Chemical Engineer
Salary Levels
A graduate chemical engineer starting afresh gets around Rs.25000 to Rs.40000 per month. As one progresses, the salary package also enhances and in about five years time the salary gets to around Rs.8 to 12 lakh per annum level. The engineers employed with process and technology consultancies get higher package than those working in processing industries. Similarly those working in Oil and Gas industry also get handsomely paid. Many such engineers get employment in Gulf Countries as well. Here the package is quite lucrative, in some cases it can go upto Rs.25 Lakhs per annum.
Famous Personalities
Yoshio Nishi: Handheld electronics and gadgets – from mobile phones to laptops – have transformed the way we live over the past decade or so. But the revolution would not have been possible without high-power rechargeable batteries, and they were brought to market, thanks to a chemical engineer. Like many engineers, Yoshio Nishi is not a household name but frankly he should be, for he led the team that turned the lithium ion battery from a research concept into practical, commercially viable reality.
Tomio Wada: We owe a greater debt to pocket calculators than we might think – for every flat-screen LCD (liquid crystal display), be it the TV at home, the mobile phone in your pocket or the computer monitor in the office, is essentially the grandchild of a pocket calculator launched, by Japan’s Sharp Corporation in 1973. The EL-805 calculator was the first commercial electronic device to use an LCD screen. Tomio Wada, a chemical engineer working for Sharp and his team developed new photolithographic etching process from scratch, and LCD was born.
A day in life
A chemical Engineer’s day usually varies with the kind of role that one does. If he is working as a process engineer, then his typical day starts in the process control room (the room with all the automatic instrumentation controls that operate various processes within the process plant) by taking notes from the observations of the plant shift engineers. Once he has gone through the observations then he looks at the log books of various control panels to see if there is any anomaly. The process engineer then physically goes to the plant site and checks various parameters to ensure that the plant continues to operate smoothly.
In case the chemical engineer is working as an engineering consultant then his typical day starts with taking brief from his senior consultant. Thereafter the engineer starts working on his task, whether designing some key equipment or line etc. He uses a lot of computer aided simulation models to verify his designs.
Is Chemical Engineering not the career you are looking for? Here is a detailed list of all career options that you can explore.
You may also like to read up on other engineering careers such as:
Automobile Engineering as a career
Career as an Aeronautical Engineerr
Career as an Electrical Engineer
