Day in the Life: Elliot Waterbury

At Florida State, where he earned his undergraduate degree Elliot Waterbury interned in the department that manages investments for the university’s endowment. With a double major in Accounting and Finance, he thought he’d ultimately have to choose between one field or the other.

Then some of the endowment professionals piqued Elliot’s interest in Valuation—a field where both of his professional interests intersected—and he found his way to the MAcc Valuation program. After graduation, and completing the CPA and CFA exams, Elliot has moved to New York City and is working for Deloitte Transactions and Business Analytics LLP in the legendary 30 Rockefeller building. Here’s how Elliot describes a typical day as an associate in the Life Sciences industry.

Vanderbilt MAcc Valuation | 2015

6:00 am I wake up and start my day with a run before work. It’s a nice way to clear my head and get ready for the busy day ahead.

7:30 am By this time, I have gotten ready, eaten breakfast and am now on my way to the subway so I can get to work by 8:00.

8:00 am I like to get to work earlier than others. It allows me to find a workspace and get settled in. On days like today where I have more meetings, I tend to sit in the D-Café (the Deloitte Café for employees) and work there in between meetings since I won’t be in one place for too long.

8:30 am By now, I’ve settled in for the morning and am starting to prepare for my meetings. I begin to catch up on other work that came through via email. I’m typically working on multiple projects, so there is always something different that I can work on.

10:00 am I have my first meeting of the day with one of the senior associates and managers on a new project. They fill me in with the background and context of what we need to accomplish for this project and I leave the meeting with a clear direction on what I need to get done for the day.

11:00 amI take my work back to the D-Café and work on my new project until it’s time for lunch.

12:00 pmA group of MAcc program alumni like to go to lunch together pretty regularly to catch up. Today we decide to go to a local deli and bring our lunch back to the D-Café.

1:00 pm After a break for lunch, I am back at work on the assignment I received this morning.

2:00 pm In the afternoon, we usually have scheduled working sessions with the senior associates and mangers on a project so that we can touch base on our deliverables. Today, it’s with the same people as this morning and I am showing them the progress I have made on the newest model. Now we prep for an initial presentation to the client. It’s very collaborative and can often be a multi-week process.

4:00 pm We’ve finished our working session and now I am completing the work that remains from my afternoon meeting and am beginning to plan out my work for the remainder of the week. I have several projects going on, so it’s important to prioritize what needs to be done.

6:00 pm I’m starting to wrap up for the day. I’m very involved in recruiting efforts, so if there are any prospective students that I need to reach out to or communicate with, now is the time I would do that.

6:30 pm I’ve left work and am heading to dinner with a friend.

8:30 pm After dinner, I might watch a movie or spend time with friends. Some evenings, I like to get a head start on work for the next day.

10:30 pm I am ready for bed. I try to get to sleep on time so waking up tomorrow for my run isn’t too painful!