Caitlin Williams

7.00 AM

I usually wake up around 7 am so that I can have breakfast in the morning and get prepared for the day. I live quite close to the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) and walk in to work most mornings.

8.00 AM

ANAO is excellent with flexible start times, so I start work at 8 am each morning bright and early. When I arrive at work I grab a desk and log on to my computer. My routine is to check my email, look at my timetable for the day and check in with my manager and team. My team is small at the moment comprising around three to four people. At this point I grab a coffee with my graduate friends or buddy and then get started on today’s tasks today was working on analysis and a working paper for my audit.

10.00 AM

Today we had a branch meeting, my branch head likes to do these over morning tea with each of us rotating and bringing in food. These are a great opportunity to check in with the branch on how everyone is and common challenges across our performance audits. My branch head then does an overview of the last fortnight and any corporate messages. Each audit manager then gives a rundown of their progress as well.

11.00 AM

After the branch meeting my team is rushing off to have a meeting with the department we are currently auditing. This meeting was a walkthrough of a part of the program and lasted an hour. As a graduate, I have the responsibility to take notes for this meeting as well as ask some questions based on my analysis and area of responsibility in the audit. After the meeting, we informally debrief from our collective takes on the meeting in the collaborative spaces in the office.

12.00 PM

The morning has flown by and it’s time for lunch! I bring in leftovers from the night before and heat them, though it is very tempting to buy lunch with the excellent cafés around. This time is an excellent opportunity to catch up with my friends and others from different parts of the office.

12.45 PM

It’s time to go back to my desk to put my head down to work on my current piece of analysis. My audit is currently in the fieldwork phase, which is when we get the majority of evidence and analysis work done. Depending on the task my responsibility can include reviewing evidence, working on analysis, going to meetings or writing up short pieces for our final report. The analysis I was working on was to look at the papers and minutes for board meetings of this program and put together a timeline for the key events of the program. I also took the time to formalise the minutes from our meeting this morning before sending them off.

2.00 PM

At 2 pm we have a team meeting, in these meetings, we each go through our current pieces of analysis or work. From here we discuss commonalities across the audit and gain advice from others on how to better prepare our work. As a graduate of the ANAO, your insights are valued by others in the team. I use these meetings as an excellent learning opportunity to gain insights into others’ perspectives on analysis and performance auditing in general.

3.00 PM

This afternoon I coordinated ‘LaunchPAD’! This is a fortnightly graduate forum run by the graduates to learn from others and communicate about the graduate experience. It is also a space where each graduate takes the opportunity to informally present something they are working on. It is an amazing opportunity to learn from others and talk about how our graduate year is going. Below is a photo of our graduate year with the Auditor-General.

4.00 PM

Around 4 pm I finish up for the day. I do a final check of my emails, save my current analysis and pack things up into my locker before heading home.

5.00 PM

I try to go for a walk each night, tonight it was around Lake Burley Griffin.  

I then try to grab some dinner. That night it was with a friend and we grabbed some yummy bao buns!

9.30 PM

After reading my book or streaming my favourite show, I grab some much-needed sleep.

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