Early years and where you came from?
Born and raised in Porto. My inner curiosity led me to a Communications degree, a master's in Marketing, and several executive education in Management. The rest has been a successful combination of hard work, the right opportunities, and also some luck.
How were you introduced to the world of the Portuguese tech industry?
I started my career in a national telecom company. After that, I had several experiences, national and international, in different industries such as education, retail, events, or automotive.
Walk me through your work and what you are doing now in the tech industry.
Currently, I lead a digital acceleration team at Grupo Salvador Caetano, where we work side by side with several automotive brands, in Portugal, Spain, and Africa, to improve their digital footprint.
I am also a proud volunteer at TEDxPorto, one of the biggest events of idea sharing in Portugal and one of the ten largest TEDx events in the world. We promote an annual event for more than 1.200 persons with the purpose of inspiring and sharing ideas that can change the world.
What part of what you do, you love the most?
Having the opportunity to work in a very competitive and dynamic industry, allowing us to be innovative and creative, measuring and adjusting everything in real-time.
How do you think that your background and knowledge impact the way you approach your work in the Portuguese tech industry?
I believe that each one of us is unique and a strong combination of our experiences — both personal and professionally –, expectations and dreams. That combination results in the personal DNA that we impress in what we do, impacting people that we cross with along the way.
What advice do you have for young women that want to get into tech and don’t know where to start?
Be resilient and don’t quit when facing an obstacle. Explore and research a lot, ask for help when needed, connect yourself with persons in this area that inspire you and ask them for advice, find a mentor who guides and introduces you to the tech industry, and network a lot.
Walk me through a day in your life as a Portuguese women in tech.
Ideally, some of my days start in the gym, at 7 am. At work, I start every day with a 15 minutes Kaizen stand-up meeting with all the team, to align priorities and pipeline. After that, a day is never the same as other: meetings with the team and/or clients, brainstorming and working on proposals, benchmark, and research, results analysis, and presentation, among many other things.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Stay true to yourself, work hard and make sure you choose your priorities right.
What apps/software/tools can’t you live without?
Email (Outlook and Gmail), Google Photos, Waze, Linkedin and Instagram, Good Reads, and so many others.
Any links that you want to share? In what are you working on…
Take a look and stay tuned at https://tedxporto.com/
👉Find Mariana on LinkedIn
