Gabrielle Younes

8.00 AM

There is nothing better to wake up to than the continual ringing of your alarm – which you have been snoozing since 7:00 am. Now that I am awake, and after doing a quick scroll through my socials, it is time to brush my teeth, make a coffee (try and fail at some latte art) and throw on my go-to work from the home shirt. Whilst I wait for my computer to boot up, I complete my daily wordle, hoping to guess the word in 3 turns or less.

9.00 AM

Time to clock in! First, I must do my rounds on the Quantium Slack – I love playing the weekly Ricotta Trivia and scrolling through the different channels to skim through the articles that other people have posted. I then go through my calendar and reply to emails so that I am prepared for the day.

9.30 AM

I usually don’t have meetings until later in the morning, so I use my first 1-2 hours of work to make sure that my to-do list from the day before is complete. I open up my Jupyter notebook so that I can also use this time to review the code I wrote the day before. I begin by restarting the kernel and running all code cells (in case any errors mysteriously appeared overnight – yes I am that paranoid), and check that my comments sufficiently explain each section. If there are any lingering bugs, I do a few rounds of googling to solve my problem before I check in with my manager. Stepping through my code a day after initially writing it enables me to approach my work with clarity and pick up on any details that I may have missed. I also take notes on my output and any questions that I have to present to my manager.

10.30 AM

The first meeting of the day. I’m in Sydney but my manager is based in Melbourne, so we Zoom call to check in on the progress that I have made that week. My manager provides feedback on my code output and the other work that I have completed so far. As we discuss the latest updates on the project, I make notes on the next steps, ask my questions and clarify which tasks have the highest priority so that I can plan out my time.

12.00 PM

By now I am well and truly hungry. My go-to lunch is leftovers from dinner the night before, which I happily enjoy whilst scrolling through my phone. After eating, I fill up my water bottle, put in my earphones and go for a small walk outside to step away from my screens.

1.00 PM

Back to the computer!

2.00 PM

After having spent some time writing code to clean my data set, I head to Excel to start writing up a feature list and use cases that can be generated from the cleaned data. This requires a mix of analytical thinking and creative brainstorming – I always start by writing every idea that I have down, and then go through and refine the list before sharing it with my manager to review.

3.00 PM

It’s time to join my weekly project meeting – this is an opportunity for me to coordinate with other stakeholders in the project I’m working on so that I can share my progress, garner feedback and calibrate the direction that the work is moving in.

4.00 PM

Snack time! If I’m in the office it is time to offset the lack of caffeine in my system by snacking on sweets. The office kitchens are fully equipped with biscuits and Tim Tams (big yum!), which I love nibbling on in one of the kitchens. When I am home my choices are much more limited (big sad).

4.30 PM

Now I hop into the group intern Zoom call. Being the only intern on my project, these sessions (which we have once every few weeks) are super valuable as they are a great way to catch up with the other interns and get a taste of the work that they are getting up to in their team. Always be prepared to have a good laugh during these calls, which are always accompanied by a game of Gartic Phone or a TypeRacer competition. It is surprising how competitive you can become over typing fast – it is important to note that my high score of 96 words per minute did win me the top spot amongst the other interns.

5.30 PM

Respond to any last-minute Slack messages or emails and then log off for the day! Feeling satisfied after a solid day of work, I have an hour break before catching up with my family over dinner, then going out with friends to try the latest dessert joint that has opened, followed by the gym. Shower, read, pray then hit the hay!