Cliff Mutyavaviri

6.00 AM

The perks of living away from Sydney’s city centre near the Blue Mountains include clocking a total of 120 km to-and-fro everyday…but in all seriousness, the views out here are spectacular.

It usually takes some time for me to get out of bed and start my day, so I spend about 5-10 minutes aimlessly scrolling through my Instagram feed. 

6.10 AM

Eventually, I take an energising power shower, suit up, and make a nice strong cup of black coffee to really wake me up. I snack on some cereal, muffins, and a banana before finishing my grooming and leaving the house.

7.00 AM

The train station is a good 15 minutes away, so I drive up, park and hop aboard. My train is rarely crowded. I spend the hour-long ride watching the world glide by at 100 mph, catching up on some Netflix, enjoying some tunes on Spotify, and sometimes catch up on some training projects to get ahead. 

8.30 AM

My train pulls into Wynyard station, and I walk into FDM’s fantastic centre at the stunning Barangaroo International Towers. I sign in and make a cup of tea while catching up with my workmates. The non-trainee Internal Staff meet on Fridays, which gives us extra time to plan the day ahead and follow up on some emails… or soak in the distracting views of Darling Harbour.

9.00 AM

Down to business – a reputable client in the financial services industry is coming in, so we make sure we draft plenty of questions to ask in anticipation of a deployment at one of these clients to perform some IT-based consultancy work in an array of fields. This work ranges from data migration for developing cloud solutions to more front-end roles, entailing liaising with the client to understand their corporate needs and strategies. 

10.30 AM

Time for my morning break! My teammates and I venture downstairs to grab a coffee, get some fresh air and have a bit of a walkabout. I return any missed calls and run any errands that need doing, like grabbing something from the shops.

10.45 AM

Training continues and we cover the more nitty-gritty technical side of things, as opposed to the business process and models that a BI analyst needs to be aware of. SQL (Structured Query Language) is the primary programming language that’s utilised for running ‘queries’ (specified outputs) on a set of crucial business data. Excel is used in combination to manipulate that data.

12.30 PM

Having fed ourselves with knowledge, my co-workers and I now feed ourselves with food! We head down to the hustle-and-bustle of ‘The Canteen’ food court, where there is a myriad of cuisines to try – ranging from East Asian to Middle Eastern and Mediterranean… We put the Ritual app to the test, which is a loyalty-based app that earns you credit points that leads to big savings.

The rest of lunch is spent strolling by the Barangaroo Wharf watching the waves and ferries go by, while the golden Aussie sun beats down.

1.30 PM

Fun’s over and back to business, but I don’t mind because work here can be fun. At FDM, we work hard but play hard! Each Friday we have a training project due that emulates what we would be dealing with once deployed on-site with FDM’s clients, so I spend a good amount of time working on completing this.

2.30 PM

My afternoon break is spent topping up on more coffee – this time of the day it’s common to feel drowsy, but a caffeine-boost usually does the trick.

2.45 PM

My latest project is submitted, and now it’s time to smash our weekly exam. Generally, we have a 75% pass threshold per module – each week during the 8-week training phase for the Business Intelligence/Business Analysis stream is divided into 8 key modules.

If you put in the hard work required, including spending the odd one or two days staying back past 17:30, then 75% is highly achievable!

4.00 PM

Normally the day is scheduled to end at 17:30, but early finishes are very common – 17:15 is generally when we’ll be out the office. On Friday, 16:00 is the norm – the beauty about FDM is that we’re in an inclusive environment that promotes a fun culture. Afternoon activities include trivia nights, gaming sessions, free pizza and drinks, or even celebrating trainees who’ve been placed. We also value big days like International Women’s Day and Harmony Day.

5.30 PM

The week ends with winding down, knocking back a few drinks at the local pub, and even the odd house party or bar session. A break really feels well-deserved after a hectic week.

6.45 PM

I’m usually back at my doorstep by 18:45 or 19:00 during the week, so I spend the evening having dinner and recharging by doing the things I love, like meeting up with non-work mates for a kick-about at the park, finishing off an intriguing novel, or zoning out in a good video game.

11.00 PM

Monday to Thursday, it’s usually lights off for me at this time, anticipating a new day ahead of me. No day is ever the same at FDM. I’m never bored, but rather driven to tackle the next set of challenges ahead of me!