Humans@ALTEN: João
From the beginning Question: What did you study? How do you remember this stage?
Answer: I’ve studied Mechanical Engineering. I was always a curious, hands-on individual, so having the chance to study how physics could be applied to everyday tasks and development was very enticing to me. To that end, I really enjoyed my major and I believe it gave me a structured reasoning and analytical view of different challenges. Q: Have you always been clear about what you wanted to do?
A: While I always believed I was clear about what I wanted to do, I’ve found many areas of interest once I started navigating the market. I still think that the main driver is the challenge ahead of me and what tools should I develop to reach the desired goals. Q: What was your first job?
A: Mechanical Design Engineer for a small machine constructor near my hometown. Since it was a small startup, I was able to learn a lot in a short term and had a large direct impact on the projects that I was working on. About your career at ALTEN Q: How did you get to know ALTEN and what attracted you to the company?
A: I was referred to the company by a close friend that joined ALTEN in the very beginning of its activity in Portugal. What draw me to the company was the type of industrial & engineering projects that ALTEN specialized on. Q: What did your job consist of and what did you enjoy most about it?
A: My job started as a Product Engineer, tasked with solving some quality issues within the client’s production lines. However, as the project developed itself, it was clear that our role needed to evolve into a more comprehensive analysis of the whole production line. What I most enjoyed was the opportunity of focusing our efforts into the problems we were solving, not really with the daily tasks. Q: What do you think was your greatest contribution at the time?
A: Being able to contribute directly to the solutions, side to side with the production, process, quality and logistics departments. Q: What were your goals and how did you plan your evolution within the company?
A: My goals were focused on expanding my technical knowledge and also get acquainted with the automotive industry placed in Portugal. Your position as BM Q: How has it been the journey to get to your current position?
A: I was invited to this position to help expand the Engineering division. It was a great way to expand my knowledge about the industry in Portugal Q: What qualities do you think are necessary to be a Business Manager at ALTEN?
A: It’s important to care about the people we’re working for – both clients and consultants. The right partnerships will help build the consultants careers and the commercial relationships with the clients. Q: What is the most complicated part of your job and what do you enjoy the most?
A: Making sure to maintain all the several stakeholders aligned with the objective of the projects. What I enjoy the most is being able to develop a team that supports the client network that the whole company develops on multiple fronts. Q: What do you think are the professional skills that most characterize you?
A: I believe the technical knowledge that I have on my business sectors is the key factor that characterizes me the best. Q: How is your relationship with your consultants?
A: I like to think that we see each other as part of the same team – the consultants are the technical experts while I’m tasked with enabling them to shine in our clients. Q: What qualities should a consultant have to be part of your team?
A: A consultant should be curious, goal-oriented, flexible and adaptable and, finally, team player. Q: Could you tell us about any outstanding project you are working on?
A: We’re currently supporting efforts of development of low-level and high-level software that will constitute the future of the automotive sector. This allow us to be present in the cutting edge of the technological breakthroughs. Q: What are your medium/short term goals?
A: Help ALTEN become a major reference in the Engineering sectors, with the ability to support our clients all the way from R&D to Quality and Customer Care, creating multidisciplinary teams to do so. About ALTEN Q: What is the best of ALTEN?
A: It’s a goal-oriented company, which is something that makes us be goal-oriented with our clients as well. Q: Why choose ALTEN and not another company?
A: We value the stability and investment in our consultants. Not all consultancy companies can say that. Q: What do you think differentiates ALTEN from other competitors?
A: We value the trust we develop with our clients and we treat them as partners. To do so, we’ll go above and beyond to meet our partners needs and hope to work with them for years to come.