Mr. Toh Beng Leong
Are there any training or workshops available to assist the transition from the fresh graduate to work-life?
There are plenty of workshops available, depending on your long-term career goals. For the corporate environment or big companies, employers often prefer specialists over generalists, as they heavily rely on the employees to perform their own roles efficiently and effectively. Thus, it is more practical to be equipped with related specialized skills through physically or virtually conducted workshops and training. Meanwhile, for smaller companies, the preference is for generalist rather than specialist, as they rely on employees with different skills and talents, to perform various tasks together. All in all, it depends on the industry and company in which you engage. Nowadays, the trend is moving towards programming, which prompted many engineers to pick up programming or computation courses, such as C++ and Python.
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Enjoy reading the inspiring sharing from engineering professionals interviewed.
Ms. Chew Sho Yin
Are there any training or workshops available to assist the transition from the fresh graduate to work-life?
There are plenty of workshops available, depending on your long-term career goals. For the corporate environment or big companies, employers often prefer specialists over generalists, as they heavily rely on the employees to perform their own roles efficiently and effectively. Thus, it is more practical to be equipped with related specialized skills through physically or virtually conducted workshops and training. Meanwhile, for smaller companies, the preference is for generalist rather than specialist, as they rely on employees with different skills and talents, to perform various tasks together. All in all, it depends on the industry and company in which you engage. Nowadays, the trend is moving towards programming, which prompted many engineers to pick up programming or computation courses, such as C++ and Python.
Mr. Toh Beng Leong
Are there any training or workshops available to assist the transition from the fresh graduate to work-life?
There are plenty of workshops available, depending on your long-term career goals. For the corporate environment or big companies, employers often prefer specialists over generalists, as they heavily rely on the employees to perform their own roles efficiently and effectively. Thus, it is more practical to be equipped with related specialized skills through physically or virtually conducted workshops and training. Meanwhile, for smaller companies, the preference is for generalist rather than specialist, as they rely on employees with different skills and talents, to perform various tasks together. All in all, it depends on the industry and company in which you engage. Nowadays, the trend is moving towards programming, which prompted many engineers to pick up programming or computation courses, such as C++ and Python.
Is there any potential job or position available for the chemical engineer in your company?
Do not be surprised, food and beverage companies hire lots of chemical engineers, normally in the production team, to manage the productions, group of operators, improvement projects, and executing improvement activities. This is because chemical engineers often can understand processes easily, which is part and parcel of a production engineer - understanding the process flow, troubleshooting problems, managing production, and ensuring accurate output.
Besides, chemical engineers can also pick up the quality assurance role, although most of the chemical engineering knowledge is not so relevant with this role but the knowledge in process and compliance with ISO standards is crucial to perform well in this role.
Next is the R&D role, but most companies prioritize hiring experienced engineers for this. One with the required talents and skills may have the chance to be considered as well.
Last but not least, the engineering role, which is a mix of chemical, mechanical and electrical engineering knowledge, is up for the ones who are willing to take up the challenge.
In your opinion, would the engineers be replaced by AI in the manufacturing and processing industry?
In my opinion, engineers are irreplaceable in the next 10 to 20 years. The trend of automation or Industry Revolution 4.0, which has established a foothold in more advanced countries will surely emerge soon in Malaysia. Big companies are putting lots of efforts and taking big steps to make it happen. The main impact will be on the operators, instead of the engineers, as engineers are still significant in ensuring the proper functioning of automation machines and implementing changes if issues occur. Hence, engineers do not need to worry about getting replaced in the next 10 to 20 years.
Is further study important to undergraduate engineering students for their future careers?
Industries and companies in Malaysia often prioritize working experiences, rather than a postgraduate degree. It is advisable to pursue further education if there is a preference to specialize in certain subjects, for instance, safety or environment. One without these preferences should start working after completing the bachelor’s degree. As for one who prefers to focus on research or become a lecturer, further study is the only way to go further in this career path. Thus, it depends on the aspiration of the fresh graduate to consider whether to pursue postgraduate degree or not.
