Like many young girls, Eden Manalo Uchayan once dreamed of flying. “My dream job was to be an FA,” she said in an exclusive interview with Financial Adviser PH, referring to her childhood aspiration of becoming a flight attendant.
But life had other plans. Eden didn’t take the traditional path through college or airline training. Instead, she found herself working as a factory operator at Toshiba Philippines in Biñan, Laguna—trying to become financially independent at a young age. “I was in a hurry to provide for myself and to run away from my parents,” she shared.
What she didn’t expect was to discover a hidden passion right there on the production floor.
“During our training days, I got a chance to observe how the trainers do their job,” Eden recalled. “Then I realized that it was one of my talent—to train people.”
That spark led her to a new direction. She became a Training Assistant, helping orient newly hired employees and assisting them with benefits. “It was really the care for people, I think. That’s when I started realizing—maybe this is Human Resource.”
Years later, Eden found herself in a formal HR role, handling recruitment and employee engagement at MPPI, a Japanese manufacturing firm. Despite competing with more credentialed candidates, she was chosen for the position. “We were three during the interview. Both of them were college graduates and really with pleasing personality. But they said they saw something in me…”
That belief fueled her passion for HR. “From 2014 ‘til date… I never knew I will be loving this job as an HR professional.”
Through every hiring session and employee program, Eden discovered a deeper calling: to serve, support, and uplift others. “It’s really the passion within, the care for the people around us. I want people/employees to be heard, like what we so called empathy.”
And although she never boarded a plane in a uniform, she’s found a new version of her dream—one that’s still connected to the skies.
“Right now, I am aiming to be working as an HR professional in an airline company. So I will not be an FA anymore, but I will be one to hire them instead.”
It’s a full-circle moment: reimagining her childhood goal by empowering the next generation of flight attendants to fly high.
