7.00 AM

I start my day by waking up to my alarm. I try to aim for 7am but often I end up sleeping in another 15 minutes. I then open my blinds and start to get ready. When getting dressed I like to make sure I’m not in all black, as I like to bring a little style and colour into the office.

I have breakfast, often with my housemate who is also getting ready for their day. After this I pack my bag and sort out my lunch, which is often a pre-made meal from the supermarket. Unfortunately, I am not one for making extravagant lunches.

8.00 AM

I leave to catch the train into the city, which takes me around 40 minutes. Part of this is a 10 minute walk to the station, which is great to give me a little bit of exercise in the morning. On the train I usually listen to some music or read my Kindle to relax a bit before work.

9.00 AM

I get into the office around this time but it can vary, sometimes I start earlier so I can finish up sooner. I walk in and say hi to my friends before getting to my team area and finding a desk. My work is pretty flexible so there is always a range of people working from home as well as in the office.

I set up for the day and get started on what I was working on yesterday afternoon. Although a lot of my work is based in Java I tend to work in many areas of the project, which allows me to code in a variety of languages.

9.30 AM

By this time I have refreshed myself on the work I did yesterday and looked at what still needs to be done to finish the ticket. This includes tasks like writing tests and checking the acceptance criteria for anything that I’ve missed. I often write myself notes before I clock off so that I know what to focus on the next day and it’s these notes that I look over before diving into my work for the day.

My team is made up of a Scrum Master and eight Software Engineers, two of us are part of this year’s intern/graduate intake. A lot of the team have been graduates in the past, which means that there is always a friendly face who is happy to teach me about software I am unfamiliar with.

10.30 AM

I attend stand-up where the team and I share what we have been working on and what we are planning to do for the rest of the day. This keeps us accountable and makes sure that if anyone is encountering a problem, someone else in the team with relevant experience can offer their advice and help either by peer programming or brainstorming solutions.

I update my team on my ticket progress, including when I am likely to finish it. We then discuss some work that I will pick up once I am done, such as reviewing another teammate’s work. This is important to prevent any mistakes that a developer might have missed.

12.00 PM

At this point I might have come across what I think is a bug in the code. When I find something like this, I must confirm a couple of things, like if it is an unwanted behaviour, if I introduced it with my changes or it’s an existing problem. Determining the root cause of a bug can sometimes be tricky in a project with a large codebase like this because there are so many different places that an unwanted behaviour can be introduced.

If I encounter this, I usually ask one of my teammates to help me sort out the bug and we end up spending a fair bit of time analysing and solving. This is one of my favourite parts of my job - working with others and peer programming. I find that it’s the way I learn the fastest and I enjoy a good chat with my teammates.

By this point the bug has usually been fixed and I start to get hungry, which means it’s lunch time. I meet up with some other graduate and interns for lunch. Most days we all bring lunch from home, but I sometimes get something takeaway from some nearby shops.

3.30 PM

I continue working on my ticket. I put on my headphones and listen to some music or a podcast while I’m working to help me focus.

At the end of each sprint we show the client some features we completed as well as conducting a sprint retrospective. This is where we reflect on how the sprint went and look at what we could have done better. This helps us to continually improve and ensure we are meeting client expectations. A sprint is a short, time-boxed period when a scrum team works to complete a set amount of work and made ready for review.

5.00 PM

I finish my workday. Often my partner will also be working in the city where we meet up to run some errands and catch a bite to eat for dinner. I’ll catch the train home and get there around 8pm to allow myself to relax before bed, usually watching a tv show or playing a video game. I’ll head to bed around 10:30pm so I can get some rest before I do this all over again tomorrow.

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