Lisbon · Portugal

Fifteen years of expertise.
What comes next?

Group career transition programmes for mid-career professionals in Portugal who know their industry deeply — and are ready to understand what that knowledge can become elsewhere.

Skills Audit Competency Mapping Professional Narrative Strategic Networking
Mid-career professional reflecting on career transition possibilities in a modern Lisbon workspace
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Does any of this sound familiar?

The Engineer

Fifteen years in construction. You've managed projects, teams, budgets, and crises. You're competent — and you're done. You just can't see what else you're qualified to do.

The Teacher

You've spent over a decade designing learning, reading rooms, and adapting to every kind of student. You want to leave education but worry your skills don't translate outside it.

The Hospitality Professional

The pandemic clarified something. You rebuilt operations from nothing, managed under pressure, and kept teams together. Now you want to direct that capability somewhere new.

These are the people we work with most often — but the common thread isn't the industry. It's the feeling of having substantial experience and genuine uncertainty about where it belongs next.

Group of mid-career professionals engaged in a structured career mapping workshop in Lisbon
4-Week Programme

Before the question of where — the question of what.

Most career advice starts with a destination. We start with an inventory. Before you can make a sound decision about where to take your career, you need a clear, honest picture of what you've actually built over fifteen years.

Our four-week group programme works through this systematically. Not with personality tests and career quizzes — with structured methodology, peer reflection, and honest professional analysis.

01
Skills Audit

A structured inventory of what you can actually do — documented, organised, and examined without the distortion of your current job title.

02
Transferable Competency Mapping

Identifying which of your capabilities have value in contexts you haven't considered — and how to articulate them to people outside your current industry.

03
Professional Narrative Development

Building a coherent story about your career that makes sense to someone who has never worked in your field.

04
Strategic Networking in Portugal

Understanding how professional networks function in the Portuguese market and how to build meaningful connections in sectors you're exploring.

See the Full Programme

This is not recruitment.

We don't place people in jobs. We don't have employer partnerships or commission arrangements. We don't push you toward any particular sector or outcome. Our work is to help you see clearly what you have — before you decide where to take it. What you do with that clarity is entirely yours.

The Portuguese job market has its own logic, its own networks, and its own pace. Our programme is built specifically around that reality — not imported from a generic international model.

Four weeks. One cohort. Structured progress.

Each week of the programme builds on the last. You work through the material alongside a small group of peers at a similar career stage — different industries, shared experience of being at a crossroads.

Week One

Skills Audit & Inventory

Professional conducting a structured skills audit session with career documents and notes

We begin with a comprehensive skills audit — a methodical process of documenting what you know how to do, stripped of job titles and industry jargon. Many participants find this the most surprising week: they've underestimated the breadth of what they've accumulated.

Week Two

Competency Mapping

Small group of professionals engaged in competency mapping exercise with visual frameworks on a table

Taking your skills inventory, we work through a structured mapping process to identify which competencies transfer across industries — and how to express them in language that resonates with people outside your current field. The Portuguese market has specific sectors with strong demand for cross-industry competence.

Week Three

Professional Narrative

Professional working on their career narrative with a facilitator in a warm, well-lit workshop setting

A career story that made sense inside your industry often doesn't translate outside it. This week focuses on developing a coherent, compelling professional narrative — one that explains your value to someone who has never encountered your previous field and doesn't need to in order to understand what you bring.

Week Four

Strategic Networking

Mid-career professionals networking at a structured event in a contemporary Lisbon professional setting

The final week addresses the practical question of how to move — not with a job application strategy, but with an understanding of how professional networks in Portugal actually function, how to enter conversations in new sectors, and how to build relationships that open doors without cold-calling into the void.

What does working in a cohort actually change?

Individual coaching has its place. But career transition at mid-level has a particular challenge that individual sessions don't address well: the sense that your situation is uniquely stuck. It isn't — and working alongside people from different industries who are navigating