How to become a great Process Engineer?

I think it's okay to think that you're not a good engineer. If you think you're good then you might stop learning and listening to other people who may have something to teach you. What I'm really saying is to keep that streak of curiosity in you.

What's a true engineer? Back in college we were told that engineers take the truths that the scientists discovered and apply them. All those laws and theories and formulas enable engineers to build, run and fix all these things around us. Experience in practical matters also help (get some work experience in addition to schooling).

At the risk of sounding like a...something...a good engineer uses all the knowledge and skills for the good of the earth and mankind.

If you need any specifics, just come to CR4!

Vulcan-This is no doubt the best answer I have heard on the question of "I dont think I am a good engineer"! Hats off to you VULCAN!

Hi! All your ecouraging words and the other people's good suggestion affect me a lot. In the past, I seldom care about what people are talking in the forum. But today, when I saw all these ecouragement to a stranger, I am really greatly moved. Originally, I just want to find my potential customer in CR4. While, now, I changed my idea. I will try my best to be a PM(product manager). I am a Chinese girl. I am not sure whether you know about PM. I was educated in art background. In my first job, I did very good as a PM. But I quited because I think only people with engineering background could be a good PM. After 6 month's wandering in different company, I come back to PM again. Anyway, I will try my best!

Comments from the Philippines are on the right track. Having gone through the same curiosity myself 12 years ago when I was about to graduate, I can probably see what goes in your mind. Try to master the basics of chemical engineering. It is not difficult. Just takes some patience and hard work. Learning softwares does not help. You got to know what a software is doing. Take software as a tool that saves engineer's time as the engineer likes to do other more productive things leaving tedious calculations to the software. Learning software does not add to basic understanding of chemical engineering.

Working as a process engineer is fun. I have been enjoying it over the last many years. The fun still continues. I am just an ordinary process engineer. But I make sure I apply some brain to every problem that comes my way.

Good luck + Regards

A. Sheikh

Hi Hetia,

It's interesting to see a question come up like that. Good on you.

An Engineer can be defined in many ways - some to do with what they're work on, some to do with making things more efficient or they decrease the sum total of the disorder in the universe. Those are the things that you can be benchmarked on.

I'm a good engineer because once in a while I do something that's really beautifull. I come up with a tiny little subtlety in a problem that gives an almost perfect solution and I know that it's untouchable. It's not based on what people think and it's not relative to anything - for the problem at hand it's just right, irrespective of size or significance.

The potential for that to happen is what gets me out of bed in the morning. In my mind that solution is improved if it takes a nearly infinite number of things consideration when it's being formed. So in your position - I'm sure you'll be a good process engineer - but you'll be better than that if you can keep a broader eye to all the things that you're involved in. Your solutions should do more than fix the problem. They should make life easier for the workers that are involved in them, cause less waste in their building, impact less on the environment, be asthetically pleasing, be configurable to reduce redundancy and so on. Rarely will people give you a problem and ask you to watch for all of these things but you should build a list of what you believe in and make sure that you give some consideration to these things every time you apply yourself.

Good luck,

M

Hi Heita

I know exactly how you feel. For the past four years I've been studying chemical engineering and not knowing exactly what I'd be doing and whether I would be able to do it. Then last year I failed two subjects and am currently repeating parts of my last year. This has given me the opportunity to start working in my chosen field while not actually having graduated and it's been a big eye-opener. I'm not exactly doing process engineering but I'm rather a mix between a process engineer and an R&D engineer. So basically I'm busy all day trying to use those engineering basics to develop new products while still being on-hand to do the engineering troubleshooting on the plant itself. But now, enough about me.

Something I've learned is that no-one will expect you to be an engineer within the first few months you're working. You just don't know enough. But instead of this bothering you rather use it as an opportunity to learn while still having a bit of leeway in which to make mistakes. Use this time to find something you enjoy and something you're good at. If you find that and start finding your feet then the self-confidence will come back quickly and you will know exactly what it is to be a true engineer. You have worked too hard to get the degree to start second-guessing yourself now.

Good luck with your masters as well as your future as an engineer.

Rgds

ArchaDl

Very few people come out of college as "GOOD" engineers. The primary thing the degree shows is that you have the ability to become a good engineer. The best way to become a good engineer is to acquire experience. I think back to how dumb I was when I got out of college.

I don't know about the chemical side of the house, but in the electronics side, you find yourself studying for the rest of your career. I am currently studying an NEC microcontroller for incorporation in a couple of potential products.

Anyhow... Go for that MS and keep the faith... You can do it!!

