A Day in the Life of Naomi
Naomi
Naomi is a dual citizen of France and the US. She attended Georgetown University and studied Science, Technology, and International Affairs (STIA), with a concentration in security. She interned at Avascent in 2015, but joined full-time in 2017 after taking a gap year to travel. While Naomi has been sent on assignments to Paris, she is based out of the DC office. Her project work primarily consists of M&A advisory analysis and long-term strategy positioning.
7:30 AM
Wake up (after snoozing a million times). First thing I do is usually check my email and calendar for the day to make sure nothing crazy happened while I was sleeping. I also usually check my calendar for the next day right before I go to sleep, which will impact how many times I snooze.
9:00 AM
Get in to the office depending on how cooperative the bus was that morning. Then I get situated…log in to my computer, see if I have any immediate emails that would have come in during my commute.
9:30 AM
Check the news. Source of choice is BBC.
9:45 AM
Research / prep for internal check in for Project A.
10:30 AM
Internal check-in to discuss initial findings, path forward etc. If I can I usually volunteer to take on templating the module that I will be working on.
11:00 AM
Meeting for Project B to discuss research findings, where slides stand, and make sure that we’re all still on track to submit slides by end of day. We don’t have a crazy amount due, but the end of day deadline is nice because it means that I can submit after 6:00pm if need be.
12:00 PM
Depending on which task I was assigned for Project A, I’ll typically try and start jotting down some thoughts immediately while it’s fresh in my mind. In this case, I start templating or at least thinking through slide sequence by putting some stickies on slides with my initial thoughts. Then I’ll go through and review past research I’ve done that might be useful, adapting it to address the specific context of the project. If I get stuck or want to get a second opinion – which I inevitably do – I’ll crowd source and ask a variety of other analysts for help, or thoughts, or inputs.
1:00 PM
Lunch time! I’ve been pinging people since 11:00 ish asking if they a) brought their lunch and b) what their plans are if they haven’t. I always think I am going to pack my lunch, but I rarely do, sadly. If it’s nice out, we’ll go to the roof, if not, kitchen it is.
2:00 PM
Finish templating the module and then ping my manager asking if I can swing by to discuss initial thoughts.
3:00 PM
Research and continue slidecraft for Project B. I tend to prefer making slides in the afternoon. Mornings are usually interrupted all the time by meetings, and I find that it’s hard to produce deliverables when your attention is constantly pulled away from things. If I’m on a tight deadline though, I’ll try and come in early and get some slides done in the morning before things get crazy.
4:00 PM
I am pretty involved in recruiting, so depending on which part of the process we’re in, we’ll focus on different aspects to continuously improve. Alternatively, I could be interviewing a candidate in this 30-minute window.
4:30 PM
More slidecraft and research! I’ve done all the research by now, but I find that as you’re making slides, you’re constantly realizing that there might be something else to find out, or a specific example to unearth, which might make the slide prep take longer than anticipated.
7:30 PM
Send my slides to my manager for Project B and check-in via email or in person to make sure that there is nothing else I can do in the near-term (i.e. today) to make sure that everything for this project is on track.
7:45 PM
Leave the office and bus home! Afterwork activities vary between going to the gym (rare) and hanging out with / getting dinner with friends (often).
11:00 PM
Check my email and calendar and think through my plan for the next day: Starting research and slide making for Project A as well as addressing edits for Project B. Go to sleep.