Hey Pat, I graduated from Chemical Engineering back in June, and got a position as a project engineer at a Canadian company responsible for designing pilot plants (out of the three fields you mentioned I think this overlaps with EPC the most). I'm not gonna lie, I've been feeling overwhelmed with all the things I don't know about Chemical Engineering yet. I did pretty decent at university, but I don't feel like a true Chemical Engineer yet. I feel that there are a lot of knowledge points in my head that have yet to be connected. I also feel like I cannot ask a lot of questions at the moment I get assigned to a task because I don't know what challenges I will face at that moment of doing it. It is usually after I've been working on the task (designing/simulating a heat exchanger for example) that I start thinking about all the things that are still unclear to me. Some things I realize strike as questions in my head are: I'm a Chemical Engineer, am I supposed to know this? or Do I know? I wonder if you felt like this in the beginning of your ChemEng career? Anyways, I'm posting this comment mainly to spit out some of my thoughts before going to sleep. Also, your content is amazing. Looking forward to watching more of you.

I've been working for a water/wastewater treatment company here in the US for the past 1.5 years and I LOVE IT! My degree in chemical engineering has provided me a solid basis for understanding the processes, and nothing I've done has been more tedious or challenging than my course load was. Plus my company really listens to employees at all levels, from beginners like me to the most senior guy on my team who is 30 years older than me. In addition to my daily tasks as an applications engineer (essentially technical sales) I am working on developing automation for some of our processes to help us increase volume of sales without missing technical or procedural details. It has been wonderful working here and I recommend anyone considering chemical engineering to have a positive attitude that companies do exist that are doing good work and value their employees.

Sadly, as a chem engg graduate, I did not even know the difference between operator companies, tech companies and EPC companies. Nobody ever told me and I didn't realize there was a difference! This is a good video of something very simple and fundamental, yet not necessarily obvious. I wish I had seen this video back when I graduated!

As someone currently studying for a chemE/materialsE degree, and finding it very difficult to actually find useful and well informed information online, I think you do an amazing job of bringing the industry closer in a friendly and knowledgeable way. I hope you continue to make to videos and inspire new chemEs. It is a pleasure to see people like you and have such colleagues, and hope that I can achieve it one day. Thank you, bro.

Every prospective engineer should watch this. It is insight that applies to every field of us problem solvers.

Would have appreciated watching this video some years ago...Really good from you not having just "technical" videos on your canal. Keep it up 👍

I love your descriptions, right on point!!!

A great new style of editing Pat, with some interesting takes on post-graduation chemical engineering. Fantastic work! 👏 👍

Just discovered this channel from reddit. Very inspiring video as an grad student. Subscribed!

Great talk. I expierences after many years in the chemical industry that the clean tech in my area are less moral than the companies before I worked in chemicals. but as y said. my motivation comes from working as an engineer and doing some fun stuff in the field.

This is an educational and useful video for all who are currently studying chemical engineering or aspiring to study chemical engineering. Also, it’s suited to the young graduates of chemical engineering in knowing the broad scope of the profession . I did a sandwich course involving industrial attachments of 6 and 9 months respectively some 50 years ago, and I must state that I found them most beneficial and rewarding. But I never knew the various aspects of the profession at the time as well and succinctly illustrated in this video. It’s now imperative that students, graduates view this or similar videos to acquire what’s involved in the profession. Thanks for posting

the stock footage with hard hats in the office... lmao

Bless you for this video. Im currently in EPC Company and came in with the design mindset of hysys simulations and so on. I can tell ive been confused ever since. Previously interned at an LNG Operations and Process Safety too that was another confusing phase too. Advice to juniors, try and adapt to tge project phases and keep yourself busy.

Exactly very very true what u told in this video, Recently I did my major in chemical Engineering and now working as a commissioning engineer at and epc cum technology company(praj industries a pioneer in Asia's 1G ethanol plant) , Yes now when I came in job I can't think of an innovation, I have to follow the sops, I have to do the equipments test, I have to supervise the leak fixtures, control valve fixture for my clients, we need to think of money before thinking for any other more accurate procedure. Yes I felt it job culture is actually different.

