Benedict Gattas

7.45 AM

Wake up. Today feels like an office day so I get dressed in something comfy (our dress code is whatever you’re most comfortable in), and after that, I start to get my Weetbix ready.

I’m lucky to live within walking distance to work, so I have time for a read of the morning news. If I’m running well for a time, I’ll also pack a lunch so I don’t get tempted by the many delicious lunch options near the office.

8.45 AM

I pack my bag and head out. It’s only a 15-minute walk for me, fortunately, which is just long enough to have a good ponder about things, and just short enough to not think “wow I wish I got the tram today”.

9.00 AM

I get into work and find a workstation. Usually I bump into one of the other grads and we have a yarn, and while catching up I’ll set up my laptop.

I immediately check my calendar for the day, take note of any meetings that are on, and check my Slack for team messages or any important company announcements. Usually all our important communication happens over Slack, but I will also check email too for any other correspondence.

One thing I like to do before reviewing any tasks I’ve written myself for the day is to take the chance to review other team members’ code via Github pull requests. This process can help other team members move their work along, and it’s a great way to get the brain working in the morning and engage with what my teammates have been working on.

9.45 AM

It’s coffee time! Or tea. Depending on if I had coffee at home or not. But if it’s a coffee day I’ll head down to our breakout space and ask the wonderful barista for a flat white. She does a fantastic flat white.

Sometimes when the barista isn’t around, I’ll flounder about with the coffee machine and attempt not to embarrass myself with the steam wand. Out comes a “coffee”, and I head back to my desk.

10.00 AM

My team has our morning standup that runs for about 15 minutes. This is a daily meeting, standard in Agile teams, where we go around and mention what we’ve been working on the previous day, any progress on those pieces of work, anything that might be blocking us, and what we plan to do today.

Standups are invaluable. They are an efficient forum to bring everyone together on the same page, and it’s a chance to give help to anyone who is stuck or needs an opinion. If you’re stuck on anything of course you can ask anyone for help throughout the day as well, but the opportunity to have every perspective in the same room is always super helpful.

Sometimes we follow standup with a “tech huddle”. This is a chance to work as a team on a particular technical problem, or explain a new concept learned the previous day that might be helpful to others. I’ve often used this forum to ask quick technical questions of the more experienced engineers, or teach other team members about an interesting concept I’ve learned the previous day.

11.00 AM

I usually put the time before lunch into focus time (or “flow time”) to try and get some solid work done. This could be writing new code, writing unit tests for that code, or researching the work I need to do before I begin. It’s absolutely true that you spend far more time reading and reviewing code than writing it, which is mainly about ensuring quality over quantity.

The thing I’ve learnt about writing software at Xero this year is that there is usually more than one good way to write a piece of code. Understanding engineering trade-offs and the design decisions that happen before code is written are the more important aspects, and therefore a lot more time is spent thinking than typing!

12.30 PM

I spend lunch time in our office breakout space and have a good catch up with mates if they’re in the office that day. Often if enough people didn’t pack lunch we’ll head out for a walk and be spoiled for choice by the many options on Glenferrie Rd.

After lunch I’ll grab a can of soft drink from our fridge for that post-lunch sugar kick and head back to my desk.

1.30 PM

On a typical day there’s an afternoon meeting for engineers in my team to attend. This could be backlog grooming, an Agile practice where we try to refine our plan for upcoming work in the weeks ahead, or a meeting about a technical design decision.

Technical decisions are almost always made by the team collectively, which isn’t just inclusive but also tends to lead to better decisions, since all perspectives are heard. It also makes us much more aligned and better able to execute those decisions. If we don’t have an afternoon meeting on, I’ll typically do some more code review or continue what I was doing before lunch.

2.30 PM

I’ll message other engineers in my team on Slack to see if they are keen to pair on coding tickets, or if I’m after any help myself I’ll see if any of them are free.

Pairing as a junior engineer is seriously valuable time. Senior engineers can share insights that are gained from years of experience in software development, and having the chance to work alongside them offers a direct kind of technical mentorship. As well as this a second engineer will ask questions the first might not have thought of, and offer suggestions that might prove critical in steering the work towards the right solution.

3.45 PM

I’ll have a short break and another tea. This gives me a chance to change context from what I was doing, and it’s a great excuse to stretch my legs!

4.00 PM

I’ll try to allocate time to either additional code review or a bit of flow time before heading off.

5.00 PM

The last thing I do before heading off is writing down tasks for myself for the following morning, so I can immediately remember what I was thinking when I come in. I also write notes on what I did that day to use as a guide in standup the next morning.

5.15 PM

It’s home time! I get home quickly and head to the gym. If I’m cooking that night I might skip the gym out of laziness.

8.00 PM

I’ll play some video games with my friends or play some piano to chill out before bed.