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With women making up the vast majority of career services professionals worldwide, their influence on how we define and pursue career success has never been more visible. This Women's Month, we sat down with four remarkable women from top business schools across Europe to hear their perspectives on careers, guidance, and what it truly means to succeed. In our #WomenCareerLeaders series, we hear from Maria João Santos, Head of Careers & Talent at Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics in Portugal.
"The best part of my job — I would say it's the challenge that my job is every day. I enjoy lots of things in my job but if I had to pick one, it's the challenge of dealing with people and helping people to grow. Every year we have a new cohort of students coming in, always different, and a very demanding audience — so keeping up with them is really rewarding because it really pushes you to always do better.
And then with the challenge comes also the impact. Having a job where you actually see an immediate result of what you're doing — when a student comes back and appreciates the simulation of an interview, or the connection that led to a job — you're actually impacting people's lives. That's very much the best part of the job."
"If I have to choose one, I would say it's curiosity. Being curious about the student you have in front of you, so you get to know them better and can help them better. Being curious about the job market and everything that is happening, the different industries, the different trends. Being curious about what the future is bringing, because you always have to be up to date. That pushes you to always be learning — and that lifelong learning that is important to develop the skills of our students is also important to develop our skills as career professionals."
"I would choose the idea of servant leadership. Women naturally have a different kind of leadership — and leadership here in the broad sense, not just of leading people, but of leading others into being better. This idea of service, I think that's a very specific feature of women in careers, because there is a more natural trend towards empathy — putting yourself in the shoes of the other, whether that's students, colleagues, or other career leaders.
Women are naturally — and I'm generalizing — focused on giving power to others and not being solely focused on their own promotion and career progress, but rather transferring that to other people. This importance given to the people around you, collaborating to achieve the best results rather than making sure you get your results regardless of what happens to others — I think that's a very particular way women are shaping career services.
And even the definition of career success is very different nowadays. It's not money and big companies and the big job anymore. The future generations are more and more changing that, and I believe women have a contribution in that — moving more towards a personal definition of success, whether that's being happy with family, doing good for other people, or achieving a big salary. It can be anything nowadays."
"Confidence is one of the ultimate goals that we want for our students. We want to provide the services, the support, the environment where they can try and fail and feel safe — so that in the end, when they get into the real thing, they feel confident that they're going to be successful in the recruitment process and in their careers.
I often recall a student I had a few years ago. At the beginning of the academic year we had a group dynamic where students had to participate in a discussion, and there was this girl starting her master's in Lisbon for the first time, coming from a smaller town in Portugal. She hardly said — actually she didn't say anything throughout the whole group dynamic. The feedback was naturally: if you don't participate, there's no feedback, and if this was a recruitment process you would automatically be excluded.
In the end, everybody left and she stayed behind. We started talking and she became very emotional. We were helping her understand, contextualizing, supporting her. And then, moving fast forward — when I met her again at the graduation ceremony two years later, she had moved into a role at a Central European bank. An international career. Even physically she was more confident. It was so good to know that in a way we had contributed to that throughout her experience in the school. That confidence really summarizes the impact we want to have on students."
Maria João Santos is one of four women career leaders we spoke to this Women's Month as part of #WomenCareerLeaders. Stay tuned for our next feature, where we hear from Anne-Sophie Berthelot, Career Consultant at Audencia Business School in France.
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