Want to know the best ways to break chemical engineering as a student?
Hear directly from a chemical engineer with a long career spanning industries from pharmaceuticals to semiconductor manufacturing and beyond.
🎓 Degree(s)
🅰️ Grades
🔨 Skills & qualities
🧠 Knowledge
2. What companies you can apply for
🌟 Career fairs
🔍 Resumes
📄 Cover letters
🕴️Interviews
💡 Best tips
4. How to secure a return offer
If you are looking at chemical engineering or chemistry roles, a degree in any STEM field works – it doesn't matter what type of STEM field. You can have a degree in physics or microbiology or any hard science.
In theory, you could work in the field without a relevant degree. Say you're a fine arts degree but you were pre-med so you've taken hard science courses. You could still get a look (and for all we know, you could be a better candidate than a lot of other candidates), but you just wouldn't be a first choice. We'd look at the stronger candidates first.
– Senior chemical engineer
Personally, I don't look at grades at all. I've worked enough to know that these things aren't important. Grades don't make a good team member or a good employee.
Also, our purpose is to solve problems for clients. They'll drive what and how we do things. No client cares that you had a 4.0. They care about "What are you doing to fix this defect or that this is late?" "What are you doing better than your competitors?"
So I don't care if you failed every class and had to retake them or barely passed with a C. None of that matters in the real world. At the end of the day, I'm not looking for you to sit down and write an essay that I'll grade you on. I'm looking for how quickly you can think and come up with a solution. Your grades will never have anything to do with that.
– Senior chemical engineer
The main quality you need to develop is the ability to adapt to the real world.
Chemical engineering is different from chemistry in the classroom. In the classroom, you're tested on chemistry that's been around for millennia.
In industry:
- You're treading paths that not many people have tread and you're always trying to push the envelope. We're trying to figure out much more complex and nuanced challenges that sometimes takes a lot of different perspectives and that's why we want you to contribute your perspective – not necessarily to come up with a "solution," which may not exist. We want to see that you can think flexibly and ask questions that move everything forward.
- Companies aren't focused on right vs wrong. They need to meet their clients' and customers' requests and demands. So the mindset is vastly different from serving yourself in terms of "I need to get all A's" which is a very singular, internal perspective. In a professional setting, it's the whole business that matters. The business is the entity that matters above all. It pays you to help it survive, whereas in academia, you are your customer.
So if you've never been in an environment that fluctuates and changes - say you had a plan but your plan gets completely derailed but you still have to meet the deadline - how are you going to figure out how to still meet the deadline? How are you going to remove those obstructions or turn them into disadvantages. This is different from a syllabi that tells you the entirety of what you're doing and you just learn at your own pace.
The more of this you internalize as a student, the better you'll be able to start off your career. Dispel the myth that your schooling is what it's like in the working environment. Some skills transfer, but not all
Remember, in the real-world, there are often things that are outside your individual control or knowledge that prevent you from reaching the right answer. The important thing is how you think about trying to get there.
– Senior chemical engineer
If it's an entry-level role, typically there's no expectation that you bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to help solve problems. We're bringing you in so we can train you to do what we need you to do. Once you're proficient enough, you can do what we need you to do when we ask you to do it.
So in general, you just need a baseline level of knowledge.
- You need to have been in a laboratory and be familiar with the environment and the terminology. You need to know what a beaker or a hotplate is.
- Having studied some basic chemistry, biology, and physics is enough to get you an entry-level interview.
Mainly, we just want to know that have some exposure to hard sciences and that you speak the same language as us. This way, when we use some term, you'll know what it means.
– Senior chemical engineer
You can find plenty of internships on Prosple. We have a vast selection of internships curated for students like you. Just filter 'til you find the right fit!
I enjoy this field because the chemistry is very complex. The performance of the materials is critical. And when you apply those materials in varying layers on a microchip, they're going to inherently perform differently when other processes are at play. So you have to understand the chemistry not just at a fundamental level but how it'll interact with other functions.
It's fascinating because you're not just trying to scale something for manufacturing. There's a lot of nuance in the materials we make.
