Sarah Ngongo is achieving the management assistant position within Target. Being the agency administration hub, she makes sure that contracts with both agency staff and consultants be ready for signatures and their execution comply with as agreed. Yet amongst her responsibilities, she is sometimes supposed to take some unpleasant decisions.

Interview.

What is the relationship between your department other departments of the agency? 

All Target departments are using human resources and I am to make sure that all those who are working within each Target department meet first of all the following conditions: a Résumé duly submitted, an evaluation test followed by an interview, a partnership contract, a confidentiality clause and terms of work that clearly indicates terms of remuneration.

What exactly does your job entail before achieving a market research?

I first of all make sure that contract with the client is sign. Then I will take care of establishing terms of work, purchase orders for flight tickets and mission orders for all actors in the research (surveyors, supervisors, consultants…) in the event that the research is to take place far away from the registered office located in Kinshasa. And finally I have to prepare the outflow planning with the chief of party and submit it for approval by the High Management.

And during the research achievement, what support do you provide field teams with?   

I make sure that each actor in the research truly provide service in line with the agreement thanks to a daily monitoring based on attendance records with arrival, break and departure time. We also carry out a monitoring of outflow in line with weekly planning.

When a research is reaching its completion stage, what do you bring in terms of expertise?

I have to make sure that there exists a complete documentation related to the research that can be used in the future for other people that might conduct similar researches. At the end of each research, it is a must to have evaluations for different actors as well as technical report indicating the progress, main results, difficulties met, suggestions and financial report.

On a professional standpoint, what your job especially and valuably add to your life that you would like to share with other women?  

It is a job of a lot of pressure. Usually I have to deal with several issues at the same time and I have sometimes to sanction someone. This job requires someone with character, strong personality and straight – talk. It was not easy for me to adapt when I started, but I had to persevere and be opened to critics and remarks. I learnt to be more sociable, how listen and always be ready to serve, meet the entire team needs. Where there is a will, there is a way, provided that you accept to be trained and adapt to meet the position requirements.