Career change - Civil / Environmental to Chemical-Biological / Process
Career change - Civil / Environmental to Chemical-Biological / Process
(OP)
I realize this is a technical forum, but I was hoping to get some advice career from some Chemical and Process Engineers.
I'm a Civil Engineer with 7 years experience in municipal consulting (treatment plants, pump stations). I've been working as a Project Engineer but I am interested in getting a more technical, process related position. I am thinking of doing a graduate degree (North America) in Chemical and Biological Engineering. Although I am more interested in doing a MASc, my impression is that a MEng degree would be more useful since it would allow me to take more core courses to improve my knowledge for a career in a different field.
Ideally I would like to get a position working with bioprocess, specifically in bioenergy or waste treatment. I realize the bioenergy field is still pretty small at this point, and such a position may be difficult to get.
Which degree do you think would be more beneficial (MASc or MEng) for my situation?
My main concern is post graduate degree, how would I be perceived by potential employers? Although some of my experience as a Project Engineer carries over to a Process Engineer (P&IDs, PFDs, plant layouts, piping design, equipment selection), I expect that I would need to take more of a Junior position instead of Intermediate since I am starting in a different field.
Would my knowledge and experience post Masters be considered up to par with a Chemical Engineer with little or no experience? Would my lack of a BASc in Chemical Engineering be considered too much of a gap in knowledge?
Thanks for reading, any insight would be appreciated.
I'm a Civil Engineer with 7 years experience in municipal consulting (treatment plants, pump stations). I've been working as a Project Engineer but I am interested in getting a more technical, process related position. I am thinking of doing a graduate degree (North America) in Chemical and Biological Engineering. Although I am more interested in doing a MASc, my impression is that a MEng degree would be more useful since it would allow me to take more core courses to improve my knowledge for a career in a different field.
Ideally I would like to get a position working with bioprocess, specifically in bioenergy or waste treatment. I realize the bioenergy field is still pretty small at this point, and such a position may be difficult to get.
Which degree do you think would be more beneficial (MASc or MEng) for my situation?
My main concern is post graduate degree, how would I be perceived by potential employers? Although some of my experience as a Project Engineer carries over to a Process Engineer (P&IDs, PFDs, plant layouts, piping design, equipment selection), I expect that I would need to take more of a Junior position instead of Intermediate since I am starting in a different field.
Would my knowledge and experience post Masters be considered up to par with a Chemical Engineer with little or no experience? Would my lack of a BASc in Chemical Engineering be considered too much of a gap in knowledge?
Thanks for reading, any insight would be appreciated.





RE: Career change - Civil / Environmental to Chemical-Biological / Process
You'll be missing probably three or four chemistry courses, one to three thermo/phys chem courses, mass transfer and probably heat transfer as well, plus sizing and selection/plant design, flowsheeting/process modelling etc. That's a couple years of study at the Bachelors' level. With study and effort, you might be able to challenge a few of those courses, but without them I'd have a tough time hiring you as a chemie.
RE: Career change - Civil / Environmental to Chemical-Biological / Process
RE: Career change - Civil / Environmental to Chemical-Biological / Process
I'm based in Germany at a company building biogas plants. Most of our project managers are civil engineers, and picked up ample proces know how. That means: Often enough to troubleshoot a biogas plant (though the biologists are often called for here) and the relevant machinery. But over here the filed is still dominated by agricultural plants operated by farmers. So the culture of the field is largely that experience trumps calculations (also because you are dealing with stuff that is very hard to calcualte/simulate).
In the US, everyone in the field I know comes from wastewater and here the culture is (to my limited knowledge) different and a decent degree is called for. I think the demands are still lower than in the chemical industry.
My training was a hodgepodge of physics, chemistry, environmental stuff and process engineering. There's always more to know, but I'm not vastly undertrained.
RE: Career change - Civil / Environmental to Chemical-Biological / Process
RE: Career change - Civil / Environmental to Chemical-Biological / Process
RE: Career change - Civil / Environmental to Chemical-Biological / Process