7.15 AM
I am on a project at a large University in Melbourne, my home base is Sydney so I'm staying in a hotel close to the client. I wake up, put on my favourite New York Times Daily podcast while I get ready for work. I pack exactly four outfits in my carry-on so it's a lot more efficient than when I'm at home! There are 5 or so other consultants on my team staying at the hotel so we all congregate in the lobby and make our way to the client site.
8.30 AM
We have our daily morning stand up with the wider team where we all go through what we're working on. I raise a couple of roadblocks and we talk through how we can solve them. I then go for a quick coffee run with my workstream to kickstart the day.
10.30 AM
It's my first client meeting of the day. My workstream is focused on the University's future operating model, this involves a bunch of interviews with clients to understand what they are currently doing and areas of opportunity to improve. I go with the associate on my project and we take turns asking questions, adapting our style depending on the client.
1.30 PM
We've finished our interviews for the day - 3 of them kept us busy. We join the wider team for a quick lunch break. We love to all sit outside for 30 minutes every day on campus.
2.00 PM
Back at our working hub, I start consolidating our interview findings. We've got over 35 interviews scheduled over the next couple of weeks and I know we're going to have to look back on these notes throughout the project to form our recommendations.
3.30 PM
More coffee!!
4.00 PM
It's only week 3 of a four-month project so there's a large steerco meeting happening with the University leadership team at the end of the week. This will introduce the team and provide an update on ongoing activities. There are specific slides from our workstream required for this. I create a couple of slides showing our high level operating model approach.
6.00 PM
My slides are sent to our manager and we're ready to head back to the hotel. I go to the hotel gym with a few of the other analysts on the project where approximately 80% of energy is exerted chatting about our day. Eventually, we do our 10-minute core routine.
7.15 PM
We meet back downstairs after freshening up. If we don't have much work on we'll explore Melbourne restaurants but more often than not we order uber eats. We eat a quick dinner together and head back to our rooms.
8.30 PM
I have more client interviews in the morning so I'm keen to prepare some questions and do research on the functions involved. A few others on the team also have work to finish up so we get together to do that.
10.30 PM
I watch an episode of Masterchef and do a final check on my Outlook calendar which usually puts my mind to ease the night before a big day!