Priyanka, Valsad asked Suniti Bidikar AddedSaturday, March 28, 2015 at 12:38 AM I have a degree in chemical engineering, but I don't know which direction to go to Hello, I have pursued my degree in Chemical Engineering, and worked in a small factory as a Process Engineer. I had joined as a trainee but had to do all alone without proper guidance. Still have leadership quality so I enjoyed the work and earned well. But the problem started with hazardous chemicals and lack of procedure explain as well as safety measures. Henceforth, I have left the job due to lack of any guidance after 5.5 months. Now, am trying in well developed companies but in which field shall I opt for? As in have got scared and don't exactly know in which direction shall I go, in Pharma or Chemical in R&D or Design or Process? Related to Chemical, Internships & Jobs Reset Sort By Default Suniti Bidikar , Answered Saturday, March 28, 2015 at 12:38 AM A fresh engineer needs to work under some senior engineer for considerable time as mentoring is a must in this profession. One needs to be lucky to get a good one is the other side of story. Anyways there is nothing to be scared of as many hazardous chemicals are also being managed in very efficient ways. This happens when systems are in place , I mean the plant is properly designed and engineered to manage hazardous chemicals. There is plenty of literature, design guidelines , thumb rules for this. Sometimes physical properties pose hazards and sometimes chemical properties. Also hazards are of different types like fire, exposure, respiratory, dermal, ingestion etc. MSDS ie material safety data sheet is available for each chemical and an engineer needs to study that before doing anything with the particular chemical. See one MSDS as a sample for any chemical to get the feel, you will get it on internet. Secondly reg looking for a job or field you may read my earlier answers on this site as I had explained different avenues where a chemical engineer can find placements. Design job appears to be safe, sitting in office etc. but there is tremendous responsibility on the design engineer. Some of my junior colleagues use to spend sleepless nights over as simple an issue like pump hydraulics because unlike other industry, process industry has dynamic situations every moment, sometimes you pump melts, sometimes non newtonian fluids and all have different challenges. The key is one has to be thorough with the basics and learn its application on job . But if one is confused and not clear about basic principles then correct application is a remote possibility and this creates all sorts of ideas about the profession. R&D or more precisely scale up is also a good field , one has to get a feel of industry before one starts a design job. Hope I have answered your question. Please feel free to ask any other issues.