Samara MacLean

7.30 AM

I am lucky enough to start my day with an in-person coffee this morning! I meet up with my fellow city-based grads this morning at our local coffee shop to discuss work and life updates. We are about to start our new roles in the next rotation, so we exchange tips on the best things to do during the first week with our new teams!

8.45 AM

Now that I am caffeinated, I head back to my laptop to get the day started! I check for any new emails or messages and pull up my Jira board to prep for our daily stand-ups.

9.00 AM

I have my squad stand-up for the day, we have a quick chat and go through our team’s product board together, so everyone is across the teams goals for the sprint. This meeting is where I can raise any blockers and identify my priority tasks for the day. Today’s focus is on documentation required for an upcoming change to our product.

9.15 AM

I get started on the big tasks for the day. Today I am confirming changes to our newest release of the app. This requires confirming with Product Owners what feature changes they have deployed in production and what these changes will mean for the customer. But first I meet with my manager to discuss the plan of action.

10.00 AM

Once we have gone through the requirements for today’s task, I set up a time with the stakeholders who will provide me with information about the change. Today I am meeting with people from the Join team who oversee the customers' experience when joining the app. We discuss what features are changing for the latest release and collate all the information into one place.

11.30 AM

ANZ has 2 graduate committees, and I am lucky enough to be one of the grads who get to help run events and send out comms for other ANZ graduates. Every week we meet to discuss the upcoming events and newsletters we produce for the graduate cohort.

12.00 PM

I always try to take a walk during my lunch break to break up the day, especially when working from home.

1.00 PM

When I return to my laptop I see where I am at with my tasks for the day. Once I have gathered the information I need, for today that was information related to changes in the Join section of the app for our latest release, I will send it over to my manager for review.

2.30 PM

I will usually have some sort of team sync or meeting on most days so today we have a team meeting where we catch up with the extended team. We will usually start with any program-wide updates and then go through a piece of work the team should all be across. Today we go through the change process for how to update T&Cs. Then we go around the room and each person will give a quick update on their work for the week, I give an update on this release change document I am working on.

3.00 PM

3pm calls for the second coffee of the day. I like to schedule virtual coffee catchups during this time so I get the chance to network with others across the company who I may not get the chance to meet when working from home. Today I chatted with one of the software architects at ANZ and he described his role and what his day-to-day looks like.

3.30 PM

Every fortnight there is an ANZx wide meeting where we get updates from the leads across the program. This will usually feature a showcase from a team that has recently released something. Today we had a demonstration of new chat functionality for the app and saw a live demonstration of how this will work for customers.

4.30 PM

This will be the time for any final meetings of the day or catchups with the team. I have finished with my meetings today so I check in to the Jira board to see what task is next to tackle. I will often use this time to send out meeting invites for stakeholders I will need to engage with tomorrow and compile any questions I have and areas I want to learn about for the next team sync.

5.30 PM

I log off work and if the weather is nice that day, will go on a walk. Today I met a friend after work, and we walked to the beach to watch the sunset – one of my favourite parts of the day!