystem.

Sources of Additional Information

Related Jobs

People with the educational background, skills, and desire to become a Chemical engineers might be well suited to work in one of the following fields as well:

 

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