Margarida Marques

Meet Margarida Marques. VP, Portugal Country Lead & Head of Continental Europe

• 17+ years with Hitachi
• Started when Hitachi European operations began
• Born and raised in Lisbon

What I love about working in tech

It’s the constant learning and assimilation of new skills and knowledge. 

Technology has no end as it is always evolving. There are always new areas of knowledge, new solutions, innovations coming up, and we are constantly learning those. If I take the analogy of cooking a new recipe, it’s just like that – we bring the ingredients together, we mix them in the right proportions and cook up the dish. It’s exactly that – someone will bring an idea or think about the problem, get everyone together to solve the problem, implement the right mix of strategies and then deliver to the customer. 

And maybe then six years later, the customer will tell you that what you did six years ago was amazing and keep coming to back to you for similar amazing work. So yeah, this is what I love. We never get bored with the constant evolution.

Building a great place to work

Well, I didn’t make it all by myself – the leadership team was very much on the same page with all of us. We are together since we started the delivery team, and we were very clear where we wanted to go and how the path looked in front of us. 

I think collectively we decided how we would take some of the challenges, overcome them together, and aim for the big accomplishments. I think the diversity we have in the team brings in conflicting but invaluable ideas and at the end, we always get to a common goal.

To make a great place to work, we have to give each individual in the company their dedicated place without influencing them or changing who they are at the core. Let each person develop as they are, enable them to bring their authentic selves to work so that they can share new perspectives, skills, and abilities, and contribute in a meaningful way. Instilling diversity across all aspects of the organization’s operations makes the organization more enriched. 

Balancing career and life

There is no balance for passion, at least not for me. I’m a passionate person by nature and when I go for something, I put my head and heart into it. So, I’d say I’m not a balanced person in terms of passion but yes, in terms of personal life and work, there is a lot of balance.

I have an amazing husband that has helped me a lot and I do recognize that. But I also force myself to disconnect from work – I try not to look at emails, or be available, or even think too much about work during non-working hours. If I’m at work, I fully concentrate on it and when I’m at home, with my family, I try to keep all my work thoughts aside.

I think we can always strike a balance, but it’s probably not like a 50-50 balance. There are times when we get dragged towards work more and can’t give the same amount of time to family. And there are times when we are more engaged at home and less at work. 

Advice to my younger self

I’d advice my younger self to ignore those voices in my head which says, ‘you cannot do it’. I’d say: just go for it and don’t overcomplicate things. No one knows everything, so if there are paths or things that you don’t know, you will discover those paths and learn new things.

You will not be perfect at everything, there are areas that you don’t know, and you will learn them over time. Don’t be afraid of taking new challenges, there are people out there to help you; so someone will give you a hand eventually.

Also, I would advise women to remember that you are not alone, especially in Hitachi Vantara, more than in any other company I have seen. We have great leaders who are keen to support your growth. I am an example of that – have had great leaders that supported me through the years.