Imperial Chemical Engineering Offers?

I was waiting for this! I'm in the same situation you're in right now. The phone interview for chemical engineering, I mean. Did you get the email saying that you would receive the invitation on the 3rd? I wonder what kind of questions they'll ask. I've heard that it's just to verify certain things on your PS and a few general questions. Can anyone confirm this?

And about your accent, I doubt it'll be a big issue. I mean, as long as they can understand you, it should be fine. They're admission officers so I'm sure they'll be patient with you.

Guys, bit of a negative title I'll admit but I'm doing this as what could be called a public service.

I've been working as a chemical engineer for 15 years, and a few facts to paint the picture: a British graduate with a first class degree from a Russell Group uni, I'm a person of colour, worked these years in oil and gas and I'm writing this post while the industry is going through the worst downturn in a generation.

I was made redundant last year. Since then, I got to know a side of chemical engineering I wish I hadn't. And that's why I'm warning you against the subject. This post may well get a lot of replies rebutting what I say, no matter ... this is the reality of my experience.

Once you come off the treadmill in chemical engineering, there is very little else you can do. Doors close in your face everywhere. At first you think, how can this possibly be? It's a numerate, intelligent subject. Not only do other places (finance, banking) close their doors to you, even other chem eng employers close their doors to you (water, nuclear, pharma etc) You're treated as persona nongrata because 'you don't have experience'.

If it's so bad, how about re-training? I contacted the IChemE. There are no credible training programmes for a chem enger to convert into anything else, not even to go from oil&petroleum to water, for instance. For years training providers have chased the corporate pound, making training programmes extortionately expensive (say GBP 900 for a 3 day course).

Within the oil&gas sector, those managers in a position to make hiring decisions walk around with a 1970s mindset laced with implicit sexism and racism. I used to find it unbelieveable that in a modern company that does so much business with the Middle East, female engineers are quietly told there is no point in them applying for Middle East jobs - allegedly because the Arab client will not have them, but actually because the white British managers don't have to the backbone to stick up for their female staff. Indian and Chinese engineers are hired at lower cost using the excuse that the Arab client company wishes to pay less for them. Now in the middle of the downturn, I am hearing the few jobs that are available are going to surprise, surprise, old white men in their 50s, using the admittedly half-truth pretext that 'they were hired because of their experience'.

While I was in work, I was able to get international assignments, but only because I was younger and therefore cheaper to employ than these men in their 50s .... and even then I did so to get away from toxic office politics in the British head office.

As I say, when the downturn comes, no-one tells you that your chemical engineering degree is good for nothing. I am re-training at my own cost in a different subject and with no guarantee that it will get me a job.

To those of you who don't know, this is the worst oil price downturn post WWII, worse than 1974, worse than 1986, worse than 1998 - but proof positive that these crises happen cyclically, so you too will experience it if you become a chemical engineer in oil&gas. It has gone on for 2 years at the time of this post, and face it, I am looking at a period of unemployment lasting a total of 4-5 years. In a job world, where people are increasingly have to chop and change careers through their working lifetime, you are going into a dead end from which it will be hard to come out. My simple advice, don't do it.