A Day in the Life of Divya
Divya
Divya is an Analyst in Avascent’s DC office where she aids clients with strategy development, value capture, growth opportunity analysis, and M&A support. Prior to joining Avascent, Divya conducted market and competitive research and analysis at Renaissance Strategic Advisors and The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). She graduated from The Johns Hopkins University with degrees in International Studies and Economics.
5:45 AM
Wake up, put on some workout clothes and grab a water bottle before heading out the door to today’s class. Recently my roommate and I have really been enjoying Reformer Pilates and try to go to the studio a couple of times a week.
7:15 AM
After returning from my workout class, I start to get ready for the day. I make some coffee and quickly scan through emails, Teams messages and my schedule to prepare for the day ahead. If I am working from home I have some time to run errands or chat with my roommate before I start working.
9:00 AM
I start my day by continuing some secondary research for my first project. We are helping our client potentially capture a large military program and they are interested in the competition’s related strategy/current efforts. I start a research tracker in excel and share it on our common “Teams drive” so that my manager and other analysts can use it as a resource.
10:00 AM
After about an hour of research, I take a quick pause to join an internal team meeting to catch up on progress made so far, timelines and workstreams. I share some interesting findings I have flagged from my research earlier that morning and the other analyst on the team shares the market model he has been working on. After our manager and director have some time to ask questions and provide feedback, we discuss next steps so that we can start working on our client check-in deck.
11:00 PM
I pivot to working on slides for my second project. Our team is helping the client think through the most effective way to implement their business development strategy to reach their future program goals. My task today is to map out some templates that the client can use to direct their thought process. I get through templating around half of the deck before I take a break for lunch.
12:00 PM
The weather is pretty chilly in DC during this time of year, so I grab a warm coat before heading out to pick up some lunch. Today I decide to get a salad at Sweetgreen (there’s a location by the office as well and it’s often my go to spot). It’s around a ten-minute walk to the main stretch of restaurants from my apartment, but I enjoy the walk, especially because I live right near a dog park!
1:00 PM
I log back into my laptop for a primary call that I have for my second project. The MD (managing director) on the call takes the lead and introduces the team and our project objective. The person we are speaking to today is extremely experienced in capture management and has some great ideas on how we can strengthen our current messaging to the client. I take detailed notes as I listen to the discussion and circulate those notes to the rest of the team once the call wraps up.
2:00 PM
I pivot back to working on the template slides to prepare for an internal check-in with the MDs on the project. The intent of the meeting is to make sure that we are on the right track and receive some feedback while the deck is still in-progress. Once I wrap up the majority of the slides, I decide to take a quick break before my meeting.
3:40 PM
I brew some tea to drink and take some time to check my phone. I have been trying to drink less coffee recently and have found that green tea is a great replacement! I reply to texts and catch up with my roommate on how her day has been.
4:00 PM
Our team has a call with the project MDs to discuss our progress so far. I present my slides and explain the thought process behind the storyboard we have developed in addition to my intended next steps. After speaking to the client earlier, the MDs offer some great advice on how to tweak slide phrasing and ordering to provide the most support to our client.
5:30 PM
After our call, I create a plan of action to determine what I will need to complete tomorrow to get our draft deck into the MDs by tomorrow evening. I am in good shape to pick up on where I left off tomorrow morning, so after completing a few slide edits, I decide to turn to a different task.
6:00 PM
I wrap up the workday by attending to my recruiting responsibilities. As a campus lead for Johns Hopkins this semester, it is my job to put together a list of campus contacts to reach out to about internship/job opportunities at Avascent. I also work on our strategy documents for the season that map out the types of events we would like to host/attend to engage with the student body.
7:00 PM
After answering a few emails, I decide to log off and start preparing dinner. I recently stopped by Whole Foods so I have plenty of ingredients for a new pasta dish I have been wanting to try. I watch an episode from the second season of “Emily in Paris” as I eat dinner. It’s a hilarious show, I would definitely recommend.
9:00 PM
If there are pressing deadlines, I usually will log back on for an hour or two to wrap up tasks. Today, I have some time at the end of the night to have another cup of tea and read before bed.