Message to Engineering Graduates

To the Class of 2025: Don't let the desire for comfort cost you your foundation.

Something I really enjoy is helping chemical engineering students navigate the job market. I’m a top 1% contributor on the Chemical Engineering subreddit and most of my activity is helping engineering students navigate the current job market. I also interview interns for process safety roles.

My biggest observation? The engineering market is scary right now (AI, outsourcing, and a down cycle in chemicals), but the priorities of this generation are also shifting.

I come from a generation that would have slept on the floor in Alaska for an extra $5k a year. We chased the dollar above all else. Today, I hear more candidates asking about working from home or bringing their dog to the office than I do about technical challenges, salaries or benefits.

I don't say this to judge, I respect the desire for balance. But here is my advice to every engineering graduate: Do not take an office-bound job as your first role, and be willing to relocate anywhere.

Make sure your first job is one where you can touch process equipment every single day. You need to be working side-by-side with field operators on real-life engineering problems, not just simulations.

If you build that "muddy boots" foundation now, you can branch off into nearly anything later, including management, consulting, or yes, even remote work.

But you cannot reverse-engineer that experience ten years from now.

Get out in the field first. The comfort can wait; the learning cannot.