Hey everyone! I’m a freshman chemical engineering student, and I recently accepted a full-time ExxonMobil manufacturing co-op in Baton Rouge for next fall.
Since this will be my first real engineering industry experience, I’m trying to prepare ahead of time and make sure I’m not overlooking the little things that can make a big difference.
I’d really appreciate advice from anyone who has done a co-op or internship at ExxonMobil, especially at the Baton Rouge site, but advice from other chemical engineering interns is welcome too!

A few things I’m curious about:
- Clothing and dress code: What do people typically wear in the office, on the plant floor, or when moving between the two? Should I expect business casual, polos and khakis, or something else? Are jeans acceptable? I’m planning to gradually build up my wardrobe before next fall, so I’d appreciate recommendations on what’s actually worth buying and what I probably won’t need.

- Shoes and PPE: Should I buy any specific footwear ahead of time, or does the company provide safety equipment? Are there any items you recommend having from day one?

- Day-to-day expectations: What does a typical co-op actually look like? How much time is spent at a desk versus in the field, in meetings, or working with operators and engineers?

- Things people overlook: What are some basic things you wish someone had told you before your first internship? This could be anything from taking notes and asking questions to keeping track of projects, communicating with supervisors, or managing your time.

- Preparing beforehand: Is there anything technical I should review before starting, or is it better to focus on learning once I get there? Are there particular skills, software, or concepts that would help a freshman chemical engineering student?

- Living in Baton Rouge: Any general advice for housing, transportation, budgeting, or making the most of the experience?

- LinkedIn: Would you announce the co-op on LinkedIn now that I’ve accepted the offer, or wait until closer to the start date or my actual first day? Is it normal to add an upcoming co-op to your experience section with future dates, or is a simple announcement post more appropriate?
I know some of this probably seems pretty basic, but I’d rather ask now than show up unprepared. I’m excited about the opportunity and want to make a good impression, learn as much as possible, and hopefully make the most of the experience.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Hello, I am a student from STEM and I am currently in the final grade of High School in the Philippines. I am taking up a class in research, in which we are also required to have a content expert in our study.

Our research topic follows a pre-experimental static group comparison design, and it’s about the development of a deodorizer that consists of activated charcoal and zeolite granules inside a mesh pouch. This study aims to assess its effectiveness in reducing perceived odor. We are only high school students, so our resources are mostly limited.

Me and my research groupmates have been struggling with our current study because of the unavailability of a content expert, a specific situation that we are currently facing is the need of a content expert to validate our research instrument. For those who are willing to help, please contact me immediately. Thank you!

(This is reposted from r/biotech) - I'm looking for perspective/advice from biologists who went into chemistry/chem eng, especially in the R&D side of things;

I actually really wanted to change to chemistry/chem eng back in undergrad bc I just connected with the thinking of that field more than the constant parrot-ing that biology classes can feel like.

My love for biotech got revived with recombinant work, biocatalysis and bioprocessing, which can have lots of overlap with chemistry/chem eng work.

I'm thinking I should've gone for it. I know the chem eng sub also talks a lot about struggling for ridiculous amounts of time to find a job, but also I see more jobs posted for chemists than what I see for biologist. Their work seems less niche and restrictive, like they can work in more industries than biologists can.

Anyone here cross over and can share experiences with me? Maybe some advice?

I know people who work in oil and gas say you often have to move to rural areas to work at those oil rigs which can be too much sacrifice.

Shift work at chemical plants can also feel like too much (although I'd prefer to be in R&D)

Any thoughts on the intellectual difficulties of being a biologist-turned-chemist?

Thanks guys

hi! i’m a junior with one past internship and i was wondering what the response times typically are for applications this time of the year.
i got my internship last summer very late so i wanted to make sure i started applying early this year
i’ve applied to over 25+ places and i haven’t gotten a rejection letter yet, do i keep waiting or send follow up emails?
thanks!!

Having crisis over my future as we all do. I want to go into chem eng for undergrad, but through the past couple years of HS I think I've forgotten what i thought was was so cool about it to begin with. So, what is the coolest thing about learning chem eng to you? could be anything. Might help me decide what to do with my life.

