In celebration of National Engineering Month, we will highlight our organization’s talent to inspire the next generation of innovators and aspiring engineers. Colleagues will share their stories, pathways to success, and what ultimately led them to an impressive and impactful career.
Throughout his educational journey, Raman found his passions lay in creating local change. Initially beginning his post-secondary studies in Education at the University of Alberta, he felt that becoming a teacher would "be an exciting opportunity to make a real difference." But, little did he know that he could fuel diverse change, all while having a fulfilling career as an engineer.
He happened upon an Engineers Without Borders club that would later be the turning point for his career. He joined their Junior Fellowship program – a 16 month commitment that involves four months working abroad. As an NGO aiming to tackle poverty and inequality globally through engineering practices, he felt this opportunity was more than just a coincidence, but the chance he was looking for to drive change.
Raman was flown to Ghana in a research role where he helped to map out the country’s existing agriculture extension system, by interviewing stakeholders and feeding those findings back to a local initiative aimed at improving collaboration between the many stakeholders of that system. He describes it as "an experience that brought about profound change, with just a few lines of code," and allowed him to delve deep into the world of software development and problem-solving.
Returning from this transformative opportunity, he switched his major to Computer Science, and later secured his first co-op placement at General Dynamics Mission Systems–Canada as a Software Developer on an R&D project to create a simple Health and Usage Monitoring System for armoured vehicles in 2017. After a year-long placement where he learned the ropes and applied software engineering techniques to help solve complex issues, he joined the company in a full-time capacity.
Raman is currently working as a Software Developer on the Packaging Team for the LEISC Program, which is a support contract for the Canadian Army. In his role, he leverages the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) to design, test, and implement automation solutions to extend our capabilities in software integration and delivery.
When asked what advice he would give to those seeking a similar career path, he spoke about the importance of embracing new challenges.
"Starting out as a co-op student and being the only developer on my team, I was tasked with what I found to be an intimidating project. Luckily, I had support from my mentor enabling me to meet all the deliverables on time. Now I am at the point where I can look back on it and confidentially say, 'Yeah, I could totally do something like that right now.'"
Aside from the daily impact he is having in his role with us, Raman enjoys spending his free time applying a similar philosophy of implementing local change in his community. "My partner and I volunteer in the Big Brothers, Big Sisters Calgary's 'Big Couple' mentoring program. We meet at least once a month to hang out – whether it’s watching a hockey game or throwing around a Frisbee and chatting. It’s always a good time!”
