Industrial chemistry is a unique subsection of chemistry. It will spend time looking and studying the process of monitoring, optimizing, and developing all of the fundamental chemical processes that are used in industry to take raw materials and turn them into products that are useful and that society is able to use.
There are a lot of different things that this is able to focus on. Sometimes the industrial chemist will spend their time learning how a process is done on a pre-existing product. This will help them to fully understand that process and maybe learn a little more about chemical reactions and more along the way. There are also times when the industrial chemist will spend their time learning and experimenting to invent a brand new product so they can help their company with a product for society.
All of the products that we use in our modern society are made out of different chemical reactions. Many times we may not think about these products or how they are designed and made. But even something simple like the toys we give our kids or the bowls that we use in our kitchens need several different products to come together to make them whole.
It is the industrial chemist who will study and learn how this works. They are the ones who spent years in the lab, trying to see what would work and learning quickly what did not. This can be an exciting job when it is done well; you can invent a new product in the process that becomes a household name. But it does take time and there are a variety of mistakes and different experiments that need to happen before anything is designed. But once it is, it can be a rewarding process for the industrial chemist.