6.45 AM
I force myself out of bed with the promise of a coffee to wake me up. Usually, I like to do an hour of study or reading before work, however considering the weather is nice, I head to the local coffee shop with my housemates.
8.30 AM
I log online after having breakfast and a shower to check my emails that may have come through from the previous night. AMP encourages flexible working for all staff, so I often have a few emails to catch up on in the morning as some of my colleagues prefer to work at night, especially those home-schooling children during lockdowns. Fortunately for me, that is not a concern of mine, so I tend to stick to more conventional working hours!
9.00 AM
This morning I prepare some development and work goals to work towards over the next few months. I discuss these goals and other upcoming development opportunities with my manager. Following our discussion, I formalize these goals in AMP’s toolkit software that enables staff to monitor their progress. One thing I am keen to develop in my current rotation is soft skills including preparing visual tools such as slide decks.
10.00 AM
In line with this development goal, I jump on a call with my colleague Tom to begin work on a slide presentation for one of the leaders in our team who is providing an update to the wider AMP Wealth business on our team's recent performance and strategy going forward. This involves collating data from multiple sources into bite-sized infographics. I am definitely out of my depth here but thankfully Tom is able to provide me with lots of help.
12.30 PM
Time to get some sunshine on a beautiful spring day in Melbourne. My lunch breaks at home tend to vary depending on my workload but today I can enjoy my lunch outdoors.
1.00 PM
I receive a call from one of my friends on the graduate program, Amelia. We catch up on what has been happening in each of our lives and share a few laughs. It is really important to try and stay connected socially with colleagues during lockdowns and I enjoy connecting with other grads albeit virtually at the moment.
1.30 PM
I send the first draft of our presentation to the senior leader for his comments and check on a few other emails that I have received throughout the day. It is around this time that I will also usually complete the New York Times daily ‘mini’ crossword puzzle that is fairly competitive amongst a few of my fellow graduate friends. Unfortunately, today’s crossword theme was focused on old movies: definitely not one of my strengths- however, there is always tomorrow!
2.00 PM
AMP has a strong focus on learning through multiple channels. LinkedIn learning has recently been introduced across the company and despite not finding time today to learn new skills, there is a Lunch and Learn series running within the AMP Advice Business. I tune in to hear about the new service offering for AMP’s aligned network of advice practices. These sessions are invaluable to try to piece together the value chain at AMP because with so many staff, products and services, it can be easy to get confused as to the core business activities.
3.00 PM
I have a teams call with my rotation buddy Taylor to catch up on our weekends and talk about a couple of work items that are in progress. Following this discussion, there is some modeling of an ongoing deal required so I spend some time working on an appropriate model with Taylor in the afternoon. Taylor walks me through some different scenarios that will require the deal to be structured differently and we try to build this into an easy-to-use model before sending the model to the transaction manager.
5.15 PM
It’s time to get out for my daily run along the Yarra River. I find running towards the end of the day is the perfect way to de-stress especially if work has been busy. AMP is a very strong supporter of the annual fundraiser ‘September, so my run has the added benefit of increasing my step count for the day!
6.00 PM
A final check of my emails after returning from my run to see if there are any urgent matters outstanding. If not, I’m off for some dinner and likely a re-watch of Melbourne FC’s recent grand final success- a very pleasant evening ahead!