<p>from what i've seen, it seems like the daily life of a chemical engineer is pretty boring. they just spend their days in plants. so how is a day as a chemical engineer really like?</p>
<p>Chemical Engineers work in all kinds of jobs. I work in Research and Development for a consumer products company. I figure out how to process new products. It is fun to see what I work on end up on store shelves. I sometimes visit a plant, but mostly I do computer modeling and experiments on lab scale equipment and work in teams on the next product improvement.</p>
<p>The range of what people do with their ChE degrees is broad. Some do work in chemical manufacturing plants, but many others work in management, R&D, consulting firms, or they go on to become patent lawyers, medical doctors, or get PhD's and teach and do research in academia.</p>
<p>you might want to look at the Sloan Career Cornerstone site for more information on various jobs performed by chemical engineers (as well as info relating to other engineering/science/technical fields);</p>
<p>Sloan</a> Career Cornerstone Center: Careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math & Healthcare</p>
<p>My husband has a Chem E degree and has worked for the same company for maybe 25 years. He has worked in several different plants and has traveled to many parts of the country and to Europe and Asia for his work. He always seems to be working on new projects and has had many opportunities choose the focus of his work.</p>
<p>Thank you for the responses. = ) Just as a side note, what exactly do chemical engineers do in plants? Just maintenance?</p>
<p>Plant Engineers, often called Process Engineers or Manufacturing Engineers, generally perform process improvement activities. They make sure everything is running smoothly and at optimal levels of output; effective, efficient, and safe.</p>
<p>I worked in pharmaceutical plants for 9 years as a chemical engineer. About 20-40% of your time is spent "on the floor" and the rest is spent writing reports, talking with vendors, working on designs, etc... So, it's not all just operating the plant, though you need to know how to do that to.</p>
<p>Maintenance will generally have mechanics assigned to that task. However, monitoring PM cycles and correcting anything that breaks down too often or can be costly if it does break is a joint effort between the engineering and maintenance departments.</p>