First Day On The Job

Okay, several of you have emailed me to ask, so I guess it is about time for me to put a post on here about my first day of work, right? Here you go:
I rolled out of bed, got out the door pretty quickly, and started my journey to the office. I do not have a car here in Sydney (I will be given one if I need it). Although it is probably a good thing, since I think this "left side of the road" driving might be a tough one to learn in such a busy city. So I have to find public transportation that will get me to my office building. My daily commute consists of the following: Walk out of the apartment building, go about 2 blocks and catch the bus. The bus then drives me down to the Wharf where I get on the ferry. The ferry is about a 20-minute ride, as there are 4 stops between mine (one end of the route) and Circular Quay (the other end of the route). But it is scenic and pretty, so I don't mind all that much. When we dock, I get off of the ferry, walk out of the wharf area, climb up the stairs, and I catch the train (mostly a subway where I ride it, although it goes above ground in some places). I ride the train two stops, and I get off in the heart of downtown (ironically called the "Town Centre" stop). I climb the stairs there, turn the corner past the Krispy Kreme doughnut shop, and then I walk through what can best be described as a huge mall. This thing called the Queen Victoria Building ("QVB") has something like 3 stories and about every store you can imagine. The funny thing is that most of the people I am walking with are business professionals. I really didn't notice many people going into any of the stores as I passed through. (http://www.qvb.com.au/ - check it out!) I then take an escalator upstairs, get to the end of the building, and walk about 4 blocks (following the monorail tracks above my head) to the building where the office is located. If anyone is looking on a Sydney map, the building is on the corner of Market and Kent, right by Darling Harbour.

So I get to the office around 9:00 - a little later than I expected, but I had no idea what length of time my route would take. I introduce myself to the receptionist, and she tells me to have a seat in the waiting area. You should see the view from this place! On the 19th floor - absolutely gorgeous view of Darling Harbour and lots of other stuff in the downtown area. So I sit and wait, just a bit enthralled by how large the reception area alone is.

I am then greeted by 2 people from HR. They are both very nice, and take me into a room to go over some introductory stuff. One of the girls, Sarah, walks me through the staff intro booklet. I would say that the bulk of the time was spent going over some of the stuff that blew me away - sort of like OSHA in the US. I was given a diagram of how to set up my desk to refrain from putting too much pressure on my back/neck. I was told I should get up and walk away from the computer about every 30 minutes to rest my eyes and to stretch. It was quite interesting.

Sarah and the other HR person Catherine then took me on a tour around the office. There are 2 full floors, with audit and IT down stairs, and everything else upstairs. Freaking huge. I was taken through the break out area where people typically go eat their lunch. Apparently, if you get in early (around 8), they serve breakfast every day (muffins, etc.). There is coffee and tea offered, along with hot chocolate. And, if you get hungry, you can visit the freezer and buy some ice cream. JACKPOT!

I was then taken to my desk where I will be stationed for 2 of the next 3 months. It belongs to someone out on leave, so they are letting me keep it. The staff and seniors here all have "Hotdesking" which means that you request a desk while you are in the office, since there are more people than desks, but most people are out on site at clients regularly. The assistant managers get permanent desks, managers get inside offices, and directors have exterior offices. Pretty sweet set up. The view from my desk is pretty good - I am right by a window. It is really just the city I see, as opposed to Panthers Stadium (and let's not forget the strip club) at home, but it is still a pretty nice view.

A 3rd year associate, Akke, was then assigned to walk me through the introductory manual - how to find stuff, where to locate files, where you do time sheet entry, etc. He's a nice guy and had a ton of questions about the US and NC, so it was kind of fun to answer all his questions. Then he let me get settled and later sent me a couple of websites for finding my way around the city. Nice guy. I met a few other random people here and there, and was given a huge bag of goodies (umbrella, water bottle, coffee mug, etc.). Akke then told me that lunch was from 1-2. Apparently he wasn't kidding. The office around me was completely vacant at 1:00 - everyone took off to eat lunch.

So I went downstairs and found a little place where they served meat pies. Not the best, but still one of my favorite foods around here. Think chicken pot pie with meat and without wasting time of all those gross veggies they put inside - like peas. So it's meat and gravy inside a tasty little pie shell. Right up my alley!

I got back from lunch, and Akke has sent me a schedule that showed my assignments. It took me a minute to figure it out, but I think I have how it works. He then came over and told me that I was assigned tomorrow, so he took me over to the manager on the job, Andrew. Andrew is a nice guy. I stopped back by later in the afternoon, and he told me about the client. Get this - it is an Aussie company that wants to list on a US exchange. So it is in the process of completing an S-1 registration statement with the SEC, which means they have to report under US GAAP requirements. So my first job here will be reviewing the financials to make sure that they comply with GAAP and SEC requirements. I flew all this way to be given a first job of pretty much the same thing I do back at home. Weird. The tougher part is that when we do the audit in July, I will have to audit the company under Australian rules, then audit the conversion, to get back to US GAAP. I'm thinking it might be easier if they just let me audit under the US requirements... But the filings for this job are being supervised by the National SEC office in Chicago, and the National SEC Director is one of the people reviewing the filing. Maybe I can get some brownie points when I go track her down at the Partner/Manager meeting in November and let her know I was the one working on the job. Although it depends on how screwed up things get - I might not want credit for it!

Oh, and the one other sweet thing about the office? Hours are 8:30-5, with an hour lunch in there. That's right - 7.5 hour days! Watch out, Charlotte - I might get used to this lifestyle!