Sincerely

Bill

At its best, your college education will provide you with a kit of intellectual tools, and some insight into how they might be used. But the best way to learn is to work with someone who is a good engineer. It is unlikely you will get this experience at college; it is also a problem that some companies that provide "official" student placements are too worried about the damage a naive student might cause to give you the experience you require; in addition, many of these placements are simply too short. If you can find a suitable opportunity, you could take a year out of formalised studies before progressing to the masters. Otherwise, just accept that it'll take time after you have started work before you become a useful engineer.

My other piece of advice is that understanding of all types is paramount. If you don't understand why something is done in a particular way, you should not be shy to ask*. Sometimes the answer will be of the type "we don't really know - except that it works"; in this case the necessary understanding is where it will and won't work.

*It seems to be a characteristic of the most capable people that they are not frightened to ask the simple questions.

Good luck - you should do well because you are already questioning what lies ahead.

The only way to become a great engineer is through superivised trial and error. You learn from your errors, but if you are watched over by a good engineer themselves they can help minimize the effects of your errors and explain why it occurred and a better way to approach the situation(s). It is almost like being a parent raising a child, you don't want them to get hurt, but you want them to learn right from wrong and giving them advice and lessons learned along the way helps them grow.

As to know when you have become a great engineer, there is always more to learn, but when your coworkers and even customers look to you for answers whenever there are questions asked, they must trust you and your judgement. That would be a very good indication that you are a great engineer, when others believe you to be.

To become a good engineer I would whole-heartedly recommend working in a plant operations environment in addition to designing equipment. You can't really fathom how things work until you see them in action.

Heita,

I just read and posted a comment to "Imparting information" which BrainWave posted here: http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/7422/Imparting-information?frmtrk=CR4digest

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My post:

I made a good living explaining technical things to engineering graduate students who had problems they encountered in the course of their research. Most of the problems grew from lack of ability to "connect" their mathematics and physics knowledge with "real" stuff.

The English language (I'm sure other languages work just as well, but I only know English) works wonders for helping others make the "connection."

Rather than tell someone they need a PID controller to do the job and send them on the way, I would explain, in English, why a PID controller would be needed and tell them what each term in PID means and how they work together to provide a near ideal transfer function. And sometimes, I would also have to explain what a transfer function is in words -- not mathematics.

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Find someone in your department who can and will take the time to help you understand what's really going on in processes. You can find out here in the CR4 forum, but it's difficult to wade through all the posts to get the answers you want.

A large percentage of my "customers" were chemical engineering graduate students, and the largest percentage were mechanical engineering graduate students. The only time I talked to electrical engineering students were when they were trying to make something mechanical work.

The majority of them all really didn't have much knowledge about the vast range of system components that are available, what they did, or how to use them.

As a staff engineer, I would very often have to find components, learn how to use them, and then explain their functions and how to use them to the graduate students who needed them. In the process of helping others, I gained a vast knowledge of how to do things, including process control.

One approach to becoming a "good" process engineer is to not try to understand the entire process at once, 'cause there are too many different processes and too many ways to do the same thing. Start with a relatively simple process and pick it apart.

Let's say you want to boil water at a specific pressure to produce steam with a certain temperature. What controls the pressure? Well, the little weight on top of your Mom's pressure cooker does a fair job of maintaining a certain pressure, and she may even have two or three different weights for different pressures. Steam pressure and temperature are related, and a psychrometric chart tells you how.

Steam process control in a plant can be as simple as that but haven't used orfices and weights for several decades -- there are more sophisticated, accurate ways to do it now .

Good luck, and remember to STUDY! Because you care, I think with a little experience under your belt, you'll make a very good process engineer.

Neither did I! You have to have confidence in yourself and your work. This can't be taught at college, but thru time and experience. I had the opportunity to learn from an engineer on the Verge or retirement. I was able to try and soak all that I could of his 50 years of knowledge in a couple of years. With his knowledge, I became more confident in myself, and my work.

Single I, who nothing.

It works with passion and reads.

Hi everyone

Your words are so encouraging...

I am happy to see that you all understand me. I will for sure apply your advices in my career as a process angineer since they are all so helpful. You've given me confidence and hope. I'm already starting to feel better about myself !

Thank you so much

Qualifying as a Chartered Chemical Engineer in the UK can be achieved via a number of routes, with emphasis on design and process safety being part of the mix. A typical route for a 1979 batchelor's degree graduate on an accredited course might have been 6-7 years' industrial experience under a mentor or mentors, followed by a 1500-word Training and Experience Report with a defined content requirement followed by peer review. The requirements for qualification have changed slightly, with one-to-one interview with an assessor as part of the procedure, since then. There are also non-graduate routes to qualification, though these may take a little longer to achieve, as design projects are part of accreditied universities' courses in the subject.

http://www.icheme.org/ contains information on current procedures.