Marina Santanelli

6.30 AM

After snoozing my alarm multiple times, I finally roll out of bed, eat breakfast, and get ready for the day. Today I’m working at the office rather than working from home, so I pack my backpack and walk to the bus stop, making my way to Sydney CBD.

8.30 AM

I arrive at the office, but before I start my day, I grab a quick coffee from the company coffee machine on Level 16, for that much-needed caffeine hit.

9.00 AM

I then walk over to find the desk that I’ve pre-booked, where I greet my team members who are sitting nearby me. After I settle into my desk, I have a look through my emails, so that I can address any issues or requests, keep up with any recent news and read about any available opportunities that I can get involved in. I also check my calendar to see what meetings I have for the day.

9.30 AM

My team operate in an ‘Agile’ manner, so my first meeting of the day is a ‘stand-up’ meeting, which occurs daily. This involves outlining the progress I have made on the tasks I am currently working on and raising any ‘blockers’ that prevent me from moving forward with my tasks. These meetings are helpful in effectively progressing with my work and are an opportunity to ask for help if needed.

10.00 AM

After the ‘stand-up’ meeting, I typically reserve this time for focusing on completing my work independently, so that I can complete most of it early on in the day when I’m most productive. I find myself having trouble with one of the tasks that I am completing, so I book a virtual meeting scheduled for later today with a team member, to help guide me through it.

12.00 PM

By midday, I start to get hungry, so I message the other Grads and ask them to join me for lunch. Today I brought my lunch from home, so I meet the Grads at the Level 16 kitchen, which is a great space to socialise and have a break from your workspace. During this time the Grads share what they’ve been getting up to in their teams and what type of work they’re busy with, as well as talk about non-work-related topics!

1.00 PM

After my lunch break, I have more time to work on my assigned tasks. In my team, we use a ‘Scrum board’ to store our current work items. The work item that I’m assigned to involves testing a database upgrade to see if the new changes, which add new columns to a database table, were successful or not. After testing, the results look successful, so I then request approval for pushing these changes to the production level. This is the final working environment that is used by clients/business users. It’s nice to know that I’m making a real contribution to TAL and that my work is being used by real people.

2.30 PM

By this time, I have a bi-weekly scheduled catch-up with my Grad Business Sponsor and the other Technology Grads. We aren’t all in the office today, so I join a virtual meeting via Microsoft Teams. We chat about any issues that we are currently facing, any opportunities we’re interested in, our current work items, as well as sometimes showcase any cool pieces of work we have completed. It’s great having that support network and knowing who you can go to for even the smallest of questions.

3.00 PM

After a busy day of work, I take this time to clear my mind and relax by taking a walk outside the office building. There are plenty of great food stores and cafes near the building to explore. On my way back to the office I bump into some friends from TAL and we have a nice chat. The best part of working from the office is getting to talk to so many different people with different roles and experiences, which helps build up my network.

3.30 PM

After feeling refreshed from my walk, I dial into the next meeting in my calendar that I booked with my teammate this morning. They walk me through the issue and help me by answering any questions I have, helping me get back on track with my task.

4.30 PM

For the remainder of the day, I continue to tie up any loose ends in my work and reply to any Teams messages I’ve received. I also check my calendar again to be prepared for tomorrow’s schedule and ensure that I have completed everything that I needed to have completed before the next working day.

5.00 PM

It’s finally time to go home! I pack up my things and chat a little with my team members, before heading downstairs to catch the bus home. The view on the way back home is relaxing, as the bus is not too crowded, and I have lovely views of Sydney Harbour. I plug in my earphones to listen to music as I nod off to nap for a while before I arrive at my stop

6.15 PM

Once I arrive home I feel fatigued, however, I enjoy staying fit, so I get changed and reluctantly head to the gym. Today’s session is an upper-body weights session with some cardio. While it was difficult being motivated to get to the gym, it always helps me feel better after sitting down at my desk for a long time during the day.

7.45 PM

After I get home I have a shower immediately and then have a big plate of dinner that is (fortunately) already prepared. During this time, I chat to my family about how our days have been and catch up on any news from the day

9.30 PM

I start to unwind and complete my nightly rituals before hopping into bed. I usually stay on my phone for a while where I socialise and watch videos, before setting my alarms which will help me wake up for another busy work day tomorrow!

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