Marzan Akter

6.00 AM

Alarms on -  I wake up, freshen up and have my morning coffee. Pack light lunch/morning tea as I don’t like having breakfast this early. Then I get ready to leave for work!

7.00 AM

I live in Brisbane, therefore, it’s almost an hour drive (depending on the traffic) to Zinfra’s Yatala Office. I parked my car at the back of the office and ready to go in for a busy day!

8.00 AM

I have now arrived at work, I exchange greetings with my colleagues/team as soon as I arrive – chat for a few minutes to start of the day positively.

8.15 AM

I’ve logged into my laptop and connected it to the double screens. I usually spend the first 15-20 minutes going through outlook and responding to emails. I’ve checked my calendar to plan my day keeping upcoming meetings in mind. I have 2 meetings today – I’m leading one of them, therefore, a lot of preparation! I’ve made a to-do list for the day after looking at outstanding actions from yesterday and prioritized tasks accordingly.

9.00 AM

I am continuing my preparation from yesterday for the training session I have booked in with the Civil team on next Monday. We are rolling out a digital system to manage work orders / job packs within the business. This required technical development of the system, which went for about 4 months. We’ve collaborated with our technical systems team in Sydney to complete the technical development.

We are at the deployment stage of the system currently which requires to provide training to anyone who’ll be using it. This includes Program Manager’s, Business Support Officer’s, Supervisor’s and Field Employee’s. My rotation manager and I are responsible for training these users. As it is a brand new system to them, it requires clear instructions and explanation so that they’re able to use the system effectively and efficiently.

By 10.44 am, I am getting ready for my meeting with Delivery Manager and Program Manager regarding the same system.

11.00 AM

As I’m leading this meeting, I’ve arrived at the meeting room few minutes early to organise and setup everything. In this meeting we’re discussing some technical and non-technical issues we’re currently facing with overhead field employee’s using the system.

I’m leading this meeting as I’ve been to a site visit last week and field employees have provided some valuable input regarding the useability of it.

We’ve reviewed their suggestions, reviewed few other items that requires attention and actioned them for ourselves. We’ve also discussed and strategized upcoming training sessions we have scheduled with the Civil team. I’ve provided an update on my preparation for that and taken their inputs and suggestion to make the training plan better.

12.00 PM

We’re done with the meeting, I’ve noted key outcomes from the meeting and revised my to-do list accordingly. There were some excellent improvement ideas and strategies provided by delivery manager and rotation manager which will need to be modified in the system. By 12:20pm, I’m collaborating with the Civil team’s Program Manager to confirm availability of his field employees. This is to setup training session with them following our first training session with PM, BSO’s and Supervisor’s.

12.30 PM

Lunch break -  we’re headed to the nearest shopping centre to get some lunch. I’ve gotten myself a smoked salmon sandwich. Yum! We had our lunch and are ready to get back to work!

1.00 PM

I’m back at my desk and quickly glanced at my to-do list. I have a meeting with all the graduates and Project Sponsor scheduled at 1:30pm to discuss our team project. We’ve been given a major graduate team project recently, which is scheduled to go over for 8 – 12 months. We’re still at the brainstorming and ideation phase therefore requires active collaboration and contribution from everyone. I’ve completed most of my “homework” (research) yesterday. Still need to review everything and finalize my research and ideas, which I do in the next 20 minutes. I’ve also written down some questions I want to ask at the team meeting.

1.30 PM

I’ve joined the meeting over Skype and everyone’s present!

We spent first few minutes discussing the upcoming conference we have scheduled in 2 weeks where we will be presenting our project briefly . It’s a formal event therefore requires fully professional presentation.

After that, we started presenting our ideas one by one. We’ve gathered concerns and ideas about our current system in place by conducting interviews over the week. Everyone asked questions and provided their valuable input. We looked into the email that the Project Sponsor redirected us to; it had some great resources which will definitely contribute in our project. We’ve also discussed our plan and expectations for next week regarding progression. HR Admin graduate set up an agenda and sent everyone an invitation for next week’s meeting. We wrapped up the meeting by dividing into smaller groups for our 2 slides presentation next week with the Project Sponsor.

2.30 PM

I spent around 10 minutes to write down key outcomes from the meeting and reviewed the team project to-do list accordingly. I had to reschedule some items in the agenda to prioritize work, these kind of things happen often - all part of the experience!

2.40 PM

I have another look at my to do list and I have a lot left to do! Priority – design project! I’m part of the Electrical Design team for one of our Telecommunication Contracts. I usually spend 2 full days working on these but because of the new graduate team project, my mentor reduced it to 1 day per week. The deadline with our client is near therefore additional works have been assigned to me today.

I’m going to do some Voltage Drop Calculations for Steel Poles. We don’t do these by hand/manually anymore – technology is AMAZING! But we still have to look at relevant Standards, inspect the circuity of the pole in the national/state database, confirm point of supply, take accurate measurements and data (in person inspection) to enter into the software etc. Usually these take a bit of time but thankfully the measurements were taken before by one of our subcontractors, so it took me only around 35 - 40 minutes for 1 pole. I’ve completed 2 Voltage Drop Calculations and sent them to the Senior Electrical Engineer (RPEQ) to check and approve.

4.15 PM

I’m taking a coffee break, got myself a Café Latte from the coffee machine in the kitchen. I’ve also checked my to-do list and crossed out completed items. After that, I respond to any urgent emails that require immediate attention. I’ve also provided an informal update to my mentor (whose desk is right next to mine!) about the graduate team project. I’ve informed him that we will be presenting at the company conference in Melbourne in 2 weeks, in which he will also be present. He was excited and gave me some words of encouragement!

4.40 PM

I’m now preparing to leave work. I’m seeing a friend on the way home. We haven’t seen each other in weeks (busy life!), so excited! I arrive at Garden City after spending 25 mins on the road.

5.15 PM

My friend arrived a little late - we chatted, had dinner and finally home time!

7.40 PM

I leave Garden City after saying bye to my friend, 20 minutes’ drive to home – no traffic! Woohoo!

8.00 PM

I’ve now arrived at home, time to shower and relax a bit. Missed my exercise session today but it’s okay.

8.40 PM

I do some light study for the Master’s degree I’m enrolled into – reviewed upcoming assignments to do, did some initial research etc. It’s still early in the semester and I’m enrolled into 2 subjects therefore the workload isn’t that bad right now.

9.45 PM

Netflix in bed and relax!

11.00 PM

It’s time to sleep. Looking forward to the next day!