ORAL PRESENTATION - AN INTERVIEW

The person I’ve decided to interview, for this task, is someone I really admire: my
godmother. She’s the most experienced human being I know, in terms of professional life. At the
age of sixty-nine, and after many adventures lived, I thought she was the ideal person.She was born
and raised in Lisbon, although she lived in Angola for several years, the place where she gave her
first steps in her professional career.
Firstly, I started by asking my interviewee about her educational experience and how had
she gotten this far. She told me that she was living in Angola by the time she studied at EICAP
Industrial School, so that, later, she could be admitted to the Women’s Training Course.
Then, I asked her if she didn’t have any bigger goals, to which she answered positively, having in
consideration that her big dream was to get back to Portugal and work in the Ministry of Finance -
which, eventually and fortunately, ended up happening. “My goal was to work for the State, as it is
a privileged job” - she added.
Afterwards, I questioned my interviewee about the most important milestones she had to go
through in order to reach the top of her career, to which she replied that the biggest ordeal she had
to go through was the Public Contest for the office of the General Director of Taxes.
Subsequently, (and because I was feeling very curious about her placement at that Contest), I
inquired her about it, and her answer was, undoubtedly, positive: she had achieved the first place
on it!
Thirdly, I asked my interviewee to explain what is the role (and what are the daily tasks…)
of an employee of the Ministry of Finance, on a daily basis.
In response to that, I was told that she was responsible for conducting Portugal’s financial policy,
ensuring that no one evaded taxes. In fact, she told me that she had to find out, case by case, if the
most economically advantageous were not deceiving the authorities.
Later, I was intrigued to know what were her biggest difficulties and struggles, so I asked if
she felt more difficulties, in a retrospective way, as a housekeeper (her first job), or, on the other
hand, as a public employee. I was told, by her, that both are really challenging, however, the second
one requires a lot more responsibility, and, therefore, is more stimulating.
Finally, I thought that such a responsible, hard-working woman could have good advices for
young people who are getting started, and, consequently, I asked her to set a few: first of all, she
told me that the secret is following our dreams and loving what we do; and, secondly, don’t be
afraid of asking for advice, when needed.