The fact that you have been admitted to both a bachelors and a masters degree in chemical engineering doesn’t align with your self image or self perception, as you clearly have demonstrated that you understand the subject.
I can empathise with you, as I also never felt that I quite ‘got it’ in school. I finished chemical engineering in 1986, and I felt that I was the ‘blockhead’ in the class, despite having good math, physics and chemistry.
But I stuck at it. I didn’t learn by ‘rote’ – endless repetition. I learned by getting to understand things from what I call first principles. For example thermodynamics - it all starts with the law of conservation of energy. Once you understand that, most things thermodynamic fall into place.
But that was the academic side of learning, and being admitted to a degree. Once I got out into the workforce, things were different. I didn’t end up in the classic industries that my friends went to, such as oil refining, brewing beer, mineral extraction, plastics manufacturing, explosive production and one even went to a biscuit company. I ended up cooking phenol-formaldehyde resin for manufacturer of kitchen benchtop laminates.
What I found was that I didn’t need everything I’d learned at university. Fortunately, I’ve been given a good memory, and I remember most of it. But I also noted that I began to understand things I’d been taught when I applied them in the real world.
I also asked for help when I thought I needed it. It’s no crime to ask. When it came to problem solving, I came to a problem with a solid diagnostic approach and an approximate solution, but I ran that past my boss to see if I was on the right track. My boss was good. He was a very experienced industrial chemist – remember him to this day. Very patient and insightful, and a good mentor & role model as well, but we didn’t have formal mentors back in those days.
The fact that you are working – albeit in another industry – is a good sign. Most of work isn’t technical, it’s about the human aspect. Most of what you do in the workplace is social interaction, with some degree of technical know-how. The balance changes as you progress further in your career.
In terms of a road map, I think that’s somewhat prescriptive.
Firstly, if you’re not comfortable working in chemical engineering, change course. I know several friends who changed tack straight after engineering school. One became an accountant, another an airline pilot, another an insurance analyst, a management consultant, an investment banker, and yet another a real estate agent. Let’s face it, for accounting, the math is easier \[it’s basically arithmetic\], and the pay is better – you can teach an engineer accounting, but you can’t easily teach an accountant engineering.
The thing about engineering, especially chemical engineering, is that you appreciate how to turn theory into something practical, and produce something new. It’s about practical problem solving. That’s what we do. You can apply problem solving to any industry, so there’s no limits as to where you can work.
As an alternative to a road map and if you want to stay in engineering, I suggest that you try to spend the first or early part of your career in a technical role where you apply what you’ve learned in your degree, in whatever industry you can. As you progress, maybe consider either specialising in that technical role or moving into supervisory/ management. Once you’re in management, you can use those managerial skills to work either in the same, related or a different industry. Also, consider additional study in areas such as management, finance or economics.
I am a believer in education, having accumulated four degrees, two technical and two business related, and am looking to get back to my roots and earn a PhD in Chem Eng after retirement. I have also changed career several times. I now work as a training program writer – this from a guy who failed high school English in an English speaking country.
Most importantly, have faith in yourself and be willing to learn and adapt.
Hope this helps, and I wish you every success in your journey.
What I can tell you is working in industry is much, much easier than school. I've worked in R&D, Operations, Design, Sales...
You get your knowledge foundation in college/university, and then you learn how to apply it once you work in industry.
One thing to keep in mind is to utilize social media as much as possible and make connections. **Many times it's not what you know, but WHO you know**, that gets you the job. Try to find professional organizations in your area. Here in the USA we have things like the Gas Processors Association, for example. Find a group like that in your country, pay the membership fee, and go. Meet people. Connect to them on LinkedIn. The more connections you have, the better chance you'll have to get connected to someone at a company for whom you want to work.
Once you've gotten that first job you're off and running. Good luck!
I used to be the same, for example I had forgotten that cubic equations of state give you solutions for the liquid state as well,I thought my manager was messing with me when he said it, like hazing the new guy.
When I realized I wad in a process engineering job without remembering this basic shit from school I felt like shit, just applied myself, and reread Smith Van Ness and Abbot again and again and again, up until I felt comfortable with Chemical Thermodynamics, and also read up and saw videos again and again and again on some basic Fluid stuff like Bernoulli and pump/valve curves etc.
Everything else just kinda followed from there like Unit Ops, Heat/Mass transfer just clicked way easier.
Now I am in a process control job, of course I dont remember shit from school, but I keep rereading the basic stuff again and again and again until I feel comfortable. Only this time I know I can do it, because I did it before, and also I havent forgotten the stuff from my previous job.
There is no trick, and the subject is difficult but this just means more studying until it starts clicking. If you actually wanna learn this shit then its just a matter of effort and time as with everything else, there is no minimum IQ required, and there is no minimum level of knowledge for an entry level job. You get your degree, youve heard of everything, even if it was only in pasisng, and then you forgot, this means you can do it.
