Olivia Donovan

5.30 AM

This morning I decided to get myself out of bed super early to squeeze in a 6.00 am gym class. I don’t do this every day, but I do try and go at least two or three mornings during the week as I know I will be sitting down at my desk for most of the day. I enjoy getting in a little bit of exercise before work, even if it is just a short walk around the block as I feel it helps me wake up and get ready for the day ahead.

7.30 AM

A lot of people in the Adelaide Office choose to drive to work as there is a little bit of free parking around the office but I normally find it easier to jump on the bus. The ride into the city takes me around 50 minutes and then another 10 minutes to walk from the bus stop to work

9.00 AM

I normally like to get into the office between 8.30 am and 9.00 am to give me some time to find a desk and settle in for the day. In the Adelaide Office, we have an open-plan seating arrangement which means no one has offices or designated desks. You can choose to sit wherever you like which also means you could even be sitting next to one of the Partners for the day.

The first thing I like to do is check my emails to make sure there is nothing urgent that I need to work on that day. I’ll often then refresh myself with the client engagement that I am scheduled for that day, where my progress is and what outstanding items I need to prioritise.

9.30 AM

Whoever is in the office from the audit team will often go for a trip to the kitchen for their morning coffee. This is a good chance to catch up with everyone that is in the office and get your morning wake me up and even a snack. The Adelaide office always has fresh fruit, biscuits, and lollies, and if you are lucky, it might even be a Kit-Kat day. This morning lots of my team were out at client sites so the office was very quiet.

10.00 AM

This week I am scheduled on one of our junior explorers (mining) clients, and the team is working through the planning work for the audit. As a Graduate, I am responsible for looking at the client’s internal control processes. My tasks this week included looking into the client’s board minutes, legal fees and ASX announcements, to identify any areas of concern or updates since the prior year. The team spent yesterday on the client site where I was able to walk through with the client how their payroll and payments functions are run to understand whether sufficient controls are in place. I spent this morning documenting my findings from the prior day, inserting screenshots the client had provided and updating flowcharts showing the process visually.

12.00 PM

I then had a planning meeting for one of the client engagements I will be working on in the next few weeks. In the Audit, the planning meetings consist of an overview of the client for anyone who hasn’t been on the team before and then we will go over the significant risks and any changes to the organisation since the prior audit. This involves the entire engagement team from Associate to Partner level and usually occurs one or two weeks before starting the engagement.

1.00 PM

I usually take lunch between as close to 1.00 pm as possible as I feel like I am much more awake and productive in the morning so try and push it back. You can take lunch at any time though, which is great because if you have an appointment or are feeling extra hungry that day, you can take it earlier or later to suit. I like to get outside during my lunch break to stretch my legs and get some fresh air. I will often eat my lunch in the kitchen and then go for a walk around the block before coming back to work. It was a beautiful, sunny day today and since the office was so quiet, I decided to eat my lunch outside at a nearby park and then go for a 15-minute walk around the block.

2.30 PM

After lunch, the Associates had a debrief with the Adelaide Audit Partner and National People and Culture Leader to help get our feedback on what went well, what didn’t go as planned and discussions around practical solutions we could make to improve for next year. It was a very successful way for everyone to come together and get some feedback for areas to improve not just from the high-level Seniors and Managers but the less experienced team members too.

4.00 PM

I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing work on a few different client files as lots of audit engagements are being finalised. I had two other tasks with a couple of outstanding reviews notes that the Manager was hoping to close out the next day. Review notes in Audits are a way that Managers and Partners can give us feedback and help us learn about client engagement. We often sit down with whoever raised the review notes to get a clear understanding of what they expect and then address the notes and update the file as needed. I was able to tidy my outstanding review notes and send both files off to the Senior on the engagement for the entire file to be passed back to the Manager before the end of the day.

5.00 PM

Today, I left the office right on the dot of 5.00 pm as I had to race off to get to my gymnastics coaching on time. GT has been super flexible with out-of-work commitments so are more than happy for you to work flexible hours to fit around your schedule.

6.30 PM

I raced home from the office to try and get to my gymnastics coaching on time. I have been involved in gymnastics ever since I was little, and I love coaching the sport now. I coach a competition squad of 12 girls between 7 to 11 years old, 2 weeknights after work as well as for a few hours over the weekend. Here is a photo of some of the other coaches and me.

9.00 PM

Once I get home from coaching it’s relatively late, so I usually just find some leftovers or make something small and quick for dinner before bed. I’ll usually catch up with the family and hear what they got up to during the day or sit down in front of the television to unwind.

10.30 PM

I am more of a morning than a night person, so I like to have a pretty early night during the week. On the nights I have coaching I stay up a little later, but I usually like to be in bed between 10.00 pm and 10.30 pm.