Hamzah Hassim

6.15 AM

I wake up at 6:15 am each day starting my day with a hot shower and performing my morning prayer so I am fresh and ready for the day! I then like to have a quick check of the latest bus schedule to see if there may be any delays getting to the office as it generally takes me about an hour, and on busy days a bit longer. If there aren’t any delays like today, I tend to take my time before heading off.

7.00 AM

I often tend to grab a piece of fruit as I am heading out of the house to have on my way to the bus stop or when I get to the office. The bus stop is a 7-minute walk from home which can be biting cold in winter. The nice thing is buses are frequent but the later I go, the busier the bus and roads get. Today was a beautiful morning and on my walk to the bus stop, I tend to either plan my day ahead of me or just enjoy the fresh air!

Once I jump on the bus, I do my morning prayers and catch up on social media. I tend to enjoy the mornings I prefer getting into the office earlier and finishing earlier.

8.30 AM

I reach the office by 8:30 and fire up my computer to get started for the day. The first thing I generally do is check my emails. I read through my emails and clean up my inbox filing them in the folders they belong – I like to make sure my inbox never gets too messy, otherwise, I struggle to find emails when needed.

8.45 AM

Being the start of the week, I print out my weekly planner and jot down a few key tasks that I would like to achieve during the day. At times they are a bit far-fetched but I try my best! Once my planner is sorted out, I log onto our Audit Dashboard software to see what we have received from the client and if new items are received I change my initial plans for the day.

9:00 AM

I tend to always reach out to my job manager to let them know my plan of action for the day and to see if there is any more urgent work that needs to be completed as a priority. My manager has an additional task they would like me to complete before I get started, which involves summarising some board meeting minutes.  I get down to summarizing the board minutes and due to the client being a large company, there’s quite a bit of me to go through.

11.00 AM

After completing the tasks, I get up and take a walk to the kitchen to refill my water bottle as I have been sitting for too long. There’s nothing better than ticking off a task that has been completed. Looking at the remaining tasks for the day, I have a team meeting to catch up on how the audit is progressing.

Once the meeting is completed, I get back to completing my tasks set out for today. The next task I am going to be completing today is some revenue vouching where we ensure that the 5 obligations for revenue are met for it to be recognised as revenue. Due to the client being a large company and there being a large number of samples to vouch for, I decide to work through half of it and then break for lunch.

1.00 PM

After finishing half of the revenue vouching task, I decided to take my lunch break. During my lunch break, I tend to go for a walk just to get out a bit as I have been sitting at my desk for the past few hours. Being from the Muslim faith and having 5 daily prayers with one prayer around lunchtime, I complete my prayers. Next, I have my lunch which is a homemade burger!

1.45 PM

All refreshed for the remainder of the day I get back to my desk and fire up my laptop, I continue my revenue tasks for the next hour and a bit.

Next up on my list of things to do is a data cleansing task, which involves me running the data set through the analytical system we have here at Grant Thornton. The system makes life so much easier and reduces the task time by about 2 hours.

Once the data is ready to go, I run it through our analytical tool to ensure there are no variances noted. I message my job manager to provide an update on what I have done.  My manager on the job is really helpful and is always on hand to provide me with the help I may need to complete a certain task.  

4.30 PM

I generally like to save an easy task for the last being the end of the day. As an Associate in the Audit team, I generally work on sections such as PPE, Operating Expenses, Cash and Accounts Payable. Having this in mind and knowing these sections are assigned to me, I get a head start by setting up the templates once I receive the documentation for the clients.

5.30 PM

With the day almost over already, I go through my emails to ensure I haven’t missed anything.  I also check to see whether I have any meetings early tomorrow that I need to be prepared for. I thoroughly enjoy client engagement and look forward to those catch-ups.

Before heading off to the bus stop, I complete another prayer, fill my water bottle and ensure I have everything as tomorrow I am planning to work from home.

7.15 PM

My bus took a little longer than normal today.  Once home, I greet my family and have a quick shower. (Yes I’m a twice a day shower guy!).  We all sit down to have dinner together as a family. Time always goes by quickly and before I know it, I have to prepare my lunch for the following day and then get ready to head off to bed.

9.45 PM

Being a Monday, I am more tired than usual and decide to get ready for bed. Once I have completed my night prayer, I tuck myself into bed and browse through social media.

Thinking of experiencing life as a Grant Thornton? Sign up to GradAustralia to receive job alerts for Grant Thornton