Growing Together
Upon joining Continental Carbon Group in 2019, Hayat Raza began a transformative career journey after departing from a multinational corporation characterized by its vast employee base. His vision was anchored in the potential for a promising future at CCG. Throughout the subsequent four years, Raza exhibited exceptional growth and proficiency while assuming diverse responsibilities as a Project Engineer, providing integral support across the company’s multifaceted divisions.
“In 2019, I was doing engineering work. But as I gained confidence, I was invited to take on more responsibilities, take on more initiatives. I brought in some new ideas to the company,” Hayat says. “Once they started seeing my potential, they started sending me out on more field visits, and to conferences to represent the company. Now I’m entering a leadership role where I’m going to be a manager and there are going to be people reporting to me. I’m also leading the R&D initiatives at the company in collaboration with universities, and I have set up my own lab for bench-scale and pilot-scale testing.”
Hayat enjoys the challenges and responsibilities that come with working for small- to medium-sized firms.
“I started my career in the United States with a multinational, which had about 6,000 employees. When I started off with Continental, I was probably the twenty-fifth employee, and I have loved it ever since because I get to wear many hats. That was what really excited me, that I will be doing not only engineering, but I’ll also be doing project management. I’ll be doing a little bit of sales. I’ll be doing a little bit of documentation,” he says.
Hayat is also one of the founding members of the International Water Association’s Young Water Professionals (YWP) Canada group alongside the renowned YWP leader Farokh Kakar, designed as an association for empowering Canadian professionals and YWP 35 years of age or younger to be future water leaders. He held the role of regional director for Ontario before taking on his current role of strategic advisor for the group at a national level.
When asked what the most interesting project he’s worked on to date at CCG, Hayat couldn’t pick just one. A few examples of the challenging projects he’s working on include cyanide removal from groundwater; providing hydrocarbon removal solutions for an LNG facility; and a project involving biologically activated carbon filtration for a water treatment facility.
Despite working on many exciting assignments, Hayat noted that his favorite aspect of working at CCG isn’t the projects, it’s the people. “They’re all motivating, encouraging, and almost never say ‘No’ to anything I ask for.”