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  • Any 'Process engineers' (not Chemical Engineers) on here?
  • thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    What do you actually do? I’m an out of work process engineer, with a degree in Chemical Engineering from a Process Engineering department, and professionally the two terms are pretty much interchangeable.

    With the oil price hovering around the same as 2 pints of Craft Ale and a packet of crisps in that there London Village, Chemical Engineering jobs are thin on the ground. And finding them is a pain in the ass as monster/indeed/reed etc keep sending jobs for “Process engineers”. Usually with pretty low qualification requirements (NVQ in mech eng) and really good money (£50k+).

    So what is it, other than being a black belt in 6-sigma (which seems to be a cross between A-level maths and project management).

    Nobeerinthefridge
    Free Member

    Our place (GSK) in Worthing are desperate for people, been giving loads of secondments to folks from our site as they reckon they can’t get right people, is that too far from you?.

    tomd
    Free Member

    I was a process engineer and chartered chemical engineer, now doing something different but related. I don’t think any of the decent engineering jobs make it onto the general job sites – there are jobs out there but networking is the key. Decent jobs seem to pop up quite regularly with the specialist recruitment companies for process / chemical engineers as well.

    It is a very wide field, you need to decide what sector you’re targeting (and also whether you want an operations or design role). Water industry and Pharma are doing comparatively well at the moment but you’ll not get a look in with a CV covered in O&G stuff if you haven’t taken the time to emphasise transferable skills. Again, personal relationships and networking also key.

    There is a bit of confusion now because the term “process engineer” is also being used to describe people who design / optimise mechanical production processes. In Germany the term “process engineer” is usually related to some non-chemical production process. I think that’s what your referring to. In the UK it was traditionally related to chemical engineering processes.

    OrmanCheep
    Free Member

    I’m a chemical engineering process engineer. I got sent for ‘Process Engineering’ jobs before that were so irrelevant to what I consider to be the role of a Process Engineer (designing colostomy bags was one I recall).
    I just think some people use the term incorrectly.

    Funnily enough, I’ve been contracting at the same place in the NW for about 4 years now, but can’t see past the end of this week for bookable hours. Just waiting to get the push. There is nothing out there at the moment, and I know a load of guys out of work. My next move will probably be to GSK Worthing. Two mates started there recently, and it’s the only place I’ve heard of recruiting at the moment.

    Andy
    Full Member

    It must vary by Sector, but on one of the courses as part of my redundancy outplacement training the view was that 70% of roles are filled by networking now, not through direct job adverts 😯

    Good luck finding a job TINAS

    gonefishin
    Free Member

    I work in oil and gas. A big part of my job is stopping people doing stupid things and killing themselves or others.

    It is, sadly, a lot more difficult than you might think!

    Ewan
    Free Member

    For my sins I’m a management consultant and spend the majority of my time managing process types (I’d not call them engineers, as I’m an ex Mech Engineer and a have a lot of engineering friends that would twitch violently if I did!) within the comms industry. Note this is process in the purest sense of the word – the tasks that a business needs performed in order for its business to operate and generate profit – in other words business process engineering.

    Generally the job needs a lot of common sense and the ability to communicate with non-technical people from the ‘business’ (i.e. the commercial side of things) to document what they do and / or what they want to be able to do in the future. This would typically consist of running workshops, documenting outputs in business process management software (e.g. ARIS) and getting sign off on the process from the business people and the techies.
    The job tends to suit those who have a logical brain, good attention to detail and have the ability to come up with all the ‘what if’ scenarios. Being able to be personable and communicate well can’t be underestimated either. You’d also want to be familiar with the typical IT project lifecycle (as most of these jobs do involve IT).

    Sometimes you’ll come across organisations who have a bunch of process people who act as ‘custodians of the business processes’ – these people will typically document the ‘as-is’ process estate for the business (a never ending task) rather than being assigned to work on a new project (e.g. the implementation of a new billing system). This is generally where the lean six sigma and its ilk comes in – collecting as much data as you can and then performing statistical analysis on it to identify hypothesises for improvement, either to quality or cycle time in general. Black belt is rarely essential but green belt is handy, if nothing else it’ll refresh your GCSE stats knowledge – if you’ve an engineering degree you’ll find the maths a doddle.

    Personally I quite enjoy it as a job, as I like spotting the potential c**k ups in a process before it comes to pass…

    ghostlymachine
    Free Member

    You’re in the wrong country. Graduate/Professional Engineering over here (Swe) seems to have about 0.01% unemployment at the moment.

    Got AstraZeneca, AkzoNobel and SCA all sending unsolicited offers for interviews and work to all and sundry. (Three places i can recall that are looking for chemical/process engineers.)

    Everywhere else is short as well. I know our lot (despite adding 3000 staff in the last couple of years) still have 3 or 4 hundred engineering roles unfilled. (No where to sit the poor buggers when they do get here though!)

    Kamakazie
    Full Member

    I think this thread is confusing Process Engineers (actual Engineering e.g. Water sector where there seems to be some demand atm) with Business Process Re-Engineering (Lean / Management Consultancy).

    OP: The Lean Six Sigma stuff suggest the ones you are seeing adverts for are the second type not the first.

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    Seems to be an average amount of work going for non O&G stuff. Trouble is I work in THSE / design HSE / whatever your company wants to call it which tends to be a fairly niche discipline and almost entirely involved in new capital projects, of which there are zilch around! Looking at normal Process/Chemical engineer jobs as well as the safety based ones as frankly a step backwards is better than nothing.

    Feedback so far for non-O&G jobs was “we might have been interested in the past but at the moment you’re one of 200 O&G engineers that applied, so we’re only interviewing the 10 applicants with a pharma/water/etc background”.

    There is a bit of confusion now because the term “process engineer” is also being used to describe people who design / optimise mechanical production processes. In Germany the term “process engineer” is usually related to some non-chemical production process. I think that’s what your referring to. In the UK it was traditionally related to chemical engineering processes.

    And this

    For my sins I’m a management consultant and spend the majority of my time managing process types (I’d not call them engineers, as I’m an ex Mech Engineer and a have a lot of engineering friends that would twitch violently if I did!) within the comms industry. Note this is process in the purest sense of the word – the tasks that a business needs performed in order for its business to operate and generate profit – in other words business process engineering.

    This is it. I was trying to figure out if it was some niche of process engineering that I’d not come across. doesn’t sound particularly like I’m qualified, although worth bearing in mind next time the Saudi’s decide to fiddle the markets.

    So now there’s three jobs out there for “Process engineers”, even before recruitment agents start sending me adverts for “gas engineers” meaning the plumber who installs your boiler!

    rockhopperbike
    Full Member

    Depending on what you want to do in London village, the EFW industry is quite busy over the West side- heathrow etc. Agrivert,Suez, and some smaller outfits building new sites at the mo.

    sobriety
    Free Member

    Did you do the Process Safety and Loss Prevention course tinas?

    I seem to somehow of got into data integrity/data automation from Chem&Proc Engineering then PSLP.

    If it’s possible, it’s even duller than straight chemeng, but we do seem to be weathering the current storm pretty well, we’re not looking for chemical engineers at the moment though, we’re after monkeys as opposed to organ grinders 😉

    ads678
    Full Member

    I’m a Civil Engineer and the Process Engineers that I know of are on the design teams for Water Treatment Works (waste and clean), working for Civil Engineering consultants and/or water authorities.

    dpfr
    Full Member

    Nuclear, particularly Sellafield, always struggle to find proper engineers and are very interested in refugees from oil & gas because they understand high hazard sites and can be quite quickly converted to nuclear.

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