Aman Sharma

6.00 AM

My alarm goes off and I jump out of bed, grabbing my gym gear and heading straight out the door. I like to spend my mornings at the gym as it really wakes me up for the day and gets me motivated and feeling revitalised.

8.30 AM

I enter the workplace through the infamous long escalators in the Canberra office. I chose the ATO Grad Program because I’ve always been intrigued by the challenging and meaningful work that the ATO has to offer - working in this state-of-the-art office is also a plus.

9.00 AM

I start my day by spending the first 5-10 minutes informally catching up with the team, my co-workers, and other grads in the office. I then spend about 30 minutes catching up on emails to see what the day ahead consists of.  

I work with the Law Design and Practice (LDP) financial advisor group. My role requires delivering financial resource management activities to enable the delivery of organisational priorities. This involves creating forecasts and budgets, financial reporting and communicating with internal stakeholders to support informed decision making.  

9.30 AM

Every Tuesday and Thursday morning we have a team meeting. These meetings are generally about the projects we are working on and to catchup with the team, we also play small team games like trivia!

10.30 AM

During this time of day I focus on reviewing excel spreadsheets and ensuring everything is running smoothly. I use Microsoft Excel a lot in my role, this includes designing, creating and updating spreadsheets. My team works to provide financial advice and resource management to other teams within the ATO, it’s important that all the spreadsheets are functioning correctly. This can involve a lot of collaboration and problem solving.

12.30 PM

Time for lunch! I usually grab a bite with some of the other grads. On today’s menu was Banh Mi with the team. 

2.30 PM

Time to work on our graduate group project. As part of the Grad Program, all the grads are involved in a small group project that uses teamwork, problem solving and all our capabilities. The project involves creating a detailed executive report and to carry out a presentation for members of the grad cohort. The aim of the project is to address current issues and opportunities facing certain business areas within the ATO. A couple things we focus on in the project are risks and issues management, stakeholder management and desired outcomes of implementing the strategy.

As a group we’re required to adhere to a weekly schedule ensuring that outcomes are met and discuss any issues that may come up during research. As a result, we’ll tend to catch up a couple times a week to discuss the progress of the project, this can take place either online or in person depending on what suits the group better.

4.15 PM

I finish my daily task list and ensure everything is on track before signing off for the day.

5.00 PM

After logging off for the day, some of the grads and I finish the day by getting together to play some pool. I’ve met some awesome friends through the Grad Program!

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