Perspectives of a practicing chemical engineer: Part 2 - Core companies after under-graduation

In reply to my first article under this series, a third-year undergraduate student of chemical engineering requested me to provide insight on:

How to prepare for interviews and what core companies to look for?

The question has two distinct parts and I will tackle them in two separate articles – in this one on the last part of the question. Since the question is from an undergraduate student, I will focus on job prospects after completing undergraduate degree.

Part 2: What core companies to look out for after bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering?

I started my career after my under-graduation and eventually did my PhD on a part-time basis. Till date, I have worked in operations, commissioning, design and technology development in two different sectors – oil and gas and air separation. In this journey, I have also interacted with people from other sectors and profiles and understood the pros and cons of those. This has given me a holistic knowledge about the opportunities that a chemical engineer has in the market. However, at the outset, I must say that I do not have detailed knowledge of all the possible career opportunities and the article, thus, might inadvertently miss out on some aspects. Also, the article is written with the Indian chemical engineering market in mind.

Option 1 (Best): Plant operations - In my opinion, if someone is looking for job in core sector after bachelor’s degree, the best place to start the career is in production/operation. The reasons are manifold.

Firstly, most of the jobs that chemical engineers do (except academics and very specific research in some cases) is aimed towards one thing – manufacturing of chemical products in large scale. As a production engineer, you are exposed to the chemical process plant at the closest level possible. You can see the culmination of all the research, lab tests, pilot plant tests, process design, construction and commissioning in front of you. It is fascinating. You need to observe keenly and try to relate between theory and practice. The insight that you will gain will stay with you forever.

Why is this insight important? Let me give you two examples.

a.     You join a job where you need to design cars. The design is done in a software about which you have good knowledge and that is why you have been hired. However, you have only seen cars in your textbooks. You have never seen it from front, never touched it, sat inside it or driven it. Do you think you will be able to design a good car then; no matter how well you know the software? I think not. The same is with chemical process plants. If you have not operated a process plant, it is extremely difficult to get a feel of it as a designer.

b.     You stay in a multi-storied building and have always used elevators. You don’t even know that a staircase exists to go up and down. Suddenly one day, there is a power failure. You don’t know how to tackle this emergency. Work in operations is like this – it is boring and physically demanding like going up the stairs. But it eventually trains you to handle emergency situations and widens your thinking.

Secondly, young age is the best time to take up the rigor of operations. You need to work in shift which takes a toll on health which is easier for a 23-24-year-old person to handle. Sometimes, you need to work really long hours during plant turn-around and emergency, which is also easier when you don’t have family obligations.

Thirdly, it is easier to stay in remote locations (where most of the process plants are located) during the early years of your career. With time, people usually prefer to move to bigger cities for various reasons (better healthcare, education of children etc.)

All in all, I consider the days in operation as a time in pipeline before a non-return valve (NRV). Once you pass through, it is very hard to return. So, better to start your career there. If you like it and want to stick to it, that is fine. If you don’t, stay for a few years, suck up the knowledge and pass through the NRV, never to return.

The next obvious question is: which sector in production? This has a relatively straight-forward answer. You should choose a sector that has the most complex unit operations as that will give you the maximum learning. These are basically refineries, petrochemicals and big fertilizer plants which are self sufficient (not the ones that only does mixing of fertilizers). A word of caution before I move to the company list – it is almost impossible to know what will be your job profile when you join somewhere as a fresher (this is particularly true for PSUs). You might end up in a completely different section like Projects or Marketing or in a very peculiar plant like Waste Water Treatment (I personally know IIT-Roorkee graduate being posted in WWTP of IOCL Panipath). This is just a leap of faith you need to take. If it works out for you, it is fine. Otherwise, you just need to ask for transfer or look for other opportunities.

So, finally to the companies list (major ones only):

Oil refineries: IOCL, BPCL, HPCL, MRPL-ONGC, Reliance, Nayara Energy (erstwhile Essar Oil), Guru Govind Singh Refinery (HMEL-Bhatinda)

Petrochemicals: Reliance, Haldia Petrochemicals, Brahmaputra Crackers and Polymers, Assam Petrochemicals Limited,

Fertilizers: NFL, Chambal Fertilizer, Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertiizers Limited, Gujrat Narmada Valley Fertilizers, Nagarjuna Fertilizers, Mangalore Fertilizers

Option 2: Plant start-up/ commissioning: In case you are not ready to spend a few years in a remote location (which in most cases the chemical plants are) and also think that production might be too boring for you (which is actually a risk), then you might consider joining a plant commissioning profile. Even few years back, such profiles were earmarked for people with significant experience in operation. However, with large requirement as well as high attrition from such roles, now many companies take freshers in such roles. This profile requires that you will go to different plants during commissioning and help in that process. The pros and cons of this profile are as follows:

a.     Extremely steep learning curve: As a thumb-rule it can be said that 1 year of commissioning experience is equivalent to 5 years of experience in operations. This is because, during commissioning, the plant is at its most vulnerable state (like a new-born baby). Everyday there is some new problem which you will need to troubleshoot. Moreover, experts for different equipment (like fired heater, pump, compressor etc.) will visit the plant during this phase and working with them will give you a lot of experience.

b.     Pay is usually on a higher side (compared to operations/ design profile in the same company), because of site allowance.

c.     Hectic work hours: Expect to work for ~12 hours a day and 6 days a week

d.     Erratic travel schedule: You will need to travel to different locations and stay there for a significant period. You really can’t settle anywhere.

