Eman Younus

Curious to know what a day in the life of a Network Engineer Specialist is like? Here’s what a typical day looks like…

5.30 AM

I’m an early bird on weekdays. The first thing I do after waking up is to do my morning prayer, then I pack my snacks and get ready to go to work.

7.15 AM

I catch a train into the city and then another tram to the office, which is close to the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne. While commuting, I check my work email and calendar to see if there’s anything I need to prioritise when I get into the office. It’s also a good time for me to relax and prepare for the day.

8.30 AM

I arrive in the office – it’s time to say ‘good morning’ to my co-workers and make myself a cup of green tea.

8.40 AM

After settling down, I log onto my computer while enjoying my cup of tea

9.00 AM

A big part of my role is to look after a fascinating project - the Federal Government’s Mobile Black Spot Program, which aims to provide mobile phone coverage to regional and remote parts of Australia.

Some of these sites will be designed and delivered through mobile base stations, and some through Telstra’s 4G small cell technology.

I’m currently assigned to sites in Victoria and Tasmania, and my task for the day is to look for potential site locations around a specific search ring in regional or remote areas.

11.00 AM

It’s now time for our fortnightly team meeting. We go through things like current Victorian and Tasmanian coverage, customer complaints, incident reports and priority site status’.

12.30 PM

I run a program on my laptop, which looks for errors in our mobile towers.  This takes some time to finish, so I leave for lunch and catch up with my co-workers. We usually pick a restaurant around the office to avoid walking outside in the heat.

1.00 PM

I’m back in the office after indulging in delicious fries and a burger from a local shop. I check my laptop for the results on the program I ran earlier.  Now I just need to review the outcome and pass the information onto my Manager.

2.30 PM

Every fortnight, I host the Telstra Innovation Challenge (TIC) team meeting. The TIC is an IoT hackathon Telstra runs each year, which is open to university students and the general public, with new themes every year.  As the Project Manager for the 2019 challenge, I go through the tasks that have been completed by the team and assign new tasks for the upcoming weeks.

3.45 PM

I take a brief break to perform my afternoon prayer in the prayer room. It’s so helpful that every Telstra building I have worked in has a dedicated prayer room and I’m able to complete my religious obligations.

4.15 PM

Back to my desk – completing my radio networks designs for the project I started in the morning. Each design takes about a day or two. As I may come across a site that could be too close to residential areas or schools, I like to involve my colleagues and ask their opinions in case I stumble upon a challenging design project.

5.30 PM

I head to the train station to catch my train home. I usually listen to music, or I catch up on an online lecture part of the master’s degree in Astrophysics from the University of Southern Queensland that I'm pursuing.

7.20 PM

I get home and promptly perform my evening prayer, then I exercise at home or go for a walk, shower and have some dinner.

8.15 PM

It’s my favourite time of the day – I either watch something on Netflix or play games on my PS4.

10.00 PM

It’s bedtime! I perform my final prayer for the day and get ready for bed after a busy day. Looking forward to seeing what’s in store for me tomorrow?