Liviu, our Senior Researcher, is the ideal person to answer all of our questions, as he has 13 years of research experience working for companies such as Vodafone, Ipsos, and other reputable organisations.
We're just as curious to find out what secrets he has to uncover! Would you like to learn more about him? Then keep on reading!
What's the biggest mistake you've ever made in your career?
Doing the same (boring) thing for too long.
If you were able to meet yourself, at the moment when you first got hired, what advice would you give to your younger self?
Always try to stop and think a bit about what you are doing and why. Don’t just mechanically do stuff because „this is how it always has been done”, even for apparently simple tasks. In other words, beware of becoming a slave of the routine. Being aware of the meaning of your actions makes easier you to find new, more efficient ways of working and helps you to learn faster.
What was the most important challenge you had to go through in your career?
Making people understand how to use research results; I’ve seen so many instances where results were poorly understood and improperly used and leading to bad decisions that I’ve lost count. I see educating clients on proper use of the results as a crucial part of my role as researcher. It’s a process which unfortunately doesn’t always get the attention it should.
What was your ‘dream career’ when you were little?
I don’t remember having a dream career, I suppose I was too busy playing, doing kids’ stuff, you know.
What do you think is the most important thing in life?
Ha ha, I refuse to answer trick questions.
What are you planning to do in your next vacation?
I hope to go somewhere on the mountain side, with some hiking involved. I always find it refreshing.
What is making you get up from bed even when you have a bad day?
The feeling is good to still be alive and relatively healthy, after all; some people don’t have that luxury.
If you could add one thing to the DataDiggers office, what would it be?
A nice set of speakers for music listening. I’m a bit obsessed with sound quality; people are making fun of me about this, which I don’t mind because I know I’m 1000% right. 😎
Is there something new that you have learned in the last 2-3 years, in your career, or in your daily life, which you find is important?
I learned you must be very careful when talking with others, especially interacting with people you don’t know very well. I have to remind myself communication is a dynamic process; language meaning is continuously negotiated and adjusted between people having a conversation. Or, to sound less pretentious, words often mean something a bit different, depending who and when you’re talking to – it’s all about context.
Why did you choose to work in the market research industry?
It kind of happened, it’s overlapping a lot with the field I graduated. I started working as a field operator with a research company, then a moved in the office and since I’m not very afraid of numbers and I already knew my ways around a computer, I made the transition to researcher pretty quick. The rest is history.
What does success mean to you?
To do a job I’m really proud of. It’s even sweeter if others are liking it, of course, I have vanity to feed like everybody else. But it must have my own seal of approval to really mean something to me.
From whom in the market research industry have you learned most in your career?
I learned a lot from many people and I’m hoping I will continue to learn – my bad if I won’t, for sure there’s a lot left to learn. But to point out a specific case, I learned from my first research manager at the previous compnay (Hi, Cosmin!) to go beyond obvious and try to identify the real question, to pay close attention to your audience and to the context. Although it seems really simple, it’s anything but.
Is there something new that you have learned in the last 2-3 years, in your career, or in your daily life, which you find is important?
I learned you must be very careful when talking with others, especially interacting with people you don’t know very well. I have to remind myself communication is a dynamic process; language meaning is continuously negotiated and
adjusted between people having a conversation.
Or, to sound less pretentious, words often mean
something a bit different, depending who and
when you’re talking to – it’s all about context.