– Senior chemical engineer
It's not as sexy as semiconductors, but the consumer products will give you an appreciation of all the products that we all utilize day to day.
Some of the science is pretty boiler-plate in terms of understanding what components go into these products. Like, the ingredients aren't proprietary, but how you put them together is.
Also the formulations can still be fairly complex because of the vast amount of raw materials that have different properties that'll give you different sensations.
You'll also get to learn the learn how a product is commercialized. How do I make this product better than 19 other competitors? What does that look like economically? If I can make it better but it's going to cost 5-10x more to do that, is it worth it?
So it's not just technical acumen but also the business side of things. It's got to sell at a certain price point (whereas price point isn't a dealbreaker for semiconductors).
You also learn how to scale. In looking at detergents or lotions or cosmetics, the chemistry can change as you scale - it's about what materials go into that to give you that feel or texture or spreadability or visual effect?
– Senior chemical engineer
Paint & coating touches all sorts of industries like consumer products, automotives, and manufacturing equipment.
Paint & coating is interesting because of the scalability.
You start with a small batch and see how it tests & performs. Then you move onto a pilot batch and see how it tests & performs. Then you commercialize, making a batch size 10-100x the previous batch.
You don’t necessarily get to see each step of the way in other industries. With paint & coating, you have to take that stepwise function. Usually in other industries, it's more on the chemistry side of things. Paint & coating is less about the chemistry and more about how materials work at different scales.
– Senior chemical engineer
Pharmaceuticals is interesting because once you have a target ingredient and the chemistry is understood at the bench level, the scale-up isn't necessarily an issue. It's mainly the commercialization and clinical trials.
– Senior chemical engineer
I've been to several career fairs on both sides of the table. I'd say career fairs are less for winning opportunities and more for making an impression.
So how would you leave a good impression?
The students who've really stood out to me were people who had done their homework on us and showed that their interests aligned with what we do – not someone who just tries to hand me their resume because they need a job.
You also want to have some sort of material to market yourself. I recommend business cards over resumes.
What I've found is that resumes get lost unless there's an immediate availability. Often times, the people at the booth may be senior scientists get a ton of resumes and aren't interested in routing your resume to HR or to the direct hiring personnel. So handing them your resume isn't very different from submitting it into a void online.
These people are more interested in the interaction and, again, the impression you leave. If you seem interesting, knowledgeable, and prepared, they're more likely to want to connect you with the hiring manager.
Why business cards? Well they're cheap and you can get them made with your name, major, phone number, and e-mail – it's more so that people have a means of contacting you if they want to. It also presents you as more professional – which again helps you leave a better impression.
– Senior chemical engineer
For our best tips on leaving an impression, check out A student's guide to a great career fair.
For our best tips on writing resumes, check out How to craft a winning resume as a college student.
#1 Experience
When screening resumes, the first thing I look for is experience: research experience, summer research programs, projects, internships, work experience.
Of course, if this is your first time applying for an internship or if you're a high school student, I just want to see what professional spaces have you been involved in, like if you've worked in food or retail. I don't expect you to have robust research experience.
If you've only gone to school and haven't taken additional time to cultivate anything other than your studies, it's hard to understand if you understand that schooling might be different from the real world. In the real world, there are no exams and you're not graded on having right or wrong answers.
You work in a team and work on problems that have no set answers. Going to lectures, studying, taking tests isn't the same as having deadlines, coming across problems, equipment problems, working in a team. Industry doesn't have an cadence like 'lectures, study, test.'
#2 Extracurriculars
The second thing would be extracurriculars. Have you volunteered? Are you part of any professional organizations?
These shows me that you have some exposure to the world outside of an academic setting and whether you use your spare time on things that could benefit you professionally. For example, if you're in a society for pre-meds or chemical engineers, that shows me you're interested enough in this field to cultivate your knowledge or skills outside of school.
#3 Presentation
The third thing would be the presentation. Is it a well put-together resume? Is it an easy format for me to read through? Or does this feel like a draft?