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Ms. Chew Sho Yin
General job scope as a Process Engineer
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Involve in the design phase based on the outcome of market survey
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Selection of material of construction (MOC), equipment and instruments must both serve its functionality and economical. Therefore, a precise design and specification selection is important
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Generate PFD for the manufacturing plant
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Perform precise mass balances and energy balances
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Pick the best fitting equipment sizes
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Generate a P&ID diagram with the instruments selected
How much do you think university life and education are related to the actual job scope of an engineer?
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Studies in university provided a strong background in engineering to apply in the workforce, which focuses more on engineering processes and plant designing.
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Engineering knowledge in universities provides a better understanding of the situation, resulting in better performances as a process engineer in the workforce.
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Because of the wide range of career paths as a chemical engineer, the knowledge learned during universities might not be applicable during the workforce, the lucky ones who get a job as process engineers will get to apply more of the university knowledge, where the ones who involved in production team will have to pick up much new knowledge, which differ from what thought during studies.
Do you think your job was difficult to handle when you were a fresh graduate?
The job is not difficult as long as you are willing to learn and be not choosy about the job. It is important to pick up as many experiences and knowledge as possible, especially as a fresh graduate. Nothing is difficult when you have the right attitude to learn, and the right attitude will bring you good adaptation to any situation.
Challenges faced in the manufacturing and processing industries
The common challenge is the lack of guidance from superiors. Superiors often have high expectations for fresh graduate engineers from reputable universities to accomplish the task with a solely rough briefing. Therefore, as a graduate, do not be shy and seek the answer by referring to the superiors. One should not expect to be spoon-fed while in the workforce when everyone is having their task at hand. Spend more time learning to excel at work.
The second challenge is communication issues. While working in big companies, one will often have to interact with foreign workers with different proficient languages, always be patient and interact with these workers. One will notice that the workers will put more effort into accomplishing the tasks given. When encountering rebellious workers, never set an authority above them and force them to work, be friendly, and never give up on communicating with these workers. Trust me, the workers will listen and adhere to your request once they notice your kindness.
Challenges faced in the manufacturing and processing industries
It is important to not just focus on academic performance, one should involve in different activities to practice soft skills and teamwork spirits, which will come into play during the workforce. In addition, try to understand the theory behind the calculations, the concepts will be remembered and be applied later in the workforce. Sole memorization does help in examinations, but you will not be able to apply in the workforce or when related scenarios occur as understanding of concept and theory is always the key to distinguishing good engineers and average engineers.
Mr. Lam How Enn
Synergy among engineers of different disciplines
Process engineers are the chief designers (decide the capacity of the plant, size of the plant, size of
the tank, etc.)
• Then pass it on to mechanical engineers (stress analysis, prove the integrity of the vessel,
decide thickness, do the layout of the plant for client visualization, etc)
• Electrical engineers (decide the spec (specification) for instruments etc)
Salary range of fresh graduates
Depends on the type of company end-users (top of the hierarchy): high pay (around 4000)
• Contractor firm: 3000 and above
• Smaller firms: might go less than 3000
• 3000 - 4000 is reasonable
Challenges faced when working on commissioning
• Not in an air-conditioned room or typical 8 - 5 working time
• Work on an ad hoc basis (follow the client's request)
• The harsh environment and long hours (big sun and heavy rain
What motivates him to continue to a career path in commissioning
• Satisfaction after solving the problem
• Risk-taker - like to work in a challenging environment
Personal Advice for the undergraduates and the youngsters
• As a university student, it is important to be well-balanced between study life and co-
curricular life for one to practice social skills and extra knowledge.
