From Class to Career

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Posted April 14, 2014 by Beata Strubel
Take a look at the lotion on your counter or your favorite shampoo. The technology in beauty care products continues to advance. Your lotion does much more than simply moisturize, and your shampoo is much more than liquid soap. Think of the hundreds of thousands of beauty care products you see and use on a daily basis. Engineers play a role in creating, formulating, processing, and producing all of these products.

This past summer I was able to see part of this process as an intern at Procter & Gamble, where I worked in Beauty Care Research & Development. My project involved modifying a material to be used in a new anti-wrinkle cream for Olay.


My Team at P&G (Ready for our company 5K!)
Downtown Cincinnati with other P&G Interns (I'm in the center)
Prior to my internship, my only lab experience was in freshman general chemistry lab. My project involved organic chemistry synthesis, so I learned a lot on the job. At first I was nervous about being able to complete my project, but I quickly realized that my engineering classes have taught me how to learn. You can only cover so much material in four years. You will build a strong foundation of technical knowledge, but more importantly you will learn how to continue to learn and be effective at your job. You are not expected to be an expert on the subject when you begin. You will continue to build knowledge and develop your skills after you graduate.

This year I have taken two semesters of organic chemistry lab. I am excited every week to see that the experiments we do in lab are comparable to my work this past summer. The techniques I learned in lab during my internship are directly relatable to the experiments I now carry out every Thursday in lab.


In fact, Purdue Engineering is ranked 2nd in the nation in preparing its students for the work force, according to a Wall  Street Journal survey of corporate recruiters. I can now personally attest to seeing how a Purdue education is preparing me for my career. Boiler up!

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