Nikita

6.30 AM

My alarm usually wakes me up around 6.30 am to get ready and head into the CBD for work. I have a longer commute to work compared to some of my colleagues, so I take the flexibility of working from home a few days of the week. Today I am going in. Usually, I use the commute time to catch up on news or listen to a podcast. I’ve been listening to Unexplainable which explores a different scientific mystery in each episode. Today’s podcast was on why everyone is getting food allergies.

8.45 AM

The office is a short walk from Circular Quay station, and I usually get in around 8:45 am. I start the day by checking my calendar so I know the schedule for meetings and can prepare accordingly. I usually do check the calendar at the end of each day too, so this is to accommodate any emails or meetings that may have popped in overnight. Having a good sense of what my day looks like helps me manage my priorities and reminds me of any to-do tasks as I set reminders on my calendar.

Then I head over to the kitchen, make myself a cup of tea and grab a snack.

9.00 AM

We have a client meeting scheduled for 11.00 am to provide a progress update and also clarify a couple of data points. I will be running this meeting, so my task is to prepare the slides for the meeting and think about the questions we have for the client. For this particular project, the team is small–it’s a partner and I work for a bank. We have been collaborating with the EY team on this project so there are a few moving parts. This makes it crucial to make sure everyone is on the same page. So, before this meeting, I have scheduled some time at 10.00 am with the partner to make sure we are on the same page. This is a useful practice before meetings, so there are no surprises in the client meeting.

In this project, we are evaluating the economics of a strategy within the bank. As such the slides for this project are numbers heavy, so along with making sure the information is clear and presented sensibly, I will take some time to carefully check the numbers from the corresponding spreadsheets.

10.00 AM

It’s time to catch up with the partner. We have gotten to know each other well through this project, so there is often some chit-chat at the start of the meeting. One thing that struck me when I joined EY PJP is that people are so happy to share their life experiences and are interested in you beyond work. It is also a fantastic opportunity to be working directly with a partner, especially as a Business Analyst.

Following this, I run the partner through my slides and my plan for the meeting. Looks like I was on the right track. I’ll spend the next couple of minutes checking through my content and making a list of questions for the client along with screenshots of relevant data points. I find this helpful as it prevents you from switching between lots of documents and files when you are sharing the screen in a client meeting.

11.00 AM

We are meeting with a senior member of the finance team and the CFO of the bank. The project relates to the strategic direction of the bank so it’s imperative to understand the numbers and make decisions based on the bottom line.

This is a virtual meeting and I am starting the meeting by sharing my screen and outlining what I was hoping to get out of the meeting. I confirmed that everyone else had the same view as me to help run through my slides and thinking. The partner helped me field some questions I wasn’t sure how to address. It’s always such a great learning experience to hear partners respond to challenging questions in the meeting.

12.30 PM

After the meeting, I ducked out to Chifley food court to grab some lunch from Fishbowl. One of the many things I find special about EY PJP is everyone’s commitment to having lunches in a shared space. The conversations are intriguing and range from life updates to politics to discussing challenges in projects.

1.00 PM

I like having clear and concise meeting notes to look back on. I’ll put aside some time to review the meeting notes to make sure they are coherent and fill in any gaps whilst the discussion is fresh in my mind. During the first couple of weeks of a project, we often have meetings with business unit leaders from different parts of the project. There is a lot of new information to keep track of. So having something to rely on and share with the team has proved helpful.

Following this, I will add new assumptions to my model and check the updated numbers to make sure nothing has been thrown off. Then, I will translate these changes to the slides which we hope to share with the client at the end of the day for their review and comments.

I’ve scheduled a brief catch-up with the partner for 3.30 pm today to discuss the amended slides and make sure they are happy with the changes.

3.00 PM

Ahead of the meeting, I will circulate the slides to the partner. Now it’s time for some afternoon tea!

3.30 PM

In the call with the partner, we reviewed the slides. There were a few minor comments, and I will update the slides accordingly. I will then convert this to a PDF and send it to the client. I usually take a moment at the end of the week to have a look at my calendar for next week and think about whether I need to schedule additional meetings. I also use the time to plan and roughly allocate tasks for the week ahead.

4.00 PM

Every other month, we have a ‘Meet the Partner’ event on a Friday. A partner is under the spotlight, and they share with the firm that makes them tick, their professional work experience and life outside of work. This is a fantastic way to get to know the partners! Today we are having Halloween-themed snacks and drinks to accompany this get-to-know session.

5.00 PM

I clock off for the day. On Fridays, we usually grab a drink around the kitchen with colleagues. There is no better way to end the week than with chips and a drink!

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