Rachel Bell Macdonald

7.40 AM

My alarm goes off and after a quick scroll through social media and emails, I’m out of bed and going about my routine. By 8.10 am, I’m out of the house and by 8.50 am, I’m in the Sydney office, admiring the view of Barangaroo Reserve while making a coffee.

9.00 AM

I find a seat by the window (we hot desk) and chat with friends as I log on and check my emails and calendar for the day. Knowing that I have a daily stand-up in a few minutes, I prioritise checking any project-related emails.

9.15 AM

We are currently in week two of a 10-week project and have daily internal stand-ups at 9.15 am with the Project Team, which consists of a Consultant (me), a Senior Consultant, an Engagement Manager, a Principal and two Partners. As the whole team is in the office today, we find a room and discuss priorities for the week ahead, our progress on various workstreams, debrief from a client meeting that the Principal and Partners were in, and check up on the work-life balance commitments that we made at the start of the project. Though this project has gotten off to a quick start due to highly engaged clients, we are so far all managing to reach our work-life balance goals. For me, this is going to the gym in the evening around 6.00 pm or 7.00 pm and taking a break. For others, this is eating dinner with their family and putting their children to bed in the evening.

9.30 AM

As the stand-up wraps up, the ‘core’ working team (me, the Senior Consultant and our Manager) discuss more granular priorities for the day. We have a client meeting the next day at midday, and the aim is to send a draft version of a short deck for that meeting by end of the day and turn in comments on it that evening or tomorrow morning before the client meeting. Luckily, these are relatively informal client meetings and no pre-send is required. After laying out my plan for the morning to my manager and the slides that I plan to work on, he confirms that I am on the right track and I get to work for the day. We will check in again over the next few hours, though he is sitting nearby so we will talk throughout the day.

11.00 AM

My Outlook calendar pings – it’s birthday time! Every month on a given day, we celebrate all birthdays for the month with cake and a cheesy ‘Happy Birthday’. As it’s my birthday in a few weeks, I put on a hat and tuck in.  After 20 or so minutes of chatting and indulging, I return to my desk.

We are conducting a Risk project and as part of this early phase of the Project, we are focusing our efforts on two key areas: a current state assessment of our client’s Risk apparatus and local and global industry best practices. I am distilling a range of industry practices and comparing them to our client, highlighting where there are similarities and differences.

As this is my first risk project, I am unfamiliar with some of the terms, so I chat with my manager and ask some clarifying questions. He also suggests a few edits to the slide formatting which I appreciate as we aim to give ‘feedback at the moment’ so there is a constant opportunity to improve, rather than waiting until our more formal review at the end of each project.

With a clearer understanding of the many acronyms, I continue working on the slides. As lunch nears, I send the slides to my manager and let him know that I’ll be moving on to the next item on my to-do list: ranking our client’s Financial and Non-Financial Risk Appetite metrics against five best practice principles Oliver Wyman has developed over the years of risk projects. Though the final analysis will be summarised on a slide, I quickly format the excel table where the actual analysis will sit.

12.10 PM

The slack channel pings again indicating lunchtime, and a group of us head for lunch. Some of us have brought lunch from home so we head straight to the kitchen.

We file into the booth seating with other colleagues and chatting about the Charity Auction we had the previous Friday night. I and another consultant had organised the night, while the rest of the firm had donated various activities, goods and experiences to be bid on, which ranged from wine tasting to hiking day trips, to ‘Uber trips’ in Aston Martins! We raised about $18,000 in total, which when matched by OW’s parent company, Marsh McClennan, brought the total to just over $36,000. It had been busy in the lead-up to the night, but more than worth it in the end.

12.50 PM

After lunch, I make another coffee and head back to my desk. I put noise-cancelling headphones on and get to work for the next couple of hours systematically ranking the Risk Appetite metrics.

3.00 PM

A ‘Coffee?’ message comes through on the slack channel we have with all the interns and consultants on it. Five of us or so head down to get some fresh air and grab a coffee. Feeling rejuvenated, I continue working.

3.50 PM

I’ve made good progress, which I’m happy with. As we have a 4.00 pm meeting with a Partner from the US who had recently helped a client with a similar problem, I quickly grab some sparkling water from the fridge and a snack before filing into the meeting room to join the call.

4.00 PM

I type notes as our Manager and Partners lead the discussion. After explaining the broad context of our project, we direct the discussion to the major ‘sticky point’ we are currently facing in the project and ask for the US Partner’s perspective. Though the regulatory environments are a little different between Australia and the US, there are broad parallels in what constitutes industry best practice. However, the question of how to make ‘best practice’ work for our clients and their specific needs remains. This is a complexity that we will continue to tackle throughout the project.

5.05 PM

While the meeting is fresh in my brain, I quickly tidy up meeting notes and draw out key findings before uploading them to the relevant folder on our OneDrive. I look at the time and my to-do list and decide that a solid two hours or so of work should put me in a decent position to head to the gym and maybe log off for the night afterwards. I continue working on the excel and check in with the Senior Consultant to see if they need any support with their slide for tomorrow’s meeting.

6.00 PM

The sun is setting and I can’t resist snapping a quick picture. This view never gets old (hence why I position myself next to the window almost every day!)

7.00 PM

Though we have been touching base frequently throughout the day, I check out with the Senior Consultant and my Manager. We are all in a good position and our Manager sends our deck to the Partners for review. It’s a good time to have a break for the evening, so we all head out of the office. I go to the gym nearby and unwind for the next hour. Midway through my session, emails come back from the Partners with feedback on our slides. As the comments are not too urgent or onerous, I don’t rush to finish my workout and decide to head home after the gym, rather than heading back to the office (a 5-minute walk away), which is what I would normally do if I had a long night ahead.

8.40 PM

After a shower and dinner, I log on and make the changes to a section of the deck on our One Drive. Though it’s relatively minor, it takes a little longer than expected. Before logging off, I flick a message through to my Manager letting him know that the comments have been addressed, apart from one which I suggest we touch base on tomorrow as I am unsure about it. He thanks me for the work and tells me to log off as we will have time tomorrow morning.

9.50 PM

After logging off, I make tea and mindlessly scroll through Instagram. Most nights I try to read a book rather than scroll but the day has been full of new concepts and my brain is tired.

10.40 PM

Knowing that I have a long and busy week ahead of me, I make the most of this relatively early night, content in the knowledge that I will get 9 hours of sleep before my alarm goes off. How good!

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