Marta Kiki

From its humble beginnings 140 years ago to managing networks that process 40% of the world's data, Ericsson, without a doubt has changed our lives and the way we communicate with each other, and it is a great pleasure knowing that I get to be a part of this global company. I'm based in the Melbourne office in Docklands and I'm currently on my first rotation with the Radio Frequency (RF) Design team, working on an NBN fixed wireless project.

7.00 AM

I'm not an early bird, so after I hit the snooze button for the third time I wake up at around 7.30 am. I jump on the bus and leave for work by 8.00 am. I use the bus ride to catch up on emails, social media and read the news. 

8.45 AM

I make my way to the seventh floor and make myself comfortable on a desk by the waterside trying my best not to get distracted by the mesmerising view of the harbour. It's a hot-desking system so everyone seems to be attracted to the harbour view desks on this side of the building, making it seem like a race for the ‘front row seats’! As I go through my emails and calendar I routinely create a to-do list for the day accordingly.

9.00 AM

Coffee time. We love our morning coffee. There are coffee machines in every kitchen area around the building (if you haven't had one already). These areas seem to be great places to meet new and interesting people. Today I've met someone from Dubai who has been with the company for 15 years working in different projects in various countries in Europe and Asia. Ericsson is very multicultural and you get to meet people from around the world. 

9.15 AM

Hello to drawing reviews. This task is a priority and requires lots of attention to detail. I have to make sure the RF section of each drawing has the correct information and that the antenna configuration details meet our design guidelines. We want our radio antennas to be installed and placed correctly on towers to avoid interference and other issues that might occur in the future, hence, making the details of the drawings critical.

11.00 AM

Meeting with our Human Resources representative to discuss potential venues for the Young Professional Summit that will be held this year. This is a three-day event organised by Ericsson every year for the graduates. Within the Young Professionals Committee, I have been assigned to help with organising the venue and the speakers. This event is a first for me and it seem like a big deal for the company. Thus, I'm eagerly looking forward to it.

11.30 AM

After sending off a few more emails, I check if we have any requests to register radio spectrum. Designing new sites or adding capacity on various base stations sometimes requires additional radio spectrum, therefore we have to register all the radio spectrum we use through the Australian Communications and Media Authority. There are some technical questions that I just can’t get my head around, so I go and ask my buddy. As always, he's super helpful. It all makes sense now.

12.20 AM

I can't believe it's lunchtime already. I'm meeting with the other graduates in the lunchroom and we use this time to share what we've been doing so far within our teams. I didn't bring lunch today, so I'll need to go grab some downstairs. There are plenty of restaurants in the area, which sometimes makes it hard to decide what to eat. We’ve decided to use a few minutes of our lunch break for a quick game of table football. I’m doing pretty bad here.

1.00 PM

Meeting with the client. I quickly grab a quiet room and join the meeting via Skype. The RF design engineers will present the sites they've designed to the client. I learn something new about RF designing every time I attend these meetings, so I try to attend them all. 

3.30 PM

Time flies. Back to my desk and drafting an email for the client to let them know that a design issue we had in one of the sites has been resolved. I have some electromagnetic energy (EME) report reviews to do before I leave. The purpose of these reports is to make sure the levels of EME likely to be emitted by the base stations are minimal. Also, here we go: I've just received another drawing review.

5.15 PM

We take flexible working seriously, hence, I'm leaving early today to attend the monthly Women in Engineering (WIE) Committee meeting at Engineers Australia. Within the committee, I've taken up the event coordinator role for this year. I am very passionate about gender diversity within engineering industries, so this is some volunteer activity I do outside of work. Having said this, there is a diversity and inclusion interest group within Ericsson that I plan on joining in the next few months.

8.00 PM

The WIE Committee meeting is finished with some astonishing outcomes: some great events and initiatives have been locked in for the year. We've decided to treat ourselves with dinner at one of the local bars on Bourke Street. 

9.30 PM

What a day. I'm finally home. A warm chamomile tea while watching the latest episode of Blacklist on Netflix always helps. Sometimes I work late hours to catch up with tasks that I wasn't able to finish on time, but normally I get home by 7.00 am, so I get plenty of time for an evening gym session or walk with my mum.

I'm off to bed and relaxing by 11.30 pm, drifting off into sleep hoping for another productive day tomorrow.