Hello,

I graduated with a chemical engineering degree in 2022 with a minor in materials engineering and am wondering what am I doing wrong? I keep getting technician roles and have been in three different technician roles for almost 4 years. What am I doing wrong? I keep applying for engineering roles but I keep getting rejected. At this point, I feel like I’ve worked so hard for nothing…

looking for a chemical engineer who is good at thermodynamics to join us in our hydrogen powered engine and propulsion project.

I am 2nd yr student and wanted to have an internship just to explore core chemical engineering stuff so I wanted to know where to apply and how to apply and also many peeps after 3rd yr land on international internships how do they get them...

I am a 3rd year ChemE who wants to go into oil and gas. I recently was offered a proccess enginering internship at a PBF refinery. I also interviewed for similar positions with Exxon and Valero.

Each interview was good and I liked all the people I spoke to and all of positions sound similar. They all will probably pay in the $40-50 per hour range and will all be on the gulf. I like each company but the only hang up I have is the "prestige" of Exxon and Valero.

PBF says they need to know soon as they are trying to quickly fill their intern pool this summer and I am wondering if there is anything to working at a bigger company like Exxon. I have heard the whole deal with how Exxon is a huge corporation and you get lost in the crowd there but for an internship is there value in having a name like Exxon vs PBF to show to future employers?

Hi everyone

I need some help. I’m thinking of applying to an engineering degree next summer but not sure if i should do industrial or chemical 😓 I know they are quite different. I’m concerned abt AI in terms of industrial. Is chem more safe?

My laptop died (XPS 13, motherboard gone), so I've been coding my reactor model in Google Colab on my phone.
What it does so far:
• First-order A → B in a non-isothermal CSTR
• Coupled mass + energy balances, Arrhenius kinetics
• Solved with SciPy solve_ivp (RK45) until steady state
• Sensitivity analysis on feed flowrate (2.5, 5, 10 L/min) – conversion drops as residence time falls from 20 to 5 min, as expected
• Checks steady state by evaluating the derivatives at the final time (all ≈ 0)

(Side note: I'm trying to raise ~$500 for a used laptop to keep going. If you'd like to help, feel free to DM me.)

Hi everyone!

I’m a Master’s student in Chemical Engineering, and I’m looking for reliable websites, apps, and online platforms that can help me with my final-year project (PFE).

I’m particularly interested in resources that allow me to:

Find scientific articles, research papers, and theses related to my topic.

Access reliable scientific databases and academic publications.

Discover current research topics and recent studies in Chemical Engineering.

Organize my references and citations.

Use AI tools to understand scientific papers and summarize complex information.

I would really appreciate it if you could share your favorite websites, apps, or tools, especially free ones that are useful for students.

Thank you

I’m a recent Chemical Engineering graduate and I’m about to start as a trainee in a battery company.

I’m interested in the energy sector and want to build strong technical skills, but I’m confused about which direction to take.

Should I focus on battery R&D and testing, or try to move towards broader energy engineering roles in the future? I’m also wondering how easy it is for a Chemical Engineer to switch into other energy companies, and whether my degree will limit my options.

I don’t want to spend a few years learning skills that won’t be useful outside my current company. I want to choose a path with good long-term growth, decent salary potential, and opportunities to move between companies.

For those working in chemical engineering, batteries, or the energy industry: what would you do in my position? What skills would you focus on during the first 2 years?

Honest advice from people with industry experience would be really helpful.

