Updating Results

Richard Ta

7.30 AM

I’ve been snug in bed for the past half hour, having hit snooze about eight times by now. However, panic quickly sets in when I realise I’m going to be late so I slide out of bed and, in less than 20 minutes, I’m waiting for the train to come.

9.00 AM

I make my way up to level eight today and quickly nab the last table by the waterside – desks on this side of the building tend to get taken up quite early! After I put my lunch in the fridge and take a couple of snacks from the kitchen, I go through my emails, check my calendar and ready myself for the day.

PwC Richard Ta 1

9.30 AM

My first meeting of the day is a debrief with a manager and senior consultant from my previous client engagement – where I got to fly to Adelaide! I report on my findings for the week and discuss improvements I could’ve made, both with my work and interactions with the client for next time. We also chat about the great restaurants and bars I checked out while I was there, plus an internet café!

10.00 AM

I catch up with both the director and manager on my current engagement. We’re helping a client with their internal audit and key compliance obligations. There’s been a delay at the client’s end given key staff absences so we discuss our plan of attack for the coming week and how we can still deliver our report on time. It’s going to be a busy week!

11.00 AM

I head upstairs for a coffee run with some mates. Having the café with in-house baristas serving up free coffee has been a great plus since moving to Barangaroo! One colleague suggests a quick game of table tennis, however, I decline as I need to deliver a few things by the day’s end. I promise him a game later, if he’s around.

PwC Richard Ta 2

12.30 PM

Time for lunch! Today it’s just leftovers from dinner last night, however sometimes I’ll ‘forget’ about my brought lunch and grab some nice Portuguese chicken from downstairs. I also get to catch up with a few friends from other service lines.

PwC Richard Ta 3

2.00 PM

After firing off a few more emails, I have a conference call with my clients in-house risk and compliance team. I discuss the project timeline so they know what we’re doing to make sure the report is delivered on time and we review findings from the week before and how we can address them.

Pwc Richard Ta 4

3.00 PM

Mid-afternoon is a good time for me to smash some work out. My client has sent through some reports and data dumps so I plug in my earphones, anything from Proximity on YouTube is pretty good and work through what we’ve received. They outsource their custodian data to a third party and I’m testing to see if the arrangement is in compliance with APRA standards. This involves a lot of policy comparisons with the standards and performing a few VLOOKUPs in excel with the data set to check if data integrity is maintained between them and the custodian. I document my findings and note down any exceptions to follow up on.

5.00 PM

I have a quick catch up with my manager before he leaves, updating him on what I’ve found in the documents we’ve received so far and mention that I might have a finding or two to report. All good, he says. I send out an email to the client hoping to book in some time with them tomorrow. Lucky for me, they’re still at work so I get a swift reply and I book out an hour with them tomorrow morning

5.30 PM

I have a meeting with the PwC Esports Committee to talk about potential gaming events we can host by the end of the year for some of our clients. Progress has been great since the busy season ended and we work out some time next week to look over a proposal to co-sponsor a massive gaming tournament involving many universities. As I’m a passionate gamer myself, being able to get involved in esports events as part of work has been awesome!

7.00 PM

All I want to do when I get home is lay on the couch and do nothing but I can’t skip gym day so make my way over (I live opposite one) and pump out a few sets before cooling off on the treadmill. It’s a great way to get my mind off work and recharge for tomorrow.

9.00 PM

After a quick shower, I hop on my computer and play some video games online with friends (both from university and work). It’s great for entertainment and socialising (and cheaper than a Friday night out too!).

11.30 PM

It’s time for bed, although I’ll probably be on my phone checking out Facebook for a good half hour before I actually sleep. I then remember I still haven’t sent my last email out so I get on that straight away before I snug up, knowing full well I’ll have the same trouble waking up tomorrow just like I did today.