Editor’s Note: This post is part of a series featuring GTRI team members sharing what makes them fulfilled, both at work and beyond the office.
At GTRI we often talk to customers about Splunk, a really clever software that can find patterns and clues in machine data that a person studying the same data would never see. Splunk can help you find a security hole or the reason your web server went down, but can it help a company find its culture?
Like most, work is the place I spend a majority of my waking hours. What has kept me coming back to GTRI every day for the last seven years?
As a kid fresh out of college, and ready to solve the world’s problems, I took a job at GTRI, helping Cisco and the likes strengthen their grip on the information technology (IT) game. As many of us come to learn over time, our ambitions may not always align with reality, but as long as we grow to understand where they can intermittently intersect, and take advantage of those moments, we can learn to define and find our (non-quantifiable) success.
Bill and I facing off during a ping pong tournament on “Fiesta Friday”
I think this is where I’ve been lucky to grow in tandem with the company I’ve worked for ever since those aspiring days. I’ve witnessed a good deal of growth, growing pains and changes over those years, but there has been one constant here that I’ve appreciated – a unique culture.
So what is it about GTRI’s company culture that makes Suite 300 (the GTRI office) the apple of my eye? For me, it is the commitment to volunteering. Whether it be our continued involvement with Habitat for Humanity, or partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado (BBBSC), there’s a drive to contribute toward something greater. I know my personal involvement with BBBSC has served as a constant reminder of how we can all be a positive influence to others. GTRI has done a great job of recognizing that, and I feel honored to have received the first Community Contributor Award in 2010. While I know when I come to my corner cubicle my job is to spread the gospel of the Internet of Things (IoT), and grow those margins, I also feel a duty to inspire those around me to continue to do great things when they leave those gates of the south Broadway parking structure.
Employee of the Month
Culture can be defined by values, and friends share values. I am proud to say I have formed some life-long friendships here at GTRI. It makes coming to work fun. And when you can take a break from the challenges of work to strengthen those bonds while helping build a house for someone in need, or a game of ping-pong and watercooler humor, it can take some of the sting out of a disappointing day. These things keep me coming back.
So maybe the culture of a company isn’t something you can Splunk, but maybe it can inspire us to search and analyze within and make sense of the greater picture. Sure, a job comes with a title, but does that really define us?
Cameron Caldwell is an Inside Account Manager for Enterprise Sales at GTRI.
