I work as an electrical engineer in research for an aerospace company. There are days where I use a lot of what I learned in school and then there are days where I feel like I need to know more.

Since I work in research, most of the people I work with have a Master's or a Ph.D. Eventually I will probably get my Master's in power electronics. We do create some new designs, we modify old designs to do different things, run tests, write research papers, work with the government, read research papers..etc. Since power electronics is more of a specialized area of EE, there's still a lot to learn. (Power electronics is working with generators, inverters, power lines, high voltages..etc. I could easily kill myself with high voltage/current if I was careless while running some tests). Also, there are going to be some considerations depending on the products of the company you work for. For example, I work for an aerospace company, so the weight of one our products can be a big deal. (More weight = less fuel = less space for passengers on a plane = less money for the airline).

The company I work for does have chemical engineers where I work, but from what I was told by one of the chemE co-ops, the work is more like a what a chemistry major would be doing. I know that one of the things they work on is different processes, like to reduce using more toxic chemicals...running some material testing..etc.

I would highly recommend that you get an internship or do co-op sessions. You get paid, you get on the job experience for your profession, it looks great on a resume,..etc. It's a good deal. I was a co-op and ended up getting hired full time by the company I work for.

One story I heard about a ChemE was that he worked for DOW chemicals on the scrubbing bubbles. Exactly what he did, I have no idea. I understand that it paid well, but he was working on the same project for a long time, so it may have not been quite so interesting as some other areas.

The only other ChemE I know works at some company that basically makes the equivalent of Telfon for houses..what he does there exactly I don't know.