This branch of engineering is concerned with the design, construction, and management of factories in which the essential processes consist of chemical reactions. Because of the diversity of the materials dealt with, the practice, for more than 50 years, has been to analyze chemical engineering problems in terms of fundamental unit operations or unit processes such as the grinding or pulverizing of solids. It is the task of the chemical engineer to select and specify the design that will best meet the particular requirements of production and the most appropriate equipment for the new applications.
With the advance of technology, the number of unit operations increases, but of continuing importance are distillation, crystallization, dissolution, filtration, and extraction. In each unit operation, engineers are concerned with four fundamentals: (1) the conservation of matter; (2) the conservation of energy; (3) the principles of chemical equilibrium; (4) the principles of chemical reactivity. In addition, chemical engineers must organize the unit operations in their correct sequence, and they must consider the economic cost of the overall process. Because a continuous, or assembly-line, operation is more economical than a batch process, and is frequently amenable to automatic control, chemical engineers were among the first to incorporate automatic controls into their designs.
The Path
Entry-level chemical engineers are likely to do a lot of number crunching and code writing, or run tests and experiments. Some chemical engineers report being slightly disgruntled when they first entered the field because they were not yet working on big projects. Within a year or two, engineers graduate to working on projects with greater responsibility. After about five years, they command salaries of up to $80,000. Many engineers choose to strike out on their own, establishing engineering consulting firms or starting engineering companies, where they pull down six-figure salaries.

Positive and Negatives
The positives are that the job is expandable, so you can start out at an entry level position and work your way up. The pay for even a low-level job is still very good. And if you go far enough you can even open you own engineering consulting firm or company.  If you don’t mind some hard work this type of job can be very fulfilling.  The negatives are the work sometimes tends to be tedious and very stressful.  There is no room for error and things need to be precise.  The number crunching involved in many processes are very long, boring and exhausting, also.

THE STATS
Uppers:
Good pay
Wide variety of career options
Downers:
Some initial grunt work
Demographics:
No. of people in profession: 50,000
% Male: 90
% Female: 10
Personality Matches:
Anal
Analytical
Personality Misses:
Creative
Aesthetic
Hours:
Average Hours Worked Per Week: 40
Salary:
Average Entry-Level Salary: $ 35,000
Average Salary After 5 Years: $70,000
Average Salary After 10 Years: $80,000
Requirements:
B.S. or M.S.
Common Undergrad Majors:
Chemistry, Chemical Engineering
Major Publications:
Scientific American

Outlook
Employment in the chemical manufacturing industry is projected to grow very little through the next decade, but there will always be jobs for chemical engineers. Areas relating to the production of specialty chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and plastics materials will have a healthier attitude towards hiring new graduates. Much of the projected growth in employment will be in nonmanufacturing industries, which are now saturated with chemical engineers.
Chemical engineering is still very much a "man's world." Most promotions and advancements are given to men because upper management is male dominated. In most cases, women in the engineering field, once hired, have a difficult time proving themselves to their male peers, at least initially. Enrollment in engineering is creeping upward for women, and this should improve the prognosis for women in the year 2000.

Meters (1-5 scale):5 Best- 3 Worst
Stress 3
Physical demands 2
Job Security 4
Job Outlook 3
Satisfaction 4
Pay 4
Prestige 3
Hours 3
Dress Code 3
Male-female balance 1