Hooman Rezaei
What are your main responsibilities or activities in your current position?
- Managing research projects
- Coordinating research activities with university and industrial partners
- Providing engineering consultation to customers
How does your current work relate to your graduate degree?
Similar to my PhD field of research, I do research in the field of energy – now specifically renewable energies. Considering business sides of any new technologies and also persistence in research are the experiences I learnt from my PhD and use at work now.
What do you like and what do you find challenging about your current position?
I like the diversity of projects I work on. This enables me to keep my knowledge up to date on a wide range of subjects related to chemical engineering. Working within a certain time frame and meeting the budget is the challenge I face in delivering some projects.
Is your current career path as you originally intended?
Not 100%, but very similar to what I had in mind.
What motivated you to pursue graduate work at UBC?
An amazing supervisor, the great reputation of UBC and an interesting PhD research topic which was very well aligned with my master's study.
What did you enjoy the most about your time as a graduate student at UBC?
Freedom of trying new things and making my own mistakes, great environment, and tools available to help you to pursue your dreams.
What key things did you do, or what attitudes or approaches did you have, that contributed to your success?
Hard work to make up for my lack of knowledge in the areas that were out of my comfort zone. As a graduate student, I learnt how and where to find the information and knowledge I needed. That helped me a lot to move into new fields of work I did not have prior experience on.
What is your best piece of advice for current graduate students preparing for their future careers?
Every little experience matters. Do not give up on any new opportunity just because it is not worth it. Try to land on a good job rather than just taking any job to make some money.
How did you find out about/obtain your current position?
I searched through job posting websites.
How are jobs normally posted and filled in your organization or industry?
They are all listed on our company website.