Vencon Research had a company barbeque yesterday afternoon and it was an absolute blast. It’s one of the few opportunities in the work year (or work three-months for me) to get to talk to people about non-work related activities.

During the beginning of this week, Vencon Research introduced three new full-time members to its staff: two for the Business Development Team and one in the Data Integrity team (mine). It was a much needed addition as five employees have left the company since I’ve started working–all of them having worked for significant long periods of time. Once again, the new employees are very diverse people, one being from Iran, another from Ireland, and the final being from Australia.

I’ve also been able to observe how training works for new hires. For the first few days of training, they would normally sit in room and are introduced to the company in general. The second half of the week they spent some time sitting in their respective departments and learning from another experienced professional in the company. This upcoming week, the new hires will begin rotations around each department. The three will begin in my department starting Monday, gaining insight into how the Integrity Team does their work. The two Business Development hires won’t have to remember in fine detail how data is cut, but understanding the kind of work we do is so crucial because they are the ones who are selling the product to potential clients. I had a really compelling conversation with the new hire in my team, but I particularly remember how shocked he was when I told him that the work I do is the exact same as what he is receiving training now. This is the PPT and DT cuts, which are basically data cuts for our clients. These are normally the final products sent to the clients after being cross-checked many times. Having done these sorts of things for a very long time now, I never really thought a lot about the significance about the work I did, but now that I reflect on it, I realize that my company and my co-workers place a lot of trust in me to let me do work to this extent.

The thing is, the work I do is what our clients receive in the end. I am given the task of working directly with the data and perform necessary cuts and adjustments to ensure that it matches the products we offer and the numbers they want. The new hire expressed to me that his previous work experience in a very large company would never assign an intern work to the extent of the work I do. It normally was menial work, and although I definitely have done menial work, most interns wouldn’t be given this much responsibility. This made me appreciate smaller companies even more. Smaller companies emphasize intimacy: each worker is treated more like a person than a number. Because of this small company, I’ve formed relationships with every single person in my company. We’ve gotten to know each other on a personal level to varying extents–even the CEO.

Looking back now, I realize how absolutely lucky I am to have received an experience like this. While it may seem tedious and redundant at times, I know that the work I do is valuable and important for both the company and myself.