🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Dec25.004640.11644@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>, rarya@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Ranju Arya) writes:
> 	Hi, I was talking to a friend of mine who made mention of how low the
> demand for Chemical Engineers is.  Is this true?  I had heard that Chem Eng's
> made alot of money (higher than most other engineering fields) and were very
> much in demand.  If someone out there could assist me in the above questions,
> please email me personally, or post it.  Thanks!
> 


  The starting salries for chemical engineers are higher than for many other
of the engineering majors.  I don't think that money should be your primary
consideration for what field you pick.  You should make sure that you will
enjoy what you are doing or you will make a pretty poor engineer.

  As of now there is a high demand but I am not what what it will be like in
five years.

Ray

In <19452.2b3b5a92@ecs.umass.edu> rrooks@ecs.umass.edu (Raymond Rooks) writes:

>  The starting salries for chemical engineers are higher than for many other
>of the engineering majors.  I don't think that money should be your primary
>consideration for what field you pick.  You should make sure that you will
>enjoy what you are doing or you will make a pretty poor engineer.

>  As of now there is a high demand but I am not what what it will be like in
>five years.

>Ray

I have just completed high school and our universities here in South
Africa are starting in two weeks time. I have been accepted to study
chemical engineering, but I am still unsure about the demand.
As Ray has rightfully said, money should not idealy be one's first
consideration in choosing a career, but when you are faced with the
possibility of having NO job at all after investing a lot of personal
time and effort and money in studying for a degree is a rather depressing
thought. Every day I hear about engineers being retrenched on large scale
due to the economic circumstances here, but this is mostly confined to
civil and electronic engineering. I am worried however, that the worsening
situation will extend to chemical engineers as well?

On the other hand, in my career research so far, it seems that a chemical
engineer, unlike some of the other branches is exclusively dependant
upon getting a job in a large company - and cannot start his own
consulting firm. This is probably because of the capital intensive nature
of chemeng, but it seems that here, those "large company" jobs seems to be
getting extremely scarce and the prospective engineer has very little
"bargaining power" compared to his counterparts who have graduated in
other professional disciplines (eg medicine).

My last question probably could seem a bit pointless since it encompasses
such a wide field - but I would appreciate it if anyone could tell in broad
outlines in which major directions is chemical engineering research heading
in the fields of biotechnology and its application to mineral & metals
extraction processes and also what research trends are appearing in the
petrochemical industry (more specifically in the conversion of coal to
petroleum fuel),

While I'm on the topic of the petrochemical industry - are there any places
in the world (other than SASOL) where the conversion of coal to petrochemical
fuels is done on a large scale using the Fischer-Tropsch or closely related
processes.

Thanks.

-- 
---                             | Internet:     janv%fulgor@frcs.alt.za
        Jan L. Vermaak          | FidoNet :     Jan Vermaak at 5:7101/37.5
                                | Phone / Fax:  +27 12 45 1481
          

I think that Shell is commercializing a minor variant of Fischer-Tropsch in
Malaysia or Indonesia.  The places to look for synfuels are those with lots of
cheap natural gas and/or coal but small petroleum reserves.

>>>>> "Ranju" == Ranju Arya <rarya@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> writes:

  Ranju> 	Hi, I was talking to a friend of mine who made mention of how low the
  Ranju> demand for Chemical Engineers is.  Is this true?  I had heard that Chem Eng's
  Ranju> made alot of money (higher than most other engineering fields) and were very
  Ranju> much in demand.  If someone out there could assist me in the above questions,
  Ranju> please email me personally, or post it.  Thanks!

  I think the thing that made me choose Chemical Engineering was its
  versatility.  Getting a BS in ChE does not limit you in any way.  It is an
  engineering field that keeps your options open.  Anyone out there interested
  in finding out some more about ChE should get hold of a copy of:

    Elementary Principles of Chemical Processes, R.M. Felder and R.W.
    Rousseau, 2nd ed., New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1986
    (or 1st Edition, 1978).

  And read the first chapter entitled "What Chemical Engineers Sometimes Do
  For A Living."  It gives a very broad perspective of Chemical Engineering.
  Felder and Rousseau is THE introductory level Chemical Engineering text
  book.

                            Larry
                            dodd@roebling.poly.edu [128.238.5.31]

+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| 410 Rogers Hall                      | e-mail:                              |
| Department of Chemical Engineering   |     dodd@roebling.poly.edu           |
| Polymer Research Institute           |                                      |
|                                      | telephone:                           |
| Polytechnic University               |                                      |
| Six Metrotech Center                 |     (718) 260-3029 /Office/          |
| 333 Jay Street                       |     (718) 260-3620 /Main Office/     |
| Brooklyn, New York 11201             |     (718) 260-3136 /FAX/             |
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+