Chemical Engineering still viable

ElevateMeLater
Wed, 26 Jan 2011 08:04:24 +0000

According to BLS.gov, the number of positions for Chemical Engineers s expected to decrease by %2 between 2010 and 2018. However, this is due to slight decline in traditional ChemE fields like pharma, and chemical manufacturing. Nascent fields like biopharma, piotech, and biofuels are showing increases, although comparatively small, in their number of ChemE positions. The big caveat to this data is that it does not mention how many positions are AVAILABLE. It’s totally possible that although the number of positions are declining, the number of available positions are increasing. This actually may be reality as many boomers are retiring/on the verge of retirement. But this is still under debate, you can find many articles for or against this line of thought.

However, if you are a 3.2-4.0 student, with decent extra-curriculars (honors/community service frat., research, internship/co-op), you should not have much of a trouble finding a job, even in this economy. It’s those with sub 3.0GPAs that will have a tough time. Also, lets say you start your ChemE curriculum this fall, you won’t have a degree until about four years from then. Within that time, a lot of change can happen.

My advice: IF you like and want to do ChemE, do it.