Patrick Wilson

6.30 AM

I wake up, go out into the kitchen to make breakfast, and have that all-important first cup of coffee for the day. I like to spend this time catching up on social media, after which I get myself ready for the day at work, putting on some comfy yet still webcam presentable clothes for working from home.

7.00 AM

This is when my workday starts. I log into my laptop and first check my Nova Systems emails and see if there have been messages come through on Teams from my workmates. With everyone working from home for the time being it’s nice to keep in touch however we can and we usually have some morning banter to get the day really moving. Following this, I need to log into the virtual network where I do all my work for the Defence client. This includes checking a separate email and Skype to see if any emails have come through from the client relating to the work that I do as part of the EMB (Explosive Material Branch) team.

7.20 AM

Once I have checked all my emails I typically continue with the work I have started earlier in the week. This typically includes working on a document called the Requirement Verification Summary (RVS) where we assess new items of EO against a series of requirements to ensure that the item remains safe and suitable for service and we have identified any unique hazards which are presented by the item that the client should know about. This document takes up a majority of the work that we need to do to introduce new items into service and feeds into a series of sub-reports that summarise the results and hazards for presentation to the various stakeholders for the item.

9.00 AM

It’s time for a weekly meeting with the Nova EMB team to discuss what tasks everyone is working on and the progress of the various reports we are required to develop for the client. This is a good opportunity to check in with everyone on the team and delve into the collective knowledge to get help with any issues that I have come across as I work on my own tasks. Being a second-year graduate in the team I am also able to provide some support to the newer grads who have only recently started with the team.

10.30 AM

Time for a snack, I usually like to grab some fruit and biscuits to eat at my desk to tie me over until lunchtime. After this, I continue to work on the RVS which involves me looking up international test standards and comparing the requirements of these standards to the test information we have for the item of EO. This helps to show that the item will remain safe when it is handled by Defence personnel during storage and transport.

12.00 PM

This is when I have lunch. One of the main benefits of working from home, aside from the 5-metre commute, is that I have access to my full pantry and aren’t limited to what I bring in my lunch box to the office. In this case, I had some leftover zucchini slices that my family had for dinner the night before. During this time I like to relax by catching up on social media or watching YouTube videos however I also am hooked on solving the daily Wordle during this time.

12.30 PM

After lunch, I log back onto my computer and see a couple of messages from one of the new grads asking about their task. I message back and forth with them for a bit before jumping on a Teams call with them to better demonstrate and explain how to fill out another document we are required to develop known as the Hazard log which lists the hazards associated with the EO item we identified in the RVs. Following this conversation, I am able to log back into the virtual network to continue my own work.

2.00 PM

As I am working through my RVS I notice that my item has electrical devices that need to be assessed however since my background is in mechanical engineering, I do not fully understand what is needed to be done. In order to get more information, I reach out to the electronics SME (Subject Matter Expert) at the Defence client who provides me with some further information about my item and advises me to develop a supplemental report which covers all the electrical requirements within the RVS so that information can be communicated to the appropriate stakeholders.

4.00 PM

Time to finish up work for the day. Double-checking I have no urgent emails or Skype messages, I save and close down the documents I was working on for the day as well as close down any reference material I had opened before logging off of the virtual network. Then I fill out my timesheet on Nova’s internal system with everything I did today before checking my Nova emails and teams one last time before signing off.

4.15 PM

Work is done for the day so time to fire up the home PC to sign on to the discord server I have with some of the other Nova graduates for some fun gaming sessions.