<p>What's the difference? What different kind of jobs can you get? What is the future for both careeers?</p>
<p>I've heard that the demand for Chem E is good. The starting salaries start around 50-60k, sometimes more...and I've also heard its one of the most toughest engineering majors.</p>
<p>A little bit more on the future and demand of Chem E:
<a href="http://www.graduatingengineer.com/futuredisc/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.graduatingengineer.com/futuredisc/index.html</a></p>
<p>About 30k...</p>
<p>They're completely different fields. If you like chemistry, study chemistry, not chemical engineering. ChemE is more like applied physics. The only chemistry courses you'll be taking are intro chem, organic chem (maybe inorganic), and physical chem (and physical chem is more like physics).</p>
<p>"About 30k..."</p>
<p>wow, its pretty low in Canada</p>
<p>Bleach, steevee meant the difference between a chemist and a chemical engineer is "about 30k".</p>
<p>Actually, it is pretty low in Canada and I would agree with that. Unfortunately, Canada is not a player in the chemical industry and majoring either in Chemical Engineering or Chemistry is not really a good strategy. In fact, Dow chemical is closing 3 plants in Canada, 2 in Sarnia and 1 in Alberta.
It is far better to major in mechanical or electrical. Better still go to medical or dental school. Canada and Ontario in particular suffers from a huge glut of engineers. </p>
<p>Here is a link:
<a href="http://www.ospe.on.ca/gr_connections_meetings_MPP_Fontana_Aug_05.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.ospe.on.ca/gr_connections_meetings_MPP_Fontana_Aug_05.html</a></p>
<p>I took chemical engineering and never found work in the field. I worked a couple of years for small engineering company doing pump and pipe calculations/AutoCAD for terrible money before going to law school.
Then my salary went up several fold! If you want to stay in Ontario, take up a trade such as plumbing, electrical, etc and you will retire earlier and make far more money than you likely will ever see as an engineer. Supply and demand is an absolute entity rather than the empty promises of engineering schools.</p>
<p>Something else I want to add thay may not be obvious. If you are going for a professional engineering license, your first job is like your residency. A friend of mine is a surgeon and he did 5 years surgery post-MD and today makes a mint. He matched his residency through the university and had top-quality training. </p>
<p>I applied for all the large chemical firms in Canada (dupont, dow, shell, esso (xon), big paper, big pharma etc....) and came up empty despite the fact I had good grades and from a top school. I received stacks and stacks (and stacks!) of rejection letters. I never obtained a job in the field to complete my training. </p>
<p>When I finished law, I did the bar and took the articling. After this period, I had the right training and experience took autonomously take cases from start to finish on my own. </p>
<p>I could never do the same with engineering since I never obtained any real field experience.</p>