Process Control as a ChemE

[ablarrimore]

Hi, could anyone discuss how they got their start in the process control engineering field as a chemical engineering major? I am currently a chemical engineering student working as a co-op process engineer in the pulp & paper industry, but I am interested in process control. Any advice on how to pursue this career path would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jari001]

Get an internship with a controls company, work on projects that have controls work at internships, take some extra online courses about PLCs if you can and put that on your resume. I sort of flirted with this career path when I graduated 3 years ago and I was in touch with a controls company near my university because they hired new graduating ChemEs as controls engineers so they could have (cheap-ish)staff that could understand the processes and make true engineering judgments about how they designed control systems. Just know that there is A LOT of coding work, and it will likely be very different than what you learn in your process controls class.

 

[Latexman]

Look at working for large chemical or engineering companies and tell them you want to be a process control systems engineer.

Good luck,
Latexman

To a ChE, the glass is always full - 1/2 air and 1/2 water.

 

[rotw]

I suggest to do some self-study. Learn control theory (for example you need to be acquainted with control loops, Proportional Integral Derivative PID controller, concept of gain, feedback loop, feed forward signal, crippled control, etc) and get also a good grasp on standard communication protocols (like Serial, Modbus, Ethernet, etc). Don't be self content of the engineering basics you have been taught at school with respect to these areas.
I agree with jari001. Expect a lot of work on coding and IT related stuffs. In this respect, be aware it can be a big stretch from what you have learned as chemical engineer.