• The need to pursue further education (Master’s degree or Ph.D.) depends on the company
(if they value it)
• Reality: master's certificate was not useful to request a higher pay
• for your self-interest
Tip 1: You will need the knowledge you learned in university, such as fluid mechanics, mass and
energy balance
Tip 2: Pick up some skills related to engineering (data science, process simulation). Always invest in
yourself to sharpen your skill and expand your knowledge, which is irreplaceable by technology
Tip 3: Try not to do things in routine and be open to new challenges
Tip 4: Be humble
Mr. Bong Jenn Hau
Salary range of fresh graduates
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Fresh graduates in Malaysia will make around RM2.5k-RM3.5k per month
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Oil and gas companies offer around RM4.5k per month
A potential area for a chemical engineer to explore
As a chemical engineer, you can expect to be in the following departments:
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Process
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Projects
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Operations
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Safety
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Quality
Possibility for the engineers to be replaced in the future
For the next 20-30 years, AI will not replace humans, but no doubt AI can compute and calculate solutions or algorithms faster than us
Personal Advice for the undergraduates and the youngsters
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As a university student, it is important to be well-balanced between study life and co-curricular life, for better equipment with social skills and knowledge. Work hard, play harder.
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Pursuing further education (Master’s degree or Ph.D.) would be helpful for one who is interested in being a lecturer or researcher. Experience is much prioritized for engineers working in the industry.
Tip 1: Only 5 to 10% of what we learned in university applies to the job. Apart from that, we learned much more from experience in the industry, your managers, and mentors
Tip 2: Not that difficult working with other people and working on tasks given by superiors, always try adapting to the industrial practices
Tip 3: There is one thing AI cannot replace humans in – decision-making
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Mr. Yong En Keat
Relevance of knowledge learnt in university to the working industry
The fundamental knowledge learned in university is important such as the separations, thermodynamics, heat transfer and mass transfer, etc. Coding and simulation learned also help a lot in daily job
Challenges might faced by the fresh graduates when they step into working industry
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There will be a steep learning curve at work but once we know how to adapt and perform ourselves, things will go our way and those challenges will be overcome.
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Obstacles and challenges are always there for engineers as we continue to look for alternative to be more efficient in delivering the solutions
Availability of training and workshops to elevate yourself
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I believe every company has their own training and onboarding plan to ensure their engineers are onboard properly.
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There will be comprehensive training including sending the engineer to the site to look at the unit.
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Mentor will be assigned to help you onboard
Possibility for the engineers to be replaced in the future
In my opinion, AI might replace humans in some tasks but human possess the ability to think critically
Personal Advice for the undergraduates and the youngsters
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As a university student, it is important to be well-balanced between study life and co-curricular life for one to practice social skills, networking and gain extra knowledge.
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Always be humble to learn, never stop learning and don’t be afraid to ask questions
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Look for jobs that you really passionate about
Mr. Wong Chung Jie
Personal Experience when stepping into a career
Previously, in Kerry Ingredients, there were only certain times where engineering knowledge was put into practice. Now, in Nestle, the role is more on managing the employees and arranging the workforce, while we apply the knowledge in studies more during troubleshooting:
Tip 1: Always be familiar with mass balance, which is fundamental to most processes
Tip 2: Engage and learn as much as possible during a practical internship, especially as a fresh graduate, for better contribution during discussions with seniors
Tip 3: Expected salary is between RM300 and RM4000, depending on the company, while certain companies might offer up to RM5000
Potential jobs in Nestle for Chemical Engineering graduates
Line managers, Quality Executive, Engineers [various titles] (Mechanical, Electrical ...... etc)
Changes in the industry during the pandemic
Working vacancies are still available, especially in the Food and beverage industry, which is expanding exponentially. Meanwhile, one might need to spend more effort and time on a desired job opportunity in the Oil and gas industry
Changes and challenges for the industry in the era of automation
Implementing automation might cause a spike in unemployment of engineering graduates, especially as the operators of the manually operating system when more automation-related jobs are introduced. Engineers are still significant in overseeing the process and trouble-shoot the problems brought by automation processes.
Currently, Malaysia is still at a disadvantage in engineering technologies, compared to more advanced countries like Japan. Therefore, manual labour and operations will still be significant for a couple of years before automation systems will be fully employed.
Personal advice for the undergraduates and the youngsters
Despite the importance of academic studies, involvement in clubs, societies, and internship experiences is equally crucial during employment: Leadership skills will be the part and parcels to take on higher titles.
Further studies are encouraged if one is interested in a particular topic, as certain companies will look for researchers to assist its specialties: While for the preference to work after graduation, computation skills, such as Microsoft Excel, Python, and Data Analytics, will be a bonus during a career.
