Siobhan Doran

5:47 AM

Woohoo! I have finally woken up before my alarm. I will not have to rush today!

6:20 AM

What? But I only just closed my eyes! Oh well, it's time to start the day!

6:30 AM

Ok I am actually up out of bed now. I run to get my small pet cockatiel out of his cage because he makes the happiest of noises in the morning and it is really cute! We’re both so excited to start a new day! I put him on my boyfriend’s hair nest so they can nap together while I keep soldiering on.

Next, I go to put on my sport attire and pack my work clothes in my trusty backpack. Today, I am presenting my work to the whole Research, Data and Analytics team so I decide I will wear my cute short sleeve grey blazer jacket.

7:05 AM

And away we go! I take my little bike and my hardy helmet and I make my way to RAA.

7:12 AM

I love passing Unley Oval and looking at all the cute doggos playing on the oval in the morning sun!

7:15 AM

Almost tripped over myself at a red light – almost.

7:35 AM

By this point, I have stored my bike, changed clothes, lightly stretched, eaten breakfast at my desk and am ready to start the day! I choose to work 7:30am-4:00pm most days as I am very productive in the morning and the traffic is more manageable. It also helps on those days where I’m running an hour late because it means I still work out to be on time!

The first thing I want to do is to send my intern friends the results from the member and staff surveys we conducted. This will all go towards our group project that we’re really passionate about! I’ve really enjoyed brainstorming the questions together, reaching out to the research team and, most importantly, making pretty graphs! I really like this graph showing how supportive our members and staff are about environmental sustainability:

7:40 AM

After checking my emails and my upcoming schedule, I put the finishing touches on my presentation. As I am working on this, many of my co-workers are arriving so it's great to also have a chat with them!

9:00 AM

Amazing! The interns are very pleased with our results and our hard work!

9:02 AM

I spent the next half an hour using Tableau to visualise how the Net Promoter Score for Roadside Assistance jobs varied across location. This previously unexplored area will make an interesting point in my presentation!

9:30 AM

Next, I attend a virtual travel meeting with a few stakeholders just so we are all up to date with each other’s progress.

10:00 AM

I quickly cleanout and sort my emails as they can get overwhelming quite quickly!

10:02 AM

I spend the next half an hour of my day practising my presentation while also mentally preparing myself. I also make sure that I have all my technology set up as this will be an online presentation to accommodate everyone working from home!

11:30 AM

My presentation went very well! I do need to improve on sticking to the time limit, but other than that I feel very accomplished.

11:33 AM

My co-worker mentions to me that he really liked the point I made about how real-world data differs drastically to the datasets that we use at university. I have definitely learnt many invaluable skills at RAA so far.

For the next half an hour I work on my Tableau Patrol Ride Along dashboard. Here, I have used SQL to locate data collected from our intern “Patrol Ride Alongs” and have made interesting visuals. Rose, the Media intern, will then publish this in RAA’s newsletter.

12:00 PM

Now to have some more fun with the intern gang! We learn about important aspects of presentation skills that engage the audience like storytelling and logically planning out the structure.

1:30 PM

Afterwards, we all stuck around and discussed the introduction of our presentation. I also talked with Vanessa, the HR intern, about how we can make our similar topics flow better off one another.

2:00 PM

From here, I quickly show Rose my presentation because I want to show her how I used her cool icons in it. She makes me laugh when she points out that I talked about making new intern friends in it.

It's now time to have a quick hot choccie break with Alva, the Risk and Compliance intern, and Rose. I find that this is a great way to refresh and ease into the rest of the day!

2:10 PM

I’m back at the desk and ready to keep on working on the Tableau piece from before.

3:24 PM

I go through with my supervisor about how I can adapt my previous Knime workflow to another task based on travel insurance, before I start independently working on it.

4:00 PM

My supervisor and I get a quick chance to debrief and he congratulates me on my presentation while also offering constructive feedback. Very helpful! I now leave to bike back to my boyfriend’s house.

4:30 PM

I arrive back and my boyfriend is eager to learn about my presentation which I find very supportive! We hang out and eat seaweed snacks as he also tells me about his day.

5:00 PM

In order to freshen up for dinner tonight, I head to the shower and make sure to grab my towel and my music player. You will never guess what my music player is – it is my small cockatiel! He loves to sing and I love to listen!

6:30 PM

For dinner, I enjoy a lovely evening with my boyfriend and his family at his grandparent’s house. I love viewing their map collection and seeing what’s growing in the garden.

9:00 PM

All tucked in bed ready to watch some of my favourite German YouTubers. I really enjoy listening to how German is spoken conversationally as well as staying up to date with what's happening over there.