Nadia Sarunic

6.40 AM

I get up and get ready for work. I would like to say I wake up a little earlier and start my day with a light jog and some yoga, but I’d be lying… exercise can wait until later in the evening! Most mornings look like a quick shower, dressing in business casual, applying skincare and light makeup and sometimes a brekky to go if I snoozed too much!

7.30 AM

I drive into work. The commute takes around 30-40 minutes (depending on the traffic). I sometimes like to listen to a podcast or audiobook, or some of my own tunes.

8.00 AM

I park and sign in at the tablet at the reception desk. I say a quick hello to everyone and catch up on what happened over the weekend. I connect my laptop to my 2 monitors and start my day reading and responding to emails or Teams messages sent over the weekend to start the week off fresh before things start getting busy. After I have done this, I plan out what my week looks like and write a prioritised to-do list for the day based on the week’s events and based on my task backlog.

8.15 AM

After settling in, and before my first meeting of the day, I might decide to plan for the meeting by reminding myself of the tasks I completed the week before or continuing to work on tasks that I ran out of time for. Sometimes this looks like looking over code that I was debugging last week, continuing with writing a report, or starting to plan out the structure of something new.

9.20 AM

Beep beep, the coffee van has arrived! We all bring our mugs and keep cups down to the van for some hot coffee/chai/chocolate/mocha and muffins. Pictured is a small subset of the regular coffee van-goers – coffee and laughs are a great way to start the day!

9.45 AM

Every Monday our team has what is called a “stand-up meeting”. A stand-up meeting is an opportunity for the whole team to get together, usually around a whiteboard, and go through what each person has achieved in the last week to see what tasks can be ticked off as done, what requires more time to complete, or if another approach to achieving a goal can be taken.

The stand-up meetings are a great opportunity to learn about what other people have worked on and provide input as to how a problem could be solved differently. Pictured here are myself, Jemille and Tom, looking at a protype of one of the user inputs for an in-vehicle monitoring system. This is one of many projects on the whiteboard currently in progress.

10.15-11 AM

In between meetings, I will try to fit in a little bit of project work or go up to members of the team and ask questions about how to tackle some of the problems brought up in the meeting.

11.00 AM

Another meeting on a specific project. In this meeting we run through a risk assessment matrix to see if any new areas of focus or anything resolved over the past week.

12-12.45 PM

Lunch time! It’s healthy to take breaks, and every lunch I head to the kitchen downstairs to eat lunch I have brought in from home and sometimes will sit outside after for a tea and chat with the other graduates.

12.45-5.15 PM

A solid block of time with no meetings is a great chance to tackle some of the project work on the whiteboard. As I am a graduate engineer, I am in a flexible role where I can try out lots of different tasks. Some days I will write code that helps to automate data processing tasks from the data generated from the devices installed in our fleets. Some days I will write a report relating to data analysis I have conducted. Some days I will communicate with people via email to push for solutions on certain issues.

Other days I might be doing graduate tasks or training, or meeting with my graduate program partner over Teams video call. It’s all about being flexible and prioritising what needs to be done first!

5.15 PM

Before I head home, I plan out the next day, submit my timesheet, wipe down the work desk (COVID-safe) and say ‘see-ya later’ to others still in the office.

Alternatively, on Thursdays we have a Nova mixed touch footy team, so I will get changed into my gear and then get a quick bite to eat before our game. Other days of the week I might play social netball/basketball, meet a friend for dinner in the CBD, or just head straight home to unwind, ready for another day!