So refreshing! We love the game of Chemical Engineering ✊🏿

Unfortunately, most people worldwide have been living from hand to mouth. They are in the same cycle of spending money to get a degree, find a job, get married, buy a house, take care of kids, and finally retire. People never find time, energy, and money left to spend on innovative things to improve themselves and societal problems. The situation is getting worse day by day as capitalism grasps the economies.

Thanks my brother❤

@Process with Pat: great video here, and elsewhere; thanks! The item that may not be explicitly, but certainly is implicitly, taught, and is touched on in this video, is that the operations, tech/licensing, and EPC companies all make product: money. That may be considered good or bad, but either way it is an incontrovertible fact of business: if a business does not make money, then it eventually runs out and ceases to exist. The sooner a Chemical Engineer learns this the more useful they will be to their employer. So if you want to change the world in one of these three fields, then the answer is simple: ensure the change you propose has an attention-grabbing ROI. N.B. I said "simple," not "easy." TL;DR. My background: Chemical Engineer in process design, then operations, then design with an energy conservation focus, then process control and simulation, all with a very large petro-chemical corporation. Moved to a nuclear plant as a programmer. Moved into planetary science as a programmer supporting remote-sensing spacecraft missions. Final comment: you may keep using the domain content of your degree for your entire career, or you may not, but the most important lesson of your ChemEng, or any, education is that you learned that you could learn, regardless of the quality of the teacher.

Thank you sir

Bro these videos are great! I'm from Mech Eng but I'm learning about Chem Eng which is super helpful because I may end up working in a similar job, as I do want to work in technology that helps save the world, but I have become intimidated by how daunting and slow I know it will be. However I have taken pride in as you said, "drawings, equipment lists". I have enjoyed the work I have performed so far. I hope to carry that enthusiasm in all my future engineering work

A very cool take. I agree that as chem eng's we actually see the impact of our decisions and can reflect upon it more tangibly than that of many other disciplines. Grab the worst jobs first because it is easier to learn from your and others mistakes than it is from your successes

Think about how what you do benefits the world. If you help to produce energy you are saving so much physical labour and enhancing the quality of life and opportunity for all of us. This energy allows us more time to develop ourselves mentally, physically and spiritually helping the world as a whole.

The video is very helpful thank you! btw do the tech companies need patent attorney who understands chem eg? I'm thinking going to law school after chem eg

Pat, one thing you did not touch on was that if you work for a large Oil Company it is highly likely that Company will have opportunities for you to work in each of the areas you mentioned in your video. I started my career in Research doing process development. I then transferred to the Company's Central Engineering group where I worked on Process Design. Those designs were carried over to the the EPC firm for final design and implementation. My Company required I follow the project to the EPC firm and be part of the Start-up team at the Plant. All this was great experience and gave me the breadth of knowledge needed for my 32 year career as a Chemical Engineer.

Keep with the great work 😄

I have just started chemical engineering.. i just found that most of courses of CHE and Mechanical engineering are the same .. talking about my area... Is persuing chemical engineering a good choice or switching to mechanical engineering..

While my B.S.. is Chemistry, I had to learn fundamentals of Chemical Engineering to be a successful industrial R&D Chemist in a small to medium chemical manufacturing company. As a Process Engineer, you must have an education in several areas of engineering, especially Chemical Engineering, did it take the same time as an engineering degree in only one field?

There are a lot of videos on my KZfaq channel about chemistry/chemical engineering major. I hope it helps you study.

Sir I have one doubt, if I use two pumps for a single discharge line then will it double the flowrate for 2 pumps rather than that of 1 pump flow rate..

so to understand the message: " life is shitty and boring, deal with it "

This sounds a bit depressing but still much much better than being unemployed.

I worked with Ph.D level engineers. Less than Ph.D is just a technician in their mind.

Calculating mass balance for single units and multiple units right now😂😂😂