Janne Denise Torres

7:30 AM

Rise and shine! I've been trying to log in a little bit earlier these days so my work shift overlaps an hour more with our engagement teams (ET) in Australia and New Zealand. Sent a "good morning" message to our team's group chat, and updated the availability trackers for today.

7:45 AM

Caught up with my emails, sent responses where needed, and now I have today's to-do list. I have the day off tomorrow so I need to start early to finish everything on my list. Made myself coffee and grabbed some leftover cinnamon roll for breakfast - now we're ready to grind!

8:00 AM

One of our engagement team members from New Zealand sent in a request for a couple of supplemental reports for the engagement that we're working on. Best to get started as these reports will be part of the entire package that their team will send to the client in a few weeks.

9:00 AM

Let's take a quick break to wash the dishes and feed our cats. After that, I'm back to my workstation to continue the spreadsheet I've been working on earlier. I'm doing them manually in Google spreadsheets now since I need to get the logic down first, but hopefully, I can use app script to make this a bit faster later on.

9:30 AM

Having my first meeting of the day - daily stand-up call with one of our engagement teams in Australia. We exchanged progress reports and action points. For today, I'll have to review some projects.

10:00 AM

Back to working on the supplemental reports. I have a call with ET later so I want to finish these reports before then. Preparation is key!

11:00 AM

I received a chat from another ET requesting some minor assistance on a project we have worked on in the past. I squeezed this in my work schedule at this time. I'm always happy to help!

12:30 PM

Video call with a client. He's very happy with the deliverable. Quick turnaround and accurate outputs are much appreciated by our engagement teams so I try to meet both expectations as much as I can.

12:50 PM

My ET has some questions regarding an Alteryx workflow we sent a couple of weeks back. She's reviewing the workflow for possible changes and she needs to confirm the functions of the tools we used.

Alteryx is the tool we use most frequently in our work requests. I've never used it before I came to PwC AC Manila but having used it often in the last 9 months, I'm now comfortable enough with it to even do technical reviews of other people's workflows. It's amazing how much frequent application can teach you, right?

1:50 PM

Done with the workflow changes that our ET requested. Now sending the output for review. Thank goodness there were no major changes so this didn’t take very long.

1:20 PM

Finally, lunchtime. I don't normally have lunch at this time, but working with teams across different time zones will teach you how to be more flexible with your schedule. Beyond the actual output we provide, engagement teams also look at their overall experience with working with us when considering repeat engagements. We try to be flexible and adaptable to their requests as long as they're reasonable and within our capabilities. I can confidently say that our team's doing great considering the number of work requests coming to us.

2:00 PM

A team member sent his Power BI dashboard over for review. We use Power BI a lot for requests, and it's nice to share what I know about it with other people, whether within our team or with engagement team members. It can look daunting to new users because there are just so many features, but it's a fun and useful tool to explore.

2:15 PM

Working on a new engagement today. I need to create an Alteryx workflow to prepare the data for importing into Power BI, then I need to create the Power BI dashboard to present valuation figures. I love that AC Manila invests in these useful platforms that help us deliver quality outputs!

2:45 PM

A quick break before our team's daily huddle. This means another cup of coffee for me and a quick snack for our cats.

3:00 PM

It's our team's daily huddle. We usually do this at 10:00 AM but we moved it to the afternoon today. Daily team huddles are when we discuss the status of ongoing engagements, check for possible solutions to impediments, and remind the team of other action items. We also discuss non-work-related things if time allows, like recommended shows or food. Today, we have an hour-long huddle: 30 minutes for our usual agenda and 30 minutes for a game.

4:00 PM

On video call with my supervisor to discuss ET's changes. Nothing was noted from the review, so I can now share all the updated files with ET. There'll probably be a few more tweaks but those can wait until next week.

5:30 PM

Break from Alteryx as I go into my monthly coaching session with my coach. We do one-hour sessions every month about what I've put into my performance summary. He also gives me suggestions on areas I need to improve on for the next appraisal period. He reminds me to keep up the good work, and we agree on next month's coaching schedule.

I really like having these monthly coaching sessions because I get unbiased feedback on a regular basis. We discuss the feedback I receive from people I've worked with, and my coach gives me pointers on how to do things better and points out the good things I need to continue doing. These sessions definitely keep me on track and serve as a constant reminder of the objectives that I need to meet to keep my performance record in tip-top shape.

6:30 PM

Finally done with that Alteryx workflow! That was quite a challenge but now it's done and working as I want to. I'm sending the update to a colleague, who'll share it with our engagement team. I'll start on the Power BI dashboard for this on Monday, but hurray for today with the workflow completed!

6:45 PM

Clocked out and sent my "goodbye" message to our team chat. It's time to log off for the day! I recently picked up jumping rope as an exercise. 30 minutes and 1400 jumps later, I feel very proud of myself laying and panting on the floor while my cat looks at me judgingly. Time to wash up!

7:30 PM

Working from home has allowed our family to have dinner together every day. Before the pandemic hit and the lockdowns started, my siblings and I would be out late from work or university and we couldn't really sit down for dinner together except on weekends. I appreciate the extra time provided to us by working from home, but I'm sincerely hoping this whole pandemic situation ends soon.

8:30 PM

Winding down from the day by playing with our cats, then I'll be spending the next few hours until bedtime by scrolling through my phone. Maybe I'll watch an episode or two of the Korean drama I've been following lately. Goodnight!