– Senior chemical engineer
I have reviewed cover letters for students and entry-level people.
I want to know who you are, why you want to be an intern or employee, or why your past experience is transferrable.
Your cover letter should express the highlights of your resume so when I read your resume, it makes more sense to me.
If there are two candidates who we're on the fence about, I might re-read their cover letter to see who I'd want to interview. If you're the only one who submits a cover letter and all other candidates didn't, that in and of itself helps you stand out.
So you definitely want to put together a cover letter. It doesn't need to be more than a couple of paragraphs that highlight some of the things you've done that are in your resume. It's a way for an individual to say, "This person looks interesting and they've made me want to learn more." It adds personality that your resume or CV doesn't add, since those things are just a list of your experiences.
– Senior chemical engineer
For more advice on cover letters, check out:
Typically for interns and entry-level staff, there's two rounds.
- The hiring manager will set up a phone screen/interview to get a sense of "Is this person real?" and learn a bit about them. There might be some technical or behavioral questions.
- Then, there's an in-person interview which could be a half-day (where you interview with a couple people on the teams) or a full-day event (where you have interviews and they take you to lunch where they get to learn more about who you are.)
– Senior chemical engineer
The phone screening isn't meant to be a very rigorous part of the interviewing process. It's just enough to tell if you're a real person. We have your information but we want to make sure you're not a bot.
Usually we'll start by explaining what the role/company is really like since we can only write so much in a job description. If you have a different idea of what the role is like relative to what we had in mind, let us know!
Then we'll say, "Tell me about yourself." We want to know who you are, what you're looking for, your background and motivations. We want to see that you're genuinely answering questions and that what you're saying matches the information you've provided.
Don't:
- Miss the call or be late. If you can't make the call because of something urgent, make an effort to reach out and reschedule. If you don't, we usually move on to other candidates.
- Seem unprepared. If you're somewhere with a ton of background noise, that says you weren't serious enough to take 30 mins out of your time to have this conversation unobstructed.
– Senior chemical engineer
I ask questions that probe whether you're able to think critically and solve problems in the real world. I want to know that I can count on you when we're under pressure.
Here's an example: "Let's say you have a deadline and are going to be running late to providing X, Y, and Z by that deadline. What do you do?"
A poor response would be making up an excuse or trying to lie and not acknowledge the situation.
If you had equipment go down, you want to be transparent about that being the reason for the delay. But in addition, you provide a solution, like what you'll do to prevent that in the future.
How you answer this tells me whether you shut down when there's pressure and whether you can weather different challenges.
– Senior chemical engineer
Here are our best tips for answering the most common interview questions:
For more tips, see Smart questions to ask at your next internship interview.
Make sure to network! A lot of the opportunities that you are afforded or awarded do come from the networks that you know relative to your skill. Starting to build that from an earlier point of your career will really help and lead you down some other pathways that can benefit you.
Here's how:
- Put yourself in the spaces and places that allow you to get some kind of contact with individuals who are in the orbit of that organizations you're interested in. If you're a student looking for an internship, reach out to students who've interned there before. Reach out to professors or faculty. Go to alumni events. Take those opportunities to learn about people as individuals and try to get some kind of contact information, like their business card or a QR code or link so you can collect that information.
- Then foster that relationship. Send them an introductory "Hello, you may not remember me, but I was so-and-so from X. I'd love to ..." Don't be afraid to reach out to them once you've established that relationship to see how they're doing, what's new about them. Just so it doesn't seem like a cold-call when you need their help. Drop a line every couple weeks or months. So if you were to call upon them for a favor, they don't feel blindsided and they understand who you are so they're better able to use their connections and resources to represent you in the best way. This way, they're not just willing to help you but will want to do it in a really good way.
– Senior chemical engineer
Express that you liked your time there and are interested in future roles if available!
Keep that line of communication open. Leave your contact info so they can reach out if there's an opening.
While you're at it, reach out to the people you worked with and ask if they'd be referrals for you for future roles.
– Senior chemical engineer
For more expert advice, check out Interns: How to secure a return offer.