Re: tell us about your job
What do you do? I'm currently about to defend my Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in mid-March. My project was extremely interesting to me... I worked on a NASA project, looking at alternative ways to capture CO2 from the respiration of the crew for the long-term mission to Mars.
Do you like it? Most definitely.
What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I'm good at what I do and have great hands-on experience. I'm also extremely math-gifted like most people here and have a very easy time visualizing a process occurring.
What kind of people do best in your work? You have to be willing to give up 4-5 years of your life (sometimes more) to get a Ph.D. It's not for everyone... the pay sucks, the hours are extremely long, experiments never go right the first time... etc.
What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? B.S. in Chemical Engineering helps. Finding a grad school to take you.
What is a typical day like? Up at 5:30, go to gym, back to shower and out the door to get there at 8, work till 5 on experiments, go home to dinner, work on papers, reports, etc until 10ish, then chill. Depending on experiments, I could be in the lab until late. My wife, who just got her Ph.D. had to go in one time at 9, 11, 1, 3, 5 am. Thank God I never had to do that.
What kind of problems do you encounter? The largest problem I face is dealing with the idiot Electrical Engineer lab technician. I really hate that guy. Other than that, meh, experiments don't always go as planned, but that's really expected, so it's not so much a problem. I plan for problems to occur.
What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration is taken care of in the last one. Elation is meeting with NASA and getting the thumbs up! Another one is building reactors in the machine shop and having them work. I've built two packed-bed reactors and one wetted wall reactor and it felt great!
How much do you make? For my research, I get paid 24k a year. Hopefully now that I'm graduating I can start ~75k? That's my hope.
How much can one expect to make in your position? As a graduate student, nothing... but when I get in the real world, hopefully more than I can imagine. 3-4 years down the road with a Ph.D. and some experience, one could easily be making over 100k.
Now that I'm finishing up, though, I'm looking for an entry level position... anyone here looking to hire a Ph.D. Chem Engineer?
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