"We had to sell paper bags on the street" -- RITA UDONKENTA (WAVE Alumna)

RITA UDONKENTA is among the cohorts of Batch 3.7. She has a B. Sc in Business Education from Lagos State University. Before WAVE, Rita was working as an admin assistant at an education consulting firm. She however left due to a financial crisis in the organization. After leaving the company, Rita channeled the effort of seeking better opportunities towards learning soft skills

She heard about WAVE program on the radio program “sharing life’s issues” which was aired on Inspiration FM. She was propelled by the training opportunity the WAVE had to offer. For her, WAVE would provide the opportunity to improve one's skill as well as broaden one's horizon. When asked how the training experience was, she said: “the training was tough, hard because we need to be well-determined to graduate. The training was demanding, we had to resume by 8 am and leave the training centre by 6 pm.” During the training, Rita and her colleagues were asked to sell a paper bag which made them understand the skills in negotiation. Quoting her, “It was horrible to sell a piece of paper (paper bag) on the street but we had to do that. This helped us to understand how to change our selling techniques.”

Rita job shadowed at 7 Eagle Spur, Ikeja City Mall where she was equipped with communication, negotiation, teamwork and problem-solving skills. With the experience garnered at WAVE -- during the training and the job shadow experience, Rita was able to land a job at Parresia publishing as the operations officer. She loves her job because of the exposure to literary books which keep her mentally and educationally sound.

When asked what her dream job was, Rita couldn’t offer one because she dislikes being caged in a role: she likes to multi-task. She advises job seekers to know what they want and be ready to go for it.