Samaa Kanani

8.30 AM 

Every morning, I get on my bike and cycle 6km along the Yarra River to the office.
It’s a beautiful ride and it helps me wake up properly :)

9.00 AM

Arrive at the office, park my bike, grab my belongings from the locker, set up my desk for the day. I usually use this time to check on emails and slack messages. Sometimes there are other small admin tasks that I try to get out of the way. Normally I also take a look at the kata that I’m currently working on. A Kata is a small coding challenge that helps us learn and solidify our understanding of coding concepts.

9.30 AM 

Stand up
This means that all the proteges in acceleration get together, stand in a circle and we each talk about what we were working on the previous day and what we’re working on today. 

A protege is the word we use to refer to someone in a graduate role at MYOB.

The daily stand up is a great time to discuss any problems that we are currently facing or checking to see if anyone would like to get together for a pairing session.

9.45 AM

Grab a tea, have a little chat with my fellow proteges or anyone who I might run into in the kitchen. 

10.00 AM
Coding time
I use this time to continue wherever I left off the previous day and get as much coding done as I can before my first mentoring session of the day. 

11.00 AM

First mentor pairing session of the day (with one of my two mentors).
Everyone has a bit of a different set up when it comes to how they work with their mentors. I meet with my mentors every day for an hour each. Usually I’m coding and they give me advice on how to improve my work along the way.

Fridays are a little different, because we often have workshops on that day. On Fridays all three of us get together and discuss what went well this week, what didn’t go so well, and what we want to do differently from next week onwards. We call this a retro. It’s helpful to do a retro on a regular basis so that we can constantly improve our process or learning and how we are working together.

12.00 PM

Lunch time 

I’ve been trying to do meal prep every Sunday as it saves me time and money. Lunch is very important to me, as it’s one of the few awake hours that I spend not looking at a screen. I love to catch up with my colleagues and talk about anything from the current TV show that we’re watching to meal prep ideas. Whenever I can, I try to squeeze in a little walk after having lunch to get some fresh air and stretch out my legs.
On Fridays there is usually a Foodtruck outside the office, so sometimes I’ll grab lunch there to switch it up a little.

1.00 PM

Coding time part II

I continue where I left off before lunch and try to get as much as possible done before my afternoon pairing session.

3.00 PM

The afternoon pairing session is spent with my other mentor. The set up is the exact same as the morning one, but both mentors have a bit of a different approach, so I learn different things from them. It’s nice being able to learn from different developers as everyone has a bit of their own style.

4.00 PM

After the second pairing session of the day I usually need another proper break. I’ll grab a hot chocolate from the kitchen and walk around the office for a bit talking to my colleagues.

4.15 PM

Around this time I usually spend a bit more time finishing up whatever coding challenge I was working on. On some days I might do an online course to deep-dive into a particular topic, or read a book to understand a new concept.

6.00 PM

This is the time when I usually wrap up everything for the day. I’ll make sure to go over the things that I was working on, add things to my to do list for the next day, check on my calendar and then see if any new emails have come in.
Then I pack up for the day and head out. 

6.30 PM

About once or twice a week I attend a tech related meetup event. There are so many great ones in Melbourne and most of them even have free pizza :)

If I’m not attending a meetup, you can probably find me at a yoga studio,  a stand up comedy night, or at a bar enjoying a happy hour drink with a friend.