My name is Nekita Leyer I am an 18-year old who matriculated at Portland High in 2019. I am always willing to take on new and daring experiences and love making people around me happy. Life after school for me has been tough with no career path for myself, due to my mathematics mark not allowing me to apply at any universities or even internships that have high requirements. So with that downfall, my mindset has just been set on being employed and getting money to help my mother with the household expenses.
Before joining RLabs, I studied IT technical support at a college in Athlone and eventually we were hit with the COVID-19 pandemic. This eventually led me to drop out and then started a job at Checkers as a packer. Meanwhile, working at Checkers has been hectic, I had no time for myself because I came home too late most days and often left early in the morning. I thought to myself that this life is not for me, because I knew what I did not want and I couldn’t sit around forever and wait for change to come my way.
Eventually, I applied and started working at RLabs, but at first, I had second thoughts that this is going to be another downfall for me, but on the first day when Marlon Parker spoke and my mindset changed because he made me see things differently and that you have to do something that you have never done before to challenge yourself and see if you are going to cope because that is how you’ll know if that opportunity was meant for you to find out what your career path could be in future.
The Skills Accelerator Venture has been nothing but the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. I benefit a lot from it. I have learned about the various products that fall under google, because I always thought that Google is just a platform where you can get your research, etc. A business could make use of Google when it comes to spreadsheets, documents and a drive where you could store all your admin work. I have learned that there are various free websites in which you could create an app and even a website which was mind-blowing because I created an app and a website which could sound impossible because some people take years to create a simple app and I did it in a week. Leadership on a Thursday has taken me out of my comfort zone. Now I’m looking at my life with a different point of view and speaking to others within the groups made me feel comfortable to share my story because I have grown past the stage of letting myself down. The Skills Accelerator Venture has changed my life over the past few months that went by because leadership has taught me that your past is what led you to be the person you are today and having to challenge myself with creating an app and website took me out of my comfort zone because today I can say that I am more confident in myself and that I know that my creator has set out this path for me.
So far my journey has been exciting and interesting which makes me determined to get up every day and start my day with a check-in with my team which is another highlight for me because I felt like I just met them yesterday and yet they are the reason I always enjoy the check-ins and being part of RLabs. The next step in my life is discovering what I’m good at and making a successful career out of it as well as appreciating the moments of having independence which is something that I have learnt from my mother.
My advice to the unemployed is that you should have patience because once it is your time, your cup will overflow with blessings and you should take the opportunities as they come and never have the mindset that you can’t because we all can make it happen for ourselves.
