Ella Thompson

5.30 AM

It’s a cold Thursday in Auckland, I wake up to my blaring alarm. Once reality sets in and I realize I do in fact have responsibilities and a full-time job, I force myself up and get ready for a HIIT class at the gym.

7.30 AM

When I get home, I’m in a mad hurry to get ready for work. My housemate and I walk the easy 2km into work where we stop for our first coffee, debrief and chat about the upcoming day.

8.00 AM

I arrive at work and say hello to the team. I haven’t been in the office for the last three days as I have been away filming a new campaign. The first thing I do is open my emails and see what has come over the last few days. It’s overwhelming having so many emails in my inbox so I quickly sort them based on priority.  I have a scan of my calendar to see what time I have today,  then I grab my notebook and write my to-do list for the day which consists of catching up on emails, planning for stakeholder presentations, and briefing for new creatives.

9 AM

My first meeting kicks off for the day, which is a fortnightly catch-up with my rotational manager where we have a general catch-up, followed by a discussion of my workload and capacity for future projects. I let her know that I am almost at full capacity but happy to take on some smaller ad hoc jobs.

9.30 AM

I make myself breakfast in the kitchen and grab another coffee from the coffee machine. I’ve blocked out this time as ‘focus time’. I plan the PowerPoint slides for a new strategy presentation we are taking a stakeholder through tomorrow. I copy down some key points for the presentation and send these to my manager to review.

11.00 AM

I head up a few floors and go to a business customer feedback meeting with my graduate project team. As graduates at ANZ, you are put into groups and work together to solve a business issue. Our issue is focused around business customer engagement. During this meeting we give the stakeholder a brief on what our issue is, present a range of solutions and ask for his feedback. After the meeting, I use our shared document to record any key points and as a team we set new action tasks.

12.15 PM

I always try and pack my lunch instead of buying, but today was an exception. I headed down to Commercial Bay with some of my colleagues. The weather isn’t that great, so we take our food back to the office and sit in the kitchen. I always try and take a lunch away from my computer to get a good break-in.

2.00 PM

Mid-afternoon is my most productive. Now, I must create a brief to send to the in-house design team to change some of our ATM screen designs. I use the set briefing templates and clearly outline the tasks as well as source the open files ready to be sent to the team. I send it off and make a note in my calendar about when I should expect a reply.

3.00 PM

I have 30 minutes before my next meeting so I decide to focus on a quick task. Yesterday I got sent some creatives from our design team which will be posted on our social media accounts. I must align the images and check that they meet the content plan and brief I had previously planned.

3.30 PM

I head into a meeting with our Business Change Manager. During this time, we set up a new task working on a long-term project based on regulatory change around unclaimed money. It’s very different to my usual work in the Brand team, but it will provide me more exposure to different areas of the bank. I quickly make a note for tomorrow to start a workflow process diagram, and book in a new weekly recurring meeting with the manager.

5.30 PM

I finish off my last lot of emails, checking I have completed my high-priority tasks. I’m done for the day and log off. I head up to another floor where some of the grads are gathering to have an after-work drink. We catch up in the kitchen and chat about everyone’s day.

7 PM

As a group we walk up to the local pub as the social committee has organized a social event with the grads.