A career in chemical engineering

  What first comes to your mind when you hear the word “Chemical Engineering”, surely it must be something like a person who deals with Chemicals or a very dangerous thought like makes Devastating Bombs. But in reality, there is nothing like this, but an Ocean of Opportunities when it comes to Chemical Engineering.

If we go by bookish definitions they say that Chemical Engineering is a discipline that deals with the Design and Operation of Industry Plants. Also, in other words in the Chemical Engineering Language, we can say that a person who deals with the process of Conversion of Reactants to Products is called a Chemical Engineer.

Chemical Engineering is a very professional branch of engineering which deals with every aspect behind the making of any particular product. This branch has a very wide network that spreads its arms in sections such as Metallurgy, Pharmacy, Civil Engineering, Quality Control, Nuclear Engineering, Food Engineering, and even Computer Science Engineering.

Now many of you must be thinking that what on Earth has Chemical Engineering to do with the Computer Science branch and my answer to this would be that, who provides the Silicon Material required manufacturing Computer Chips of the hardware of the computer and my answer would be none other than a “Chemical Engineer”.

From all these things we come to know that Chemical Engineering is a branch which deals with every aspect of Human Life. So now, the question arises that how to become a Chemical Engineer after completing your 12th standard, so now let’s deep dive in to get further insights on this topic.

 The most important point when it comes to the matter of becoming a Chemical Engineer is that you must have completed your 12th Standard Studies from the Science Stream otherwise you are not eligible to become a Chemical Engineer.

After that, the next eligibility criteria is that you must have good knowledge about the basics of Chemistry such as Physical, Organic, and Inorganic Chemistry which are taught to you itself while you are studying in standard 11th and 12th. Also, we must keep in mind that Chemical Engineering in today’s world is a developing branch as per the new trends of “Industry 4.0”.

Therefore we must be constantly aware of what new types of teaching methods are available in the various colleges having courses. Chemical Engineering has two courses that are BE (Bachelor in Engineering) and B.Tech (Bachelor of Technology) in Chemical Engineering. Both of these courses are of 4 Years, but the main difference in both of these courses in that the BE in is a course which is not much updated right from when it was introduced and B.Tech course keeps on updating as per the new Industry trends and has numerous types of Opportunities.

From a Benefit point of view, a student should choose a college which has a B.Tech course, has modern techniques of teaching, has compulsory industrial internships after every 2 semesters, have Virtual Labs and updated physical labs.

These points would benefit the student to have a fruitful career and prosper to higher altitudes in life. The Average salary of an Undergraduate Chemical Engineer is 20-22K per month.  After these 4 years of studies, with the apt knowledge of every particular process, we could also start a business of any scale with Chemical Engineering Relevance which would attract more profit and income 

          But stop! Your career is not set after you have chosen a good college or complete your undergraduate studies, after the Second Year of your Undergraduate education a student should start aiming towards Higher Education through the GATE Exams or should start aiming towards some good Campus Placements after the 3rd Year of Studies. As said earlier that, Chemical Engineering is a Branch that has opportunities in multiple branches which can be achieved by having good practical knowledge and a perfect GATE score.

We can opt-out for various sub-branches for our 2 Year M.Tech or ME studies such as Food Technology, Metallurgy, Nuclear Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Pharmacy, and various other relative branches. The average salary of a Graduate Chemical Engineer is 57K per month.

Also after these 6 Years of studies if the hunger to gain more knowledge isn’t satisfied then we can pursue Doctorate Studies in branches of Chemical Engineering relevance which would earn us jobs in Colleges, Institutes like BARC, ONGC, HPCL, RCF, etc. and thereby earning a handsome salary. The average salary for a person with having a PhD is 1 Lakh per month.

                After reading this article you surely must be eager to pursue your career in the chemical industry. Then what are waiting for gathering your basic knowledge choose a good college and you are good to go.

-Asim Phadke