Lastly, one should have greater connections with people in the industry by engaging more in societies for better job placement. One should not be discouraged when the academic knowledge does not apply to earlier stages of work, as it can be significant at certain stages later in the actual work field.
Ms. Ng Ci Xuan
From your previous and current work experiences, what are the job scopes, roles, and responsibilities as an Engineer?
Costing engineer
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Project cost estimation
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Ask for a quotation from the vendor
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Identify technical specifications that meet the requirement
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Check proposal
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Calculate the costing, pricing of the project
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Bid for the project.
Planning engineer
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More towards the technical side, involve process design, read technical specifications from clients, identify suitable water treatment, may require some technical documentation, such as the requirement list, P&ID (with AUTOCAD)
Process engineer
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Involved in the pharmaceutical industry, process, and utility engineering design for a pharmaceutical plant. After we get a project, submit a flow diagram, prepare a general arrangement for equipment for the layout, prepare user requirement specification, which is the documentation for the validation in the pharmaceutical industry
How much does the job scope of an actual Engineer relate to university life and education?
The past job relates more to the fluid mechanic, by calculating pump head, friction factor, and the pressure drop. (water industry)
The current job covers a variety of knowledge, revising on heat transfer, heat calculation, thermodynamics if distillation is involved, more revisions depending on the task.
Is there any training or workshop conducted to assist the transition of fresh graduates to the actual work life?
It depends on the job, my job is more towards process engineering design, requires communication and soft skills, and is more focused on Autocad.
If you want to be involved in these fields, learn Autocad from YouTube. Excel will be the main software for calculation. Always use your spare time in mastering Excel.
The importance of further studies after a bachelor's degree
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Depending on your choice,
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Master's, and Ph.D. if involved in an academic career
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Stp at the bachelor's degree and collect working experiences for the one preferring to engage in work field after studies
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For research-based on manufacturing plant
Pieces of advice for engineering undergraduates
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Master some soft skills during undergraduate life
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Required in presentation
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Never stop learning after graduating.
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Engineers at work face distinct problems in everyday work.
Mr. Samuel Yeoh
Personal Experience when stepping into a career
Previously, in Kerry Ingredients, there were only certain times where engineering knowledge was put into practice. Now, in Nestle, the role is more on managing the employees and arranging the workforce, while we apply the knowledge in studies more during troubleshooting:
Tip 1: Always be familiar with mass balance, which is fundamental to most processes
Tip 2: Engage and learn as much as possible during a practical internship, especially as a fresh graduate, for better contribution during discussions with seniors
Tip 3: Expected salary is between RM300 and RM4000, depending on the company, while certain companies might offer up to RM5000
Potential jobs in Nestle for Chemical Engineering graduates
ExxonMobil provides many pieces of training for fresh graduates to adapt to the company. Although the pressure of working is still high despite the training given, as the company is filled with people with extraordinary capabilities, the competitiveness will prompt one to work harder and become a better self.
For a country to grow, we need a strong industry;
For an investor to be attracted, we need solid graduates;
For sustainable national growth, we need well-developed industries.
The graduate engineer must know about the optimization of the industry for the industry to be at its peak.
Tip: You can expect a starting salary of RM3000 - RM4000 on average as a fresh graduate.
Possibility for the engineers to be replaced in the future
Despite the rapid growth of Artificial Intelligence in the industry, the role of engineering in monitoring these systems is still irreplaceable.
Moreover, the demand for resources will escalate following the world population growth, more industries will have to be developed for catering to the increasing demands, this is where engineers will be needed, and thus the role of an engineer will remain significant in the industries.
Personal Advice for the undergraduates and the youngsters
As a university student, it is important to be well-balanced between study life and co-curricular life for one to be well equipped with social skills and knowledge.
The need for pursuing further education (Master’s degree or Ph.D.) depends on one's perspective. One might find that a bachelor’s degree is insufficient for a better career, and one might find that working experiences are more crucial in developing career skills.
Tip: The knowledge learned during a bachelor’s degree will serve as the crucial fundamentals during a career. It would be significant to have strong fundamentals before stepping into a career.
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