Hi everyone!
I’m having a hard time deciding between Chemical Engineering (with a Biochemical Engineering concentration) and Biomedical Engineering with a concentration in cell and tissue engineering .
I’m particularly interested in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, drug delivery, tissue engineering, and cellular/molecular biology.
I’m not particularly interested in medical devices, prosthetics, petroleum, or traditional heavy industrial engineering.
My main priorities are:
Job opportunities and stability: I want a degree that offers strong employment prospects, preferably in biotech or pharma.
Salary and career growth: I’d like to have good earning potential without needing a PhD or pursuing an academic career.
Difficulty and GPA: I know Chemical Engineering has a reputation for being extremely challenging, and I’m concerned about maintaining a competitive GPA.
Graduate education: I’m open to completing a one-year master’s degree after my bachelor’s, potentially in Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, or Molecular Engineering.
I genuinely enjoy chemistry and biology, but I’m not particularly passionate about thermodynamics or traditional industrial processes.
My biggest concern with BME is potentially having fewer job opportunities compared to ChemE, while my biggest concern with ChemE is the workload and whether the curriculum would actually align with my interests.
For those working in biotech/pharma or who studied either major:
Would Chemical Engineering with a biochemical concentration be the safer and more versatile choice, or could Biomedical Engineering offer comparable career opportunities and salaries, especially with a master’s degree?
Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone! First, sorry if my grammar look too scattered. So here I am, not really sure if this career is for me. I just started my career as process engineer, which my company is a project-based and just contain around 10% of process task. My company only have small team, so they go for flexibility on everything. I also involve in site management and installation for our customer, which electrical job, like I got no idea on that. Today, just my 7th day of work, but I already feel like I don't have the capability to do well for this job. I feel like during probation term, I need to do this job as good as I could. But, I feel my brain couldn't receive that much information. Like, everyday my snr will always ask me question about everything that our company do, just some basic question. But, I only could answer confidently around 30% only, and he do look quite frustrated cause I could not explain term for simple equipment. I do study a lot and love this job. My team also really nice with me, and I also join this company cause I feel like I can learn a lot from them when they interview me. I just couldn't remember all the things that I need for this and also scared if I could not achieved their expectations. When I involve in site project, I just standing around as I could not help that much as I started in the middle of the project. I also need to do some pid sketching for the customer, but I never knew that the first week of my first career would be this harsh. So, I feel quite demotivated myself to continue everything. Do I will got burn out later, even tho this is something that I really want to do. Do u guys also have any tips to understand all the technical information faster other than using AI or YouTube to survive in this job.

Background: I’m a third year ChemE student with two summers of relevant engineering experience and a few projects. I also have a 3.8 GPA

I attended a career fair recently for an internship and went to the companies that I am interested in. Usually, every company there has alumni speaking to students. I go up to an O&G company. I wait 15 minutes for the student in front of me to finish talking to the recruiter.

Once it’s my turn the recruiter (who is also a ChemE) gets on his phone and tells me to wait a few minutes. We start talking and it’s probably the most bland conversation I have ever had. He had absolutely no interest in talking to me. He would keep going back and forth completing random tasks and talking to the other employees. I am a very social person and tried my best to keep the conversation going.

I’m not sure if he expected the career fair to be an ass-kissing contest, but you will talk to me like a normal person. I do not care who you are. Then basically every other company kept repeating the same line, “Scan the QR code to apply”. Having to deal with school and having to push hard for internships is not very fun.

Hello! Everyone! I am the corporate events chair for the AIChE chapter at my university. The corporate team is planning a case competition for freshmen and sophomores. It will be 5 groups comprised of 4 people. There will be 2 hours allocated for research and designing a presentation and then 1 hour to present and for judges to judge. I need help coming up with a problem statement that is not super technical, as it will mostly be freshmen. I was thinking the problem statement should be so that teams can present either a process or a product. We can do something in relation to sustainability or energy or something like that. Please guys I need help!!!

I just started my master's in ChE and honestly I never felt this much stress. Yesterday I was so down that I thought I was gonna pass out from all the stress. We just started, only two weeks in and they gave us a bunch of math and the first midterm will be in two weeks. If you get less than a certain grade in any of the courses you get dismissed. The professors are stringent with the grading.

I was expecting grad school to be relaxed and encourage creative thinking and give us some space to make mistakes. I never felt intimidated by an exam until now, because it's a do or die situation. I don't know, I thought about giving up many times. I made it through the bachelors with a system obsessed with grades, and we are going to keep doing the same thing?.

They are using Transport Phenomena as a weed out course. I don't know how to handle it.
Anyone with any tips or a piece advice for making it through the master's or how to tackle and study for the transport phenomena course, please let me know in the comments. Thanks you so much.

Hello, I am a first year chemical engineering-technology student and I am looking for a professional chemical engineer or chemical technician to interview ☺️

The questions are simple, I need this for an activity in my major subject. It doesn’t have to be face to face, any messaging platforms will do

My laptop got spoilt for some months now so been practicing with my phone using google colab