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Eunice
ANTUNES
Portuguese citizen
Career Management Department, Refining
& Marketing, Paris, France. Career Manager.
Qualified in Law and majored in Labour Law
at Coimbra University, then specialised
in Human Resources at UCP Lisbon, Portugal.
Has been with the Group for 8 years.
Set up the human-resources operation in
Portugal and ran efforts to harmonise HR
policies in Marketing operations across
Europe. Has served at the Paris Headquarters
for the last year.
I studied to become a lawyer, and actually
practiced law during my 18-month internship.
I switched to human resources some time
later, when a large French distribution
company asked me to run the HR office at
their Portuguese subsidiary. I spent five
years with them.
Then, Total got in touch with me through
a recruitment firm, when they opened their
Human-Resources Department in Portugal.
The fact that I had already worked with
a French company played to my advantage.
Everything – from recruitment and
training to compensation, fringe benefits
and career management – had to be
built from scratch, in the Lisbon subsidiary
and in the subsidiary they ran directly.
Those seven years I spent developing and
implementing the Group’s HR policies
were a terrific experience.
From Lisbon to
Paris.
Then, Career Management asked me to move
to the headquarters in Paris to harmonise
HR-management policies across Europe. I
took the job, even though it involved moving
to France alone. But that’s a personal
choice (and Lisbon is only a 2-hour flight
from Paris, after all).
My job is to run efforts to set up HR-management
policies in the Marketing subsidiaries across
eight European countries. My experience
in Portugal came in handy. I feel these
policies really mirror the Group’s
care for career development, prospects and
management. And I’m in a position
to know that.
An open door to
the world.
The main difference here is that my job
at the subsidiary was more hands-on. Here
I have learnt to work as part of a network,
on projects involving different cultures
and different ways of doing things. And
it’s all very interesting. I also
find the diversity-nurturing policies quite
trailblazing.
I can see my future in Human Resources (which
I see as my vocation). I might go back to
Portugal or try another experience abroad.
I don’t know yet. I’ll think
about that in two or three years’
time.
What I always tell newcomers is that this
Group is an open door to the world. Just
push it open and we’ll be there with
the career-management and international-mobility
opportunities. The Group’s sheer breadth
makes it possible.
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