Let’s get PERSONAL
After all, who am I? I don’t want to get that philosophical but have you ever wonder about the people you see on YouTube? Who are they, what do they do for a living? Where do they work, and so on?
Well, lets get personal… I’m going to tell you a little bit of myself… at least, what I have been working on in the last years.
Process Simulation Engineer
This was one of my very first jobs and I loved it. It sounds so cool when you say it… AND IT IS! The ability to play with Process Simulators is great! You get to learn a lot of chemical processes, your plant, the equipment, recommendations, safety issues, human error, costs, pricing, different types of utilities, and so on!
I really enjoyed it as it was a Plant Design for Pentane/Isopentane production. The main client used those as “blowing agents” which were getting trendy due to $ and technical feasibility.
We got most of our feed from a previous separation scheme. It was mostly C5 – C6 and a bit of C4.
The main problem was to separate the required/wanted material vs. the unwanted ones. This sounds funny when you say “I want to have 80% C5 and 20% iC5” But when you are doing the simulation, finding if the mass process will allow it and under which conditions… it gets a ton harder!
Most of the simulations carried out the following:
- Flash drums
- Pressurization and cooling
- Distillation Column
- Flare system
And, yes, I was able to model it in Aspen Plus V7
Polymer/Textile Process Engineer
After working as a Process Simulator Engineer; I went back to basics: I always wanted to be on the plant, fix stuff, move equipment, go from point A to point B… essentially, not be sitting down for about 6-8 hours a day…
I selected a chemical plant which produced its own PET (polyester) from PTA. They had some reactors which was great but the part I was in charge was mostly in the extrusion, spinning and winding of the polyester in order to form the textile yarn (technically, plastic thread). Those were used in several applications:
- Auto interiors
- Safety belts
- Backpack straps
- Clothing
- Recycling (for low quality products)
One of the few job descriptions which get this requirement is a Process Engineer. As the name implies, you are an engineer in the process itself. It is a little bit hard to explain, but overall, a process engineer might be in charge of one or more of the following tasks:
- Quality control for client specification
- Setting the process conditions (temperature, pressure, velocity, time, etc..)
- Research and development of new products
- Verify Client Complaints (i.e. check out why it won’t elongate at the required conditions)
- Production Control (amounts as well!)
- Physical and Chemical Properties analysis
- Standardization of processes
- Setting up the condition to analyze
- Variable Input/Output relationship
- Allocate product
- Schedule maintenance of machinery & equipment
- Testing new process conditions
- Much more!
In theory, I “should have” done some of those as well 😛
One of the best things is the responsibility of the PE, specially because the machines and the process were running 24/7 all year round, meaning that weekends are still “work days” in the beach!
I really loved this but I saw no real future in the short-mid time, that is, the expected promotion was between 7-10 years (time I didn’t want to wait for)
Online Tutor
After quitting my job as a Process Engineer, I started working online. The obsession of getting a flexible and good paying job was very strong!
I really saw myself traveling and earning some $$$ far away!
And so, the online tutoring began!
It all started with a Facebook Post which a friend of mine tagged me on. They were looking for tutors, technically “subject matter experts” of chemistry, math, engineering, etc…
I applied as I reaaaaaally needed the money (my account was running low in cash)
Then, after 2 months, I got the offer!
It was essentially a Q&A (Question and Answer) job at Chegg.com.
The student will post a question to the related field, and the tutor will have 2 hours to answer it. It was awesome as you did NOT required to have face-to-face contact.
Then, I had lots of extra time so I also got into CourseHero.com, & Tutor.com which I do not recommend that much as they are not quite $$ profitable $$ as Chegg.com
Time passed by and cash was flowing in XD…
But as stated, time was passing by and I didn’t see myself in a distant future working in the platform, specially because I was still kind of an “employee”, that is, “do X, then get paid Z”…
Working by my own
The tutoring job was doing great and my bank account was happy (VERY). This meant only one thing for me: COMFORT ZONE all the way!
I was required to do NOTHING after tutoring, as I was getting paid very well. The time was mine as I could select which days and schedules to work and I could travel all year round!
Everything was GREAT! but….
(there’s always a BUT)
I was getting sad, I hated that:
- This was not a “proper” job, no benefits.
- This was about 95% of my income flow
- I was getting not that happy
Quality Requirements increased drastically, I was now doing about 60% of what I was making before!
This was a wake up call for me…
I decided to QUIT and keep doing what I always dreamed of…
My Online Courses!
I started my YouTube Channel and quickly uploaded some videos; then created even more courses to youtube… I was just waiting how $ flowed into my YouTube account due to the high amount of VIEWS!
BUT NO! It was not that easy, actually it was pretty shitty! For 1K views I got 1-2 USD, and at the moment I was getting between 5-8 USD per month! Not the best business model out there hehe…
So I decided to open my own website, with a paid membership which directly charged the students for the course they were enrolling.
I got my very FIRST student that month! I was so happy! 20 USD in the first purchase! That was about 3-4 months in YouTube!
And…. that’s how I started with my online business. I keep doing courses for you guys! Always looking to help and get interesting content, avoiding “boring” lectures (I know this is not always the case, but I do what I can!)
This is my little Resume! I hope you enjoyed!
Did you want to share something with me? Please do so on the comment section below!
PS: You can still access my VERY FIRST course here , I hope you do not make fun of me that much! I was not 100% confident when recording and giving a lecture to a SCREEN!