 Michelle Imhoff
Process Engineer
Shell Chemical Company
Deer Park, TX
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 B.S. - Chemical
Engineering, Montana State University |
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Process engineer
providing technical support to operations. |
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"You have to know
yourself well enough to be able to determine what's best for
you, and you have to know enough about the companies to
determine where you'll fit in." |
"Well, every day your job is different. That's, that's one of the bonuses,
I guess, of this job. Overall a technical support to operations is
responsible for unit performance monitoring. So you are responsible to
make, make the product and make sure that it's low cost."
"You have to know what you want out of life. You have to know what's
important. Do you want a lot of personal time, do you want to work in the
field? You have to know yourself well enough to be able to determine
what's best for you and you have to know enough about the companies to
determine where you'll fit in."
Q: What do you do on a
day-to-day basis?
Imhoff:
Every day your job is
different-that's one of the bonuses of this job. Typically, a technical
support to operations is responsible for unit performance monitoring.
Q: What advice would you
offer to someone interested in chemical engineering?
Imhoff:
You need to ask yourself some
questions: Do you want to work with a lot of people or would you rather be
in a research lab kind of by yourself? You have to know yourself well
enough to be able to determine what's best for you, and you have to know
enough about the companies to determine where you'll fit in.
Q: Did your undergraduate
education prepare you for your job?
Imhoff:
I think that as a student you get a good base, and you get a good theory
level. In the real world, you get the experience. Theory is a lot
different from reality-it's very difficult to predict what is really going
on. In school, they give you an equation and all the constants that you
need. In real life, you have to figure out what they are. And with every
unit that you work at, it's going to be different.
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