dxc

Liam Creagh

Associate Business Consultant

8:00am

Wake up and get ready for the day, making sure I have a full water bottle at my desk.

9:00am

Start the work day, going through emails and seeing what meetings I have scheduled.

9:15am

Finish up any tasks or non-client activities from the day before.

9:45am

Begin working on major tasks assigned to me, which for my current project usually involves either reading scripts for system functionality and converting them into easy-to-understand training materials or implementing any feedback for already created training materials.

10:30am

Attend my first meeting of the day which is an internal project meeting where we discuss how the previous day went and if we need any help from within DXC Technology for our tasks. Often use this time to also get a quick snack in such as banana bread or fruit.

11:00am

Attend my daily client meeting where we discuss task progress and ask quick questions to the client. I sometimes elevate my desk to allow me to work while standing around this time.

11:30am

Continue working on my major tasks. A single training material can take anywhere from a few hours to several days to complete so each day I usually work on one major task at a time. If I get stuck or blocked and need to wait for a client’s response to a question, I will move on to a different task.

12:30pm

Stop work for lunch. Will eat my food away from my work computer, either with a friend or while watching a YouTube video. Meals are usually quick to make or made the previous night to give myself enough time to eat, watch and relax.

1:00pm

Come back to work and answer any emails/messages I missed while I was gone. Then I simply continue whatever I had been working on earlier in the day. Sometimes between 12-2pm I will have a non-client related meeting, such as for the graduate programme, my DXC department or to organise a social work activity.

4:00pm

Attend my final client meeting of the day, where we discuss any blockers encountered and if we need any extra meetings scheduled in for the following day.

4:30pm

Attend either a social meeting with my manager and other graduates, finish any vital work for the project, spend the time working on any administrative/self-improvement tasks or if we are in the office, challenge some to Foosball.

5:00pm

Finished for the day. If there is any vital work for the following day that will take a short time to complete, I will finish it off then shut down the computer.

6:00pm

I try to get some physical activity in, at least every second day. Usually consists of rock climbing, playing field hockey or a simple walk.

7:00pm

Dinner time with the family while we watch television. We discuss how each of our days went while preparing the meals.

8:00pm

If I am not out of the house or playing an online game with friends, I will either watch a movie or read a book. Basically, whatever will allow me to relax and enjoy myself.

11:00pm

Get to bed and continue reading my book or talk with friends online.

12:00am

Go to sleep to give myself a solid 8 hours of rest for the next day.

dxc

Sanath Srimal Punchibandage

Associate Professional System Engineer

From trainings to career planning, the programme catered to my every need and answered every concern I had as a graduate entering a professional role. If you’re looking for a career pathway that is flexible and supports you every step of the way, you’re at the right place.

8.00 AM

Wake up and get ready for a morning walk/jog while listening to an audiobook.

9.00 AM

Start the work day going through emails and seeing what meetings I have scheduled.

9.30 AM

Attend my first meeting for the day, where we update the team on what we’re currently working on and how we’re progressing.

10.00 AM

Begin working on my assigned tasks, which usually involves opening up a code editor like Visual Studio Code to write code in. In order to create cloud infrastructure we write our code in Terragrunt files, which uses Terraform in the background. Using such software makes life a lot easier as we can just ‘declare’ what infrastructure we want built. I will then save my changes and push my code to Github, which is where all our code sits. This is where AWS (Amazon Web Services) does it’s magic and runs CodeBuild to prepare resources and ensure everything is ready to be merged. If it all checks out, I can merge my code to the master branch, and AWS will begin building all the infrastructure I have requested. More often than not, I will run into a build failure, which results in me then spending hours trying to figure out why. Welcome to coding guys.

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12.30 PM

At this point I’ll make myself a tea to have with a biscuit (or three), and proceed to move onto another task such as working on an app. This particular app I was working on needed an in-built phone function, so we utilised Amazon Connect to create phone numbers, call flows and everything in between. This project used mainly Javascript, and involved building the UI as well as making API calls to Microsoft Teams so that we could provide data to the user. I realised that I had never worked with the React JS library before, so I spent some time watching Youtube tutorials to bring myself up to speed.

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1.30 PM

I attend a meeting with the other grads on a fortnightly basis to touch base and see how we’re all going. Then after the meeting I’d keep working on the app or whatever task I was doing prior. And by working on the app I mean going to Stack Overflow and copy-pasting things until things start to work. #SoftwareEngineer

3.00 PM

Time for lunch. Shoutout to my mum and grandma for all the delicious meals!

3.30 PM

Self-development time. This is when I’ll allocate an hour of my day (if I’m not swamped with work) to study for a certification, or follow tutorials on different coding projects.

4.30 PM

Attend a meeting to show any working demo’s or discuss the issues I’m facing to get feedback.

