Praveen Goel

Praveen Goel originally hails from India. He completed a post-graduate degree in 1983 from IIT Kanpur, rated and ranked at number 3 among the best technical universities in the world—only after MIT and California Institute of Technology of the USA. He served in the Indian government for over 18 years at various positions including over six years as Project Manager. He had been recognized as a successful and good officer for his contribution to his organization.

As he had been looking for some career change, he migrated to Canada in 2002. And then his struggling story started. He had no idea about Canadian hardships for a new immigrant. The year 2003 had been extremely hard for him as he faced numerous hardships at survival jobs wherever he tried to work to keep both ends meet. He then decided to upgrade his qualifications from Sheridan in the field of Quality Engineering and Management. It was very hard for him to compete with the modern students 20 years junior to him. But his determination and hard work paid off. He graduated in 2004 from Sheridan with very high grades and also got certified by ASQ as Certified Quality Engineer.

But then he faced the hardest time in life. He didn’t receive any calls for job interviews. He was fed up with the response from many employers, such as “lack of Canadian experience” for medium-level positions and “extremely over-qualified” if he applied for an entry-level position. That way he kept on struggling for another six months without a job. The necessary expenses would keep draining his hard-earned savings and resources from back home.

After struggling for almost 1,000 days without a job in Canada, he compromised with a small position in a small company where he worked exemplary hard to prove his worth. In course of time he won the hearts of the employers at workplace with his good work and nice behaviour. Meanwhile, he got two more certifications from ASQ : Certified Quality Auditor and Certified Manager of Quality and Organizational Excellence. Moreover, Sheridan Management, recommended by the Head of Quality Assurance department, invited him for additional part-time teaching assignments. He teaches from his heart, sharing his real-life work experience with very organized material. His good work is appreciated by many students, as well as the management.

Dr. Mozammel Khan, Head of Quality Assurance, and Mr. Michael Arthur have always been very supportive to him during all his academic pursuit at Sheridan and career guidance.

To many, Praveen Goel is considered as a source of inspiration during the struggling phase of new Canadians.