Hamish Stein

6.30 AM

I’m up early and away on my bike to make it to the gym for Thursday swim squad before work.

7.45 AM

One of the benefits of a swimming morning is that I’m in the office early. No need to check the hot desk board today, I grab my laptop out of my locker, choose my favourite desk and dock into the big screen. Work doesn’t start until I’ve grabbed a coffee and a banana from the kitchen.

8.00 AM

The first part of the day is spent checking emails and catching up on general admin. I log my timesheets from the day before and check my calendar to help plan for the day ahead.

8.30 AM

I can see that late last night the project director from one of my projects has made some suggestions to edit the slides for a presentation we are giving later today. We are presenting an economic model and the challenge is to focus on the story rather than presenting too many numbers.

9.30 AM

I touch base with my project director to confirm that the edits that I’ve made tick off what she was looking for. We are happy with the pack, so we pass it on to the project support assistant for a final proof read. I take this chance to make some porridge and read the back of the paper. I like to eat breakfast at work so that I can have it a bit later in the day.

10.00 AM

I’m currently working on two different projects. This can be a challenge, but the variety is one of the best things about the job. I check in with my other project team at their desks. I let them know that I’ve got capacity until around 2pm. There’s plenty of work to be done and I’m tasked up with digitising some workshop materials from earlier in the week.

10.15 AM

Workshops with clients are a lot of fun at the time, but consultants, especially grads, know it can mean plenty of follow-up work. I collect the piles of butchers paper and sticky notes and head to a meeting room where I can spread out. It’s not the most glamourous work, but it’s ‘headphones on’ and time passes quickly.

12.45 PM

I packed my lunch today, so I grab it from the fridge and eat in the kitchen. We have one big table in the communal space, so you sit down and chat with whoever else is eating their lunch at the time.

1.15 PM

Back to the butchers paper. I’m moving sticky notes around the room. Trying to group them by theme.

1.45 PM

Outlook buzzes to remind me that we need to leave by 2pm to make the data presentation. It's time to put on my meeting clothes. I grab my suit from the cupboard and get changed.

2.00 PM

The client’s office is in the city, so we decide to walk over. I'm presenting three of the slides in the deck today. My colleague gets me to run through it with them as we walk across. 

2.15 PM

There are three of us from Nous and four people representing the client. We sit around a table and hand out printed copies of the slides instead of projecting them on a screen. This is our preferred approach as it tends to help people engage and lowers the formality of presentations.

3.45 PM

The meeting went well. There were a few curly questions and some new angles we will have to investigate but the client liked the model and have helped us nail down some of the assumptions. On the walk back, my project director gives me some feedback on my presenting style and quizzes me on what I think next steps might be for the project. 

4.00 PM

Back in the office I raid the snacks cupboard for some peanut butter. Need a bit of energy to get back into it. 

4.15 PM

For the next hour I've got R-club, it's an informal meeting every month for anyone who has been using or is interested in learning the R programming language. I started learning when I first joined Nous to help me with excel and big data projects. This week we look at how the program can be used to map the estimated travel time to a hypothetical new University campus from any point in Melbourne. 

5.15 PM

I want to finish up the workshop outputs I was working on earlier today so I put in one last shift. 

6.00 PM

I've got to be out of the door by 6pm on Thursdays to make it to hockey training on time. I pack up my hot desk and put everything back in my locker before heading downstairs and grabbing my bike. 

7.00 PM

I check my emails from my phone. Often Nousers with young families come back online after putting their kids to bed. Rarely does it need attention until tomorrow, but I know I can log in from home if needed. It's time for some low impact couch time with my housemates. Here's hoping for Kevin McCloud. 

10.00 PM

Pack my bag and off to bed.