5.00 PM

Finished for the day! If I have any last minute work I need to get done I’ll quickly do it now. Then I’ll wind down for a bit.

6.00 PM

Get some physical activity in! This can be anything from working out to walking the dog.

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7.00 PM

Shower and then dinner time! This will usually be while watching tv. Also, if I get time I like to work on a personal project, side hustle, or skill for an hour each night.

10.00 PM

Get ready for the next day. Sometimes I write out a detailed schedule of what I’ll do every hour of the day, and then other times I’ll just write the main things I want to work on.

11.00 PM

Get to bed and scroll on social media for an hour before falling asleep. Admit it – you do it too!

dxc

Fim Buathong

Associate Technical Consultant

Being in the graduate programme gives me the opportunity to tackle real world problems with the latest technology. The environment is relaxed, supportive, and I never feel out of place.

8.00 AM

First alarm goes off, eyelids heavier than I last remember, I know for a fact I won’t be getting up on this alarm. I press on snooze like 99% of us and hope I make it up for the next alarm.

8.10 AM

Second alarm goes off and this is where I really need to get up. I slowly wake up with a ray of light from my curtain slit beaming across my face as I form a mental-to do list. I usually check up on morning COVID news and browse social media for a bit. Lastly, I make my bed every morning.

8.30 AM

Time to log in and start working! At this time of the day, I am responding to emails and sending out emails that need a response by the end of day. I check in with some of my co-workers on Teams to make sure they are okay for the day or if they need any help. I also take time to study any technical documentation to boost my knowledge.

10.30 AM

Around this time, I get a bit peckish and head downstairs to the kitchen to make myself some tea and nutritious snack – as of late I have been into cashews! I say hi to my housemates as they are also working from home during the COVID restrictions in Victoria. Then it is back to work to set up the rest of my day.

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11.30 AM

Around this time, I would have had a meeting and have some work to get on with. Outside of project work, I have an internal project with another co-worker to develop an Azure Skills Assessment survey. The purpose is to gauge our Azure Cloud capabilities. Taking on a more functional approach, I am looking after the flow of the survey and building a Power BI report in order to make sense of the data we will collect.

1.00 PM

Favourite time of day, lunch! Depending on how I feel I lean towards a heavier lunch as I still need to power through the rest of the day. As I am WFH, I generally make food – I tend to go with anything high carbohydrates. Quick hotpot is my go-to or/and some bread top. On paydays I will most likely Uber something to celebrate! Oh, I also take at least 15 minutes to find something to watch when I am eating.

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1.30 PM

Time to head back to the battle station, I have now until 5:00 to finish up the work that I have planned out for myself. I usually listen to lo-fi as it helps me cruise through work, Hardstyle on hump days or throwback RnB on Fridays. I usually have a good mix of meetings and work around this time of the day and it’s also my most productive window, 150% effort!

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5.00 PM

Now it is time to shut off the laptop and disconnect from work but before that I need to do my timesheets and tidy up loose ends at work to ensure no emails come through during afterhours. Occasionally I get emails, but if they do not require urgent assistance, I tend to read and reply first thing in the morning.

5.30 PM

Dinner time! I eat an early dinner as I have things to do during the night and I feel having to stop what I am doing to eat is… an inconvenience. My dinner won’t be as heavy as lunch but if my housemates decide to eat together, reassure it will be a feast. Otherwise, my go to combo is something light like a sandwich + smoothie.

6.30 PM

Me time! I generally choose to exercise at my local park (be sure to bring an umbrella because Melbourne weather!) or upskill. This is the time I use to improve my work skills - mainly technical skills. I have spun up an Azure environment and deployed different resources using Azure PowerShell scripting language. I also bought a Udemy course to improve my Python skills too. Although the company does provide free training resources, I like to study using different approaches as this helps. I tend to pick up a skill I am lacking in and focus on that.

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8.00 PM

Doing my best to avoid the whole “hey he is a workaholic” title, I take this time to connect with my friends on Discord/Facebook. Most of my close friends are spread out across the nation so the only way we connect during COVID is through some online games, generally we play Valorant (FPS) or League of Legends (MOBA). Despite playing the competitive modes of each, I feel more relaxed as this is my stress-free time.

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10.30 PM

Around this time, I am getting ready to head into bed. I have custom lights in my room and so I switch it to dimmed red and avoid any blue light. Even my phone has a night mode as blue can disrupt quality of sleep. I take a shower and put on comfy pyjamas to ensure a good sleep. As I get older, I come to realise that sleeping is, matter of fact, underrated.

11.30 PM

I am now in bed but will do one last bit of chatting and talking to friends and reading some reddit on technology or funny discussions. I am not sure why this is a part of my sleep ritual as I do not remember 99% of what I read the next morning, either way it helps me fall asleep easier. Lights off only to realise today is only Monday and I have another four days ahead of me – the grind never stops I guess!!