ChemE PhD w/ a Supply Chain Engineer job offer

[ChemEPhDGirl]

Hi, I'm graduating with a PhD in ChemE. I'm interested in a position in industry that is not purely technical and that will have some exposure to the business/leadership side.

I have an offer at a F500 company to be a supply chain engineer. The job will entail working with Asian suppliers and the internal technical departments at the company, with some travel to Asia (which is a good or bad, depending on your perspective). I don't know so much about supply chain engineering and I'm curious if this is a good long-term path that's prestigious and mobile. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[berkeman]

Welcome to the PF, and congratulations on your PhD in ChemE. That is very impressive.

I'm guessing that the Supply Chain issues will be in chemical supply? Or at a higher level of integration? (drugs, final products, etc.?)

As for travel, do you work out regularly? Running on business trips in China can be pretty brutal, according to other runners that I know that have to travel to China regularly for our business. The air pollution is pretty bad in China and some other places in Asia. I haven't had any problems doing my running workouts on my business trips to Japan, by contrast.

It does sound like you would like to transition into management fairly soon in your career path, and my impressions so far are that good, competent people who are in supply chain work have good opportunities to transition into management fairly soon in their careers. There are new challenges with the Trump administration's tarriffs which we are struggling with at the company that I work for, so you may want to see if there are any continuing education opportunities for you to take advantage of about how best to deal with tarriff issues as you get into supply chain management. We have had to restructure our shipping infrastruture out of China and Hong Kong, for example, as a result of the tarriff issues.

Have fun, and enjoy the ride!

 

[ChemAir]

There are lots of good options in supply chain management. If that's the kind of work you like, I'd say go for it.

The technical side may be anything from DOT container specs (metallurgy, welding, etc), or venting systems (relief valvesizing/emergency venting design), to logistics and equipment usage. You could be involved in loading/unloading systems for shipping containers, and you could be involved in resolution of quality/stability issues associated with shipping. Later on, you may get involved in larger shipping container usage, leasing, lifetime determination, etc... My personal feeling is that it is very difficult to be a practical product handling/logistics engineer without personal experience with the products/materials you are trying to handle. I would hope there would be some product-specific training that would help you get some of this type of experience. Invariably, you (or your colleagues) will have to deal with cleanup of a mess of some type. You will probably be called on for technical advice in how to deal with it. Dealing with problems in a somewhat uncontrolled situation (not in a chemical plant, possibly in some rural town, or a shipping hub) will happen. If your potential employer has no hazardous chemicals/materials in their quiver, this could be less interesting.

The best supply chain engineers I have known were usually plant engineers prior to moving to logistics. If you do not start in a plant, I would suggest you listen to these people as you work. They normally have a very good understanding of practical problems with facilities and equipment and their advice can be invaluable. They may not have your educational background, but they have spent a good deal of time with the materials in question, and their observations and opinions should not go unheeded, just because they describe situations that were not covered in school.

I'd say it is a very stable area to be in. I'd want to gain as much transferable knowledge as possible--rules, regulations, standards and practices, not just your company's rules. There will be legal aspects as well. These things are not something you will have been taught in school, grad school, or anywhere else. This is not an area I enjoy working in, but one I had to become very familiar with in my earlier life.