All in all, this profile is extremely interesting as a fresher but may not be something that you would like to stick to for more than 3 - 4 years.

Coming to the companies, I am writing only the name of those which I am aware takes freshers in this profile. But keep in mind that almost all detail engineering companies and technology providers will have this portfolio.

The profile is known by different names in different companies – Field Operation Services (UOP Honeywell), Technical Services Engineer (Axens, DuPont, ExxonMobil), Commissioning Engineer (Linde).

If you are joining as an operations engineer (Option 1), you may also eventually get involved in the commissioning team (if there is any new unit coming up in your plant) – but that depends on your luck and also the learning is usually quite less compared to that from a Detail Engineering Contractor (DEC)/ Licensor side

Option 3: Design companies – Okay then! When people study Chemical Engineering, there is this huge enigma about design companies. It seems that everyone working in a design company is a would-be Norman Lieberman or Henry Kister (please consult Dr. Google if you don’t know these guys!)

The reality is quite different! In a design company, you might end up doing a very interesting thing (like conceptual design of a divided-wall distillation column) to extremely boring and commonplace thing (like sizing of flare network) to extremely tedious yet important task (like detailed hydraulics of the plant). Unfortunately, it is impossible for you to know where you will land up in. It is just like throwing of dice!

The good thing of design companies is that you will get a while-collar job and will be in a nice city. However, you will sooner or later start facing the problems explained under Option 1 if you directly start your career in design.

Companies are numerous – I am just mentioning a few big ones. Among the PSUs are Engineers India Limited (EIL) and Projects Development India Limited (PDIL). Then there are L&T, Fluor, Foster Wheeler, Bechtel, Technip, Linde, Halliburton, Thyssenkrupp (Udhe), TCE (Tata Consulting Engineers), Air Liquide (Lurgi), Saipem, Samsung (yes, they don’t only make phones and TVs), GS Construction – to name a few.

For clarity, these companies are often referred to as Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) companies.

Option 4: Technology Licensor – In my opinion, these companies are perhaps the best place to work for a practicing chemical engineer. They have good challenges and makes good use of your knowledge and ability. The reason for putting it in Option 4 is the challenge you will face if you join these companies as a fresher – again because of not being exposed to plant operation. Working in an operations/ commissioning profile for a few years followed by a shift to a company like this may be an ideal thing to do.

Companies are – UOP Honeywell, KBR, Haldor Topsoe, Lummus, Linde, Air Liquide, GE.

Some word of caution – these traditional ‘licensing’ companies have entered a lot into detail engineering as per market requirement in recent years. So, while applying for these companies, try to make sure of the profile. Otherwise, you may in up in a profile similar to those in EPC companies.

It is to be noted that some companies mentioned under Option 3 have been repeated in Option 4 as they have both the profiles. There are some more companies like Technip and Bechtel who also have some licensing profile, though relatively small.

Option 5: Distributed Control System (DCS), Simulation software, Automation – Because of a surge in demand in this area, many companies are taking freshers. It is an extremely emerging field and a huge demand is expected in future. The problem of starting the career in a DCS or Automation provider is that you get little knowledge of practical chemical engineering; you end up somewhere between a process and instrumentation engineer. On the other hand, Simulation software companies will land you up in the same challenge as mentioned in Option 1. So, again, these companies might be more suitable for the first job change. Companies are:

DCS, Automation – Honeywell, Yokogawa, ABB

Simulation software – Schneider Electric (Simulation Sciences), Aspen, KBC Petrosim

This, more or less, brings to the end of the different profiles that you may expect in core companies after passing an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering. There is, obviously, several core companies that hire chemical engineers in project management/ execution. I have not discussed anything about that since the technical part is very limited in such a profile.

This is, however, the tip of the iceberg as far as companies are concerned. I have discussed the matter from the perspective of Oil & Gas and Chemicals sector as this area has the maximum exposure/ opportunities for chemical engineers. But there are many, many other sectors and I am listing some of them:

Oil & gas drilling, exploration: ONGC, Schlumberger, Cairn Energy, British Gas (salaries are usually very, very good!!)

Air separation unit (ASU) technology, operations: Linde/Praxair, Air Products, Air Liquide, Ellenbarrie (Air Water)

Specialty chemicals: BASF

Pharmaceuticals: Ranbaxy, Dr. Reddy’s, Cipla, Glaxo

Steel: SAIL, Hindalco, Jindal Steel

Cement: Lafarge, ACC, FLSmidth

Glass and High performance material: Saint-Gobain

Paper industry: Voith Paper

Paint: Asian Paints, Berger Paints

FMCG: Hindustan Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser, Procter & Gamble, Patanjali

Tobacco and Alcohol: ITC, Kingfisher

Lubricants: Balmer Lawrie, Castrol, Total (only marketing profile in India)

Catalyst: Sud Chemie

Water treatment solutions: Suez water technologies (GE water), Nalco water

Food and Beverages: Parle, Mondelez, Cocal-Cola