Anastasia Nikitaras

7.15 AM

My alarm goes off and I immediately snooze for another 15 minutes in an attempt to maximise my morning sleep. After getting ready, I make myself a chicken salad to take into the office for lunch before rushing out of the door to catch the tram to work.

8.45 AM

I arrive in the office and place my bag on my desk (we are lucky to have allocated desks in the office as it takes away from the stress of finding a desk in the same area as your team) before heading to the kitchen to put my lunch in the fridge. On my way back to my desk, I pass by the P&C team for a morning chat before setting up my laptop and going through my emails and calendar to write up my ‘to-do’ list and prepare for the day.

9.15 AM

By this point in the morning, I am holding out for a coffee and ‘round up’ everyone in the team to grab a morning coffee downstairs at Bonnie. Soon after entering the coffee shop and smelling the fresh pastries, I realise how hungry I am and end up buying a croissant for breakfast. I try to make myself feel better by telling myself it is brain food. Once everyone in the team has gotten their coffee, we head back up to the office.

9.30 AM

I prepare for my 10 am meeting with a Director to run through an unfair preference claim form to be submitted to the Australian Taxation Office (‘ATO’).

10.00 AM

I catch up with the Director on my current engagement. I am currently completing an investigation memorandum for a Creditors Voluntary Liquidation. Part of the investigation process is to look into any uncommercial transactions entered into by the Company whilst trading insolvently. Unfair preference payments are considered uncommercial transactions and as a result, I am able to lodge an unfair preference claim to recover ‘unfair payments made to the ATO by the Company. The Director gave me his feedback on the claim submission and the final steps/process to lodge the claim.

10.30 AM

After my meeting with the Director, I return to my desk and finalise the preference claim submission and continue with my investigations. My investigation memorandum and insolvency report to ASIC is due in a couple of weeks. Therefore, I am continuously working through my investigations to ensure I identify as many uncommercial transactions as I can in an attempt to retrieve funds to be repaid to creditors.

12.30 AM

It’s finally time for lunch! Given it is a Friday, I somehow “forget” about the lunch I had prepared this morning and brought to the office. The team and I went to our favourite Friday lunch spot and almost all of us ordered a chicken parmigiana. We had a team debate over whether it is pronounced “parma” or “pami” and ended up agreeing to settle on “parma”, which upset some of the team.

1.45 PM

After a long and filling Friday lunch, the team and I returned to the office where I continued to work on my investigations and insolvency report.

2.30 PM

I had a meeting with one of the Partners who taught me about energy systems and consumption in Australia. I learnt about the supply and demand relationship between Australian states and how this relationship consistently impacts the movement and price of energy. After learning about the different forms of energy supply and consumption, I was asked by the Partner to complete a research paper on the energy industry in Australia.

3.00 PM

I decide to take a break from my investigations and insolvency report, to start my research task and data entry on energy consumption, suppliers, and users in Australia. I asked one of the Associate Directors for assistance in gathering the relevant data I needed for my research and how to do so. After getting an in-depth learning course on how to use Capital IQ, I pulled the data I needed for my research and started forming the draft structure of my report.

4.30 PM

I stop my research and take my earphones out to hear the infamous beer trolley making its way across the office and towards my desk. I am greeted by one of my colleagues who hands me a Rosé Cider (the best drink in the office and not only because it's pink) and a couple of snacks to get me through the afternoon.

5.30 PM

I finish my energy research and data collection for the day before joining the rest of my colleagues in the kitchen for a couple of Friday night drinks. This in my opinion is the best way to end the week. We have a few drinks before heading out to dinner as a team to grab some dumplings in the city.