Steven Shi

06.30 AM

I wake up, make my bed and try my best not to forget to pack my lunchbox for the day. I normally try my best to get everything prepared the night prior before I head to bed. It’s a 20 min drive to the Austal Henderson Shipyard.

07.00 AM

After putting on my Personal Protection Equipment (Hard-hat and High-vis Vest) I clock in at Bay 1 (where they assemble the Vessels) and have a quick glance at how the current vessel has been progressing. After a short walk to the Administration Building next to the water, I put my lunch in the fridge and go through my emails for the day and write all actionable items that I can think of down onto my daily planner.

09.15 AM

The first short break of the day! I make eye contact with Riccardo (another Business Graduate) and in unison we move outside alongside a gaggle of co-workers for a breath of fresh air on the wharf. The local fauna/aquatic also seem to just be waking up. The ocean is calm and clear today.

10.00 AM

I’ve booked in a meeting with our Sustainment Department to assist with some invoice reconciliation at our satellite office located at Macedonia St. I get my laptop prepared alongside all the documents I know I will be dealing with loaded up on my computer and do a bit of revision so I can make the most out of my time speaking to Phil face to face (Sustainment Manager for the Cape Class Patrol Boats).

12.30 PM

Phil managed to give me a lot of ideas on potential leads that could help Sustainment close in on a solution. Sustainment staff entice me to stay around as they are having their monthly pot-luck lunch and Mariam has made her famous vegetarian biryani.

2.00 PM

I am back in our Henderson Shipyard. I jump into another meeting with Kim (Accounts Payable Supervisor in our Philippines Shipyard) via Microsoft Teams. We are just doing a pulse check on how we are going with the Procure to Pay (P2P) process improvements and we suggest ways we could help each other to ease the workload. We sometimes get slightly carried away with our meetings and often talk about what our travel plans will be after International Travel opens up.

3.00 PM

Our second break of the day! There’s much more wild life out on the pier now. We spot a few crabs along the shore (we reminisce on when a pod of dolphins cornered a school of fish right amongst our wharf).

3.30 PM

I go through and run a quick Python Program created by one of our other Grads. Through the report, I generate some basic data analytics for our Accounts Payable Team (and upper management) to provide updates on how our P2P Improvement process has been tracking.

4.20 PM

It’s time to head off! Still early enough to beat the traffic home. I have my Rostered Day Off tomorrow and I decide to go for a long swim at the gym which is on my way home.

7.00 PM

I’m planning on going to a Music Festival with a work-friend that works in the Design department (we met whilst eating lunch together on the jetty!) and I spend the evening painting a pair of overalls to wear for the weekend.

10.00 PM

I head to bed. Sometimes I think about how I could have been more efficient with my day and I’ve found that is generally quite a good way to get me to fall asleep :D