A day in my life
5:45 am - wake up
Or rather being woken up by one of my two young kids. Yes, grads at PM&C can also be of mature age, have a family, house and other responsibilities. So I’d better get going!
7:30 am - leave for work
Out the door and off to the kids’ drop-off. Balancing work and family can be tricky, but PM&C has a wonderful work/life balance, genuinely cares about your wellbeing, and is supportive of flexible work.
08:10 am - start work
I start work each day between 8 and 8.30. First, I check my emails and read through whatever arrived in my inbox overnight.
9:00 am - coffee catch-up
There are so many interesting people working at PM&C. I love finding out about their backgrounds, the areas they work in, and projects their teams are involved in.
I try to put regular time in my diary to catch-up with old and new colleagues, other grads, or interesting co-workers I'd like to get to know better over coffee. Sometimes this is part of a divisional ‘coffee roulette’, where you’re randomly matched with a colleague. It’s a fantastic opportunity to meet people and make meaningful connections.
9:30 am - back to work
Back at work, the rest of the team starts to come into the office. Some mornings we have a team stand-up, a quick catch-up to see what everyone's priorities and tasks are for the day.
10:30 am – contributing to international engagements
In my current team we are working on the Prime Minister’s international engagements. I have been supporting my supervisor with research, drafting and editing of proposed outcome documents, such as international agreements and bilateral statements. I'm drafting emails to other teams within PM&C and externally across many other agencies and departments that we believe should be consulted on these draft documents.
12:30 pm- time for lunch
I’m heading out for lunch with some of the other grads at a wonderfully authentic Brazilian BBQ food truck close by.
1:30 pm - back to work
I bump into a colleague from a team I worked with earlier in the year. PM&C grads get to work across a number of different areas throughout the year. I started the year in the Europe and Latin America team in International Division, went on to support the Defence Industry, Strategy and Space section in the National Security Division and then joined a small 4-person secretariat to support a significant independent review – certainly one of the outstanding highlights of this past year.
3:00 pm – connecting with colleagues at home and abroad
I'm now supporting the Leaders’ Track team of the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit Taskforce. I start work on a document where we track past, current and potential new policy initiatives that will benefit from possible announcements at the Special Summit. I am working with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australia's diplomatic missions (called posts) in relevant Southeast Asian nations, and my PM&C colleagues to gather the information.
5:00 pm – wrapping-up
I've completed a first-draft of the tracking document, and anticipate more input during the coming days. To facilitate further discussion, I schedule meetings with relevant DFAT and PM&C colleagues responsible for the engagement of the participating countries’ Heads of State.
Before leaving, I check for urgent tasks I could tackle in the morning as I'm likely to be the first one in the office.
5:30 pm – homeward-bound
It’s time to pick up the kids and head home to the picturesque township where we live, just 30 minutes from Canberra.
8:30 pm – unwind
I'm out for a run, catching up on podcasts, new music or just letting the thoughts escape.
10:30 pm – lights out
After a bit of telly and some light reading, I'm calling it a day. New adventures tomorrow!