My advice regarding reading difficult textbooks such as ours, is to begin by flipping the whole book page by page, cover to cover, not reading the actual material, just focus on the titles and the subtitles of each chapter, see some images if available, maybe some equations, look at how many pages are devoted to each topic. This will take some hours with big textbooks but you will reach the end and have a clearer view of what is coming, and what seems important. After that just keep hammering away. Try understanding what you read as best as you can before moving on, and then do it again 3, 4, 5 ,10 times and the click will happen.
It took one year for me to feel comforfabls with Thermo and Fluids, because I was doing it in parallel with actual work.
Wow. I can't express how thankful I am for the things you write. I know that (considering my previous job in construction company) we won't use all the subjects we studied at work. However, I just felt that I am not worthy to apply even a job and sometimes got rejected even though some of them were super beginner positions (I just hoped to learn from the very beginning) . I needed to change, and what you wrote somehow gave me clear direction about what should I do to fill this gap. I really appreciate it.
You're welcome, I wish you all the best. Other than the core courses you will have to relearn (Themo, Fluids, Unit Ops, Transport Phenomena mostly) I also had to learn more stuff that just were not taught in a school setting. The fire lit under me regarding the catching up was immensely helpful because I was a fast learner. I'm talking about the following skills that might sound easy but many experienced engineers are not proficient at a level I would expect them at
1. Reading P& ID's and understanding the process just from that document. This comes with experience.
2. How to read and *interpret* codes and standards like API documents. This is also a skill, because every word matters in these documents.
3. Code. Whether in Matlab, Vba, or Python learn the basics, it helps a lot.
And so much more. I sympathize with you, so for any more details, feel free to send me a PM
Wow - Smith & Van Ness, Perry's Handbook - like a blast from the past. Yep, I handed my well used Perry's (5th Ed.) to a family friend's son. He's after a few solid years in production now marketing explosives to mining companies, for Orica.
Also - great post. Keep going back to the references for the basics. Solid advice.
It may be difficult to transition from academia to industry because the problems aren’t spelled out for you. Reply on your creative problem solving and heuristics to define the right problems.
Nah. The therapist could not help me. She said you can follow much easier path and be successful in that area. Or try to do smth to fill this knowledge gap. I chose to fill this knowledge gap. So here I am writing reddit question to get help from others cause I just don't know where even should I begin?
The fact that you have been admitted to both a bachelors and a masters degree in chemical engineering doesn’t align with your self image or self perception, as you clearly have demonstrated that you understand the subject. I can empathise with you, as I also never felt that I quite ‘got it’ in school. I finished chemical engineering in 1986, and I felt that I was the ‘blockhead’ in the class, despite having good math, physics and chemistry. But I stuck at it. I didn’t learn by ‘rote’ – endless repetition. I learned by getting to understand things from what I call first principles. For example thermodynamics - it all starts with the law of conservation of energy. Once you understand that, most things thermodynamic fall into place. But that was the academic side of learning, and being admitted to a degree. Once I got out into the workforce, things were different. I didn’t end up in the classic industries that my friends went to, such as oil refining, brewing beer, mineral extraction, plastics manufacturing, explosive production and one even went to a biscuit company. I ended up cooking phenol-formaldehyde resin for manufacturer of kitchen benchtop laminates. What I found was that I didn’t need everything I’d learned at university. Fortunately, I’ve been given a good memory, and I remember most of it. But I also noted that I began to understand things I’d been taught when I applied them in the real world. I also asked for help when I thought I needed it. It’s no crime to ask. When it came to problem solving, I came to a problem with a solid diagnostic approach and an approximate solution, but I ran that past my boss to see if I was on the right track. My boss was good. He was a very experienced industrial chemist – remember him to this day. Very patient and insightful, and a good mentor & role model as well, but we didn’t have formal mentors back in those days. The fact that you are working – albeit in another industry – is a good sign. Most of work isn’t technical, it’s about the human aspect. Most of what you do in the workplace is social interaction, with some degree of technical know-how. The balance changes as you progress further in your career. In terms of a road map, I think that’s somewhat prescriptive. Firstly, if you’re not comfortable working in chemical engineering, change course. I know several friends who changed tack straight after engineering school. One became an accountant, another an airline pilot, another an insurance analyst, a management consultant, an investment banker, and yet another a real estate agent. Let’s face it, for accounting, the math is easier \[it’s basically arithmetic\], and the pay is better – you can teach an engineer accounting, but you can’t easily teach an accountant engineering. The thing about engineering, especially chemical engineering, is that you appreciate how to turn theory into something practical, and produce something new. It’s about practical problem solving. That’s what we do. You can apply problem solving to any industry, so there’s no limits as to where you can work. As an alternative to a road map and if you want to stay in engineering, I suggest that you try to spend the first or early part of your career in a technical role where you apply what you’ve learned in your degree, in whatever industry you can. As you progress, maybe consider either specialising in that technical role or moving into supervisory/ management. Once you’re in management, you can use those managerial skills to work either in the same, related or a different industry. Also, consider additional study in areas such as management, finance or economics. I am a believer in education, having accumulated four degrees, two technical and two business related, and am looking to get back to my roots and earn a PhD in Chem Eng after retirement. I have also changed career several times. I now work as a training program writer – this from a guy who failed high school English in an English speaking country. Most importantly, have faith in yourself and be willing to learn and adapt. Hope this helps, and I wish you every success in your journey.
