<p>I'm looking to gain entry into a ChE program in the Spring but after looking at the BLS outlook for Chemical Engineers (they show a 2% decrease from '08 to '18 - BLS</a> Engineering Outlook) I'm not so sure that this would be the best choice. I just dont want to get out of school in 3 years to find a dying market for ChEs and regretting not choosing CivE instead. I plan on getting into the biotechnology industry working on biologics downstream process development. </p>
<p>If anyone has any insight or advice, lemme know.</p>
<p>If you don’t like ChE’s job prospects than you are going to hate CivE’s job prospects as they are in the least demand right now (though I expect a boom in a couple of years). ChE will not have terrible job prospects, its just simply too big right now. You shouldn’t have a bad time finding jobs, at least in regards to the other engineering majors.</p>
<p>After the God awful housing numbers that just came out for new and existing homes this week, Civil E is going to be in the toilet for a LONG time. And yes, this will impact jobs outside of hosuing construction as most cities and towns get their revenue from property taxes.</p>
<p>Civil Engineering is hopeless for the time being. Maybe in 5 or 10 years it might get better. I can’t tell you how many people I know that have been let down after graduation because they couldn’t find a job in Civ. Eng. With computers becoming more powerful companies are starting to let go of expensive Chemical Engineers and are instead having computers optimize the manufacturing processes. While it is true that in the next few years Chemical Engineers will not have much problem finding jobs analysts do predict the gradual decline of Chemical Engineering. Most analysts are hopeful about the future of Civil Engineering though and expect it to definitely bounce back by the next decade.</p>
<p>I guess I’m answering my own question, but…</p>
<p>After some research and thought, I kind of reaffirmed myself that my pursuit of a ChE degree is a good choice. The cool thing about biotech is most of the products are enzymes and antibodies (or Ab fragments). So, depending on what side of the manufacturing process you work on optimizing, upstream/bioreactors/production or downstream/purification, the tools at your disposal are limited by how advanced cell biology and proteomics are, respectively. Since these are young fields, compared to chemicals or pharma, I’m guessing it’s safe to say that by the time optimization by computer modeling is a realization I will be several years into my career, maybe already dead!</p>
<p>I do have some experience in biologics manufacturing, working on the floor, not as an engineer. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask.</p>
<p>“After some research and thought, I kind of reaffirmed myself that my pursuit of a ChE degree is a good choice.”</p>
<p>What sources did you research and read? Did you look at all sources, or did you merely limit your research to sources that say Chem Eng is a good field in order to make yourself feel good?</p>
<p>Major chemical plants that cost $1 billion or more are now almost exclusively being built overseas.</p>
<p>As chemical production has moved to other countries, so have high-paying jobs. U.S. chemical industry employment has declined by more than 20% in the past two decades. In 1990, our industry employed 1 million people. Today, we employ 780,000. These jobs, in turn, support nearly 4 million supplier and other expenditure-induced jobs.”</p>
<p>There aren’t that many Chemical Engineering jobs, but universities will have hardly any Chemical Engineering graduates. Probably around 50 or 100 a year. At my school a professor surveyed a 150 student class (all engineers). It was almost evenly divided between Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical. No one was a Chemical major! The $60k starting salary tells you something about the demand. If companies were being flooded with ChemE resumes they wouldn’t pay them so much.</p>
<p>Civil engineering is in the dumps right now, but the US population continues to grow from immigration. More population= more building. In a few years, I think the demand for civil engineers will pick up again. It might not be a much as during the housing boom, but it should increase. Besides in civil engineering, you can branch out into environmental, structural, transportation, etc. It’s not always about building houses. </p>
<p>I don’t know much about chemical engineering, but I think biotech is a growing field. ChemEs I assume can also work in the oil industry.</p>