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Confused about Chemical engineering

I'm currently in year 13 in a massive confusion on what to do for university, I'm currently looking at whether to do Chem Eng or Biochemistry(I know they might be a weird combination to consider). I've taken an interest for chemical engineering as I guess its not JUST physics and there's a tad bit of chemistry involved. I was however kind of confused on the job opportunities for graduates in such a competitive field and was wondering what would be available to someone who just graduated with a MEng in chemical engineering. If also your able to tell me about the opportunities for growth educationally (such as after masters) and also a common earning potential within the field it would be very appreciated. I was also wondering about the sectors you can go into as I heard you can also do finance or Pharma.

I had also saw 'Chartered Chemical engineer' and was wondering what it actually is, if its worth it in the long term for development, and how to do it. Any advice related to Chemical engineering will be heavily appreciated

Thanks,
Reply 1
Original post by ChasingGrades123
I'm currently in year 13 in a massive confusion on what to do for university, I'm currently looking at whether to do Chem Eng or Biochemistry(I know they might be a weird combination to consider). I've taken an interest for chemical engineering as I guess its not JUST physics and there's a tad bit of chemistry involved. I was however kind of confused on the job opportunities for graduates in such a competitive field and was wondering what would be available to someone who just graduated with a MEng in chemical engineering. If also your able to tell me about the opportunities for growth educationally (such as after masters) and also a common earning potential within the field it would be very appreciated. I was also wondering about the sectors you can go into as I heard you can also do finance or Pharma.
I had also saw 'Chartered Chemical engineer' and was wondering what it actually is, if its worth it in the long term for development, and how to do it. Any advice related to Chemical engineering will be heavily appreciated
Thanks,

Chemical Engineering is the worst named degree on the planet because the job opportunity that comes with it is called Process Engineer which is probably why you are not finding any jobs for Chemical Engineers.

Process engineers are involved with any form of process that sees the mixing, moving or storing of chemicals, slurries, powders and so on. The industry is massive. Pretty much the whole of the food industry, pharmaceutics industry, oil and gas industry and nuclear industry come under process engineering and your day to day job is proposing, constructing or managing processes that see things transported and mixed. I have a number of friends who are process engineers. All love it. Most have travelled all around the world and all are loaded.

Good luck!
Original post by hotpud
Chemical Engineering is the worst named degree on the planet because the job opportunity that comes with it is called Process Engineer which is probably why you are not finding any jobs for Chemical Engineers.
Process engineers are involved with any form of process that sees the mixing, moving or storing of chemicals, slurries, powders and so on. The industry is massive. Pretty much the whole of the food industry, pharmaceutics industry, oil and gas industry and nuclear industry come under process engineering and your day to day job is proposing, constructing or managing processes that see things transported and mixed. I have a number of friends who are process engineers. All love it. Most have travelled all around the world and all are loaded.
Good luck!


Thank you very much for your reply and actually helped me figure out why I wasn’t seeing loads of jobs. Ik a lot of it comes down to passion but do you know how much you can make working as a process engineer ?
Original post by ChasingGrades123
I'm currently in year 13 in a massive confusion on what to do for university, I'm currently looking at whether to do Chem Eng or Biochemistry(I know they might be a weird combination to consider). I've taken an interest for chemical engineering as I guess its not JUST physics and there's a tad bit of chemistry involved. I was however kind of confused on the job opportunities for graduates in such a competitive field and was wondering what would be available to someone who just graduated with a MEng in chemical engineering. If also your able to tell me about the opportunities for growth educationally (such as after masters) and also a common earning potential within the field it would be very appreciated. I was also wondering about the sectors you can go into as I heard you can also do finance or Pharma.

I had also saw 'Chartered Chemical engineer' and was wondering what it actually is, if its worth it in the long term for development, and how to do it. Any advice related to Chemical engineering will be heavily appreciated

Thanks,

Firstly and most importantly - neither is a degree in chemistry, nor does either contain substantial amounts of chemistry. Biochemistry is not a degree in biological chemistry, it's a degree in molecular and cell biology. Chemical engineering is not a degree in applied chemistry, it's a degree in engineering. If your primary interest is chemistry, you should just do a degree in chemistry.

In any event besides that, starting salaries for chemical engineers are not hard to find with some basic research on google, and in the long run graduates (in STEM and non-STEM disciplines) have similar career outcomes in the long run (i.e. within 10 years of graduation) as has been found in research. If you don't want to be a (chemical) engineer, don't do a degree in chemical engineering - anything else you could go into with it you could go into with another degree (or indeed often any degree). Chartership is something you can aim for as an engineer although it's not usually not strictly necessary to progress.

You can go into finance with any degree.
I would say I am more keen on physical sciences than life science anyway and I am aware of the lack of chemistry in chemical engineering, it kind of made me wish that I took physics instead of Biology as I was planning initially to go into healthcare but doing A level biology made me realise that I didn’t actually like biology that much so I would say the actual aspect of engineering appeals to me.

Thank you for your informative reply
Reply 5
Original post by ChasingGrades123
I would say I am more keen on physical sciences than life science anyway and I am aware of the lack of chemistry in chemical engineering, it kind of made me wish that I took physics instead of Biology as I was planning initially to go into healthcare but doing A level biology made me realise that I didn’t actually like biology that much so I would say the actual aspect of engineering appeals to me.
Thank you for your informative reply

I’m in the exact same position as you. I’m taking Maths, biology and chemistry as I thought I would go into healthcare but now I’m highly considering chemical engineering however I’ve been told that’s it’s better to go into accounting and finance. I’m torn on what course to do as I still don’t know what career I want in the future.
Reply 6
Original post by ChasingGrades123
Thank you very much for your reply and actually helped me figure out why I wasn’t seeing loads of jobs. Ik a lot of it comes down to passion but do you know how much you can make working as a process engineer ?

There's a great website called Google. You should try it sometime
https://uk.indeed.com/jobs?q=process+engineer&l=&from=searchOnDesktopSerp&vjk=7830737715ba4df3
Reply 7
Any engineering has loads of transferable skills so you will get into many jobs.
Chem Eng is def more difficult than biochemistry
Do research unis because there are unis where there isn't even one chemistry module for chem Eng
There is also a course called Biochemical Engineering in UCL so look into it

It really just depends on your interests
Chem Eng has lots of physics so if you are confident that you can cope up with it do consider chem Eng
I would suggest looking at course modules and seeing if you like the modules in chem Eng or Biochemistry
(edited 1 month ago)
Reply 8
Why not apply for pure chemistry?
I feel like I’d enjoy chemical engineering more bc there’s more than just chemistry within it
Original post by Ab1727
Why not apply for pure chemistry?


Also I haven’t done enough research on the jobs available for it and the ones I do know of don’t really appeal to me
Original post by ChasingGrades123
Also I haven’t done enough research on the jobs available for it and the ones I do know of don’t really appeal to me


Chemistry grad here. Do chemical engineering…
Original post by salman69768966
Chemistry grad here. Do chemical engineering…


Noted
You could also look at mech eng degrees - there are good options without physics a level. Also have a look at natural sciences courses possible with the aim of studying a mix of chemistry and maths.

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