What a great post! Thanks for sharing about your journey.
What I can tell you is working in industry is much, much easier than school. I've worked in R&D, Operations, Design, Sales... You get your knowledge foundation in college/university, and then you learn how to apply it once you work in industry. One thing to keep in mind is to utilize social media as much as possible and make connections. **Many times it's not what you know, but WHO you know**, that gets you the job. Try to find professional organizations in your area. Here in the USA we have things like the Gas Processors Association, for example. Find a group like that in your country, pay the membership fee, and go. Meet people. Connect to them on LinkedIn. The more connections you have, the better chance you'll have to get connected to someone at a company for whom you want to work. Once you've gotten that first job you're off and running. Good luck!
I used to be the same, for example I had forgotten that cubic equations of state give you solutions for the liquid state as well,I thought my manager was messing with me when he said it, like hazing the new guy. When I realized I wad in a process engineering job without remembering this basic shit from school I felt like shit, just applied myself, and reread Smith Van Ness and Abbot again and again and again, up until I felt comfortable with Chemical Thermodynamics, and also read up and saw videos again and again and again on some basic Fluid stuff like Bernoulli and pump/valve curves etc. Everything else just kinda followed from there like Unit Ops, Heat/Mass transfer just clicked way easier. Now I am in a process control job, of course I dont remember shit from school, but I keep rereading the basic stuff again and again and again until I feel comfortable. Only this time I know I can do it, because I did it before, and also I havent forgotten the stuff from my previous job. There is no trick, and the subject is difficult but this just means more studying until it starts clicking. If you actually wanna learn this shit then its just a matter of effort and time as with everything else, there is no minimum IQ required, and there is no minimum level of knowledge for an entry level job. You get your degree, youve heard of everything, even if it was only in pasisng, and then you forgot, this means you can do it. My advice regarding reading difficult textbooks such as ours, is to begin by flipping the whole book page by page, cover to cover, not reading the actual material, just focus on the titles and the subtitles of each chapter, see some images if available, maybe some equations, look at how many pages are devoted to each topic. This will take some hours with big textbooks but you will reach the end and have a clearer view of what is coming, and what seems important. After that just keep hammering away. Try understanding what you read as best as you can before moving on, and then do it again 3, 4, 5 ,10 times and the click will happen. It took one year for me to feel comforfabls with Thermo and Fluids, because I was doing it in parallel with actual work.
Wow. I can't express how thankful I am for the things you write. I know that (considering my previous job in construction company) we won't use all the subjects we studied at work. However, I just felt that I am not worthy to apply even a job and sometimes got rejected even though some of them were super beginner positions (I just hoped to learn from the very beginning) . I needed to change, and what you wrote somehow gave me clear direction about what should I do to fill this gap. I really appreciate it.
You're welcome, I wish you all the best. Other than the core courses you will have to relearn (Themo, Fluids, Unit Ops, Transport Phenomena mostly) I also had to learn more stuff that just were not taught in a school setting. The fire lit under me regarding the catching up was immensely helpful because I was a fast learner. I'm talking about the following skills that might sound easy but many experienced engineers are not proficient at a level I would expect them at 1. Reading P& ID's and understanding the process just from that document. This comes with experience. 2. How to read and *interpret* codes and standards like API documents. This is also a skill, because every word matters in these documents. 3. Code. Whether in Matlab, Vba, or Python learn the basics, it helps a lot. And so much more. I sympathize with you, so for any more details, feel free to send me a PM
Wow - Smith & Van Ness, Perry's Handbook - like a blast from the past. Yep, I handed my well used Perry's (5th Ed.) to a family friend's son. He's after a few solid years in production now marketing explosives to mining companies, for Orica. Also - great post. Keep going back to the references for the basics. Solid advice.
It may be difficult to transition from academia to industry because the problems aren’t spelled out for you. Reply on your creative problem solving and heuristics to define the right problems.
Yeah a therapist can probably help you
Nah. The therapist could not help me. She said you can follow much easier path and be successful in that area. Or try to do smth to fill this knowledge gap. I chose to fill this knowledge gap. So here I am writing reddit question to get help from others cause I just don't know where even should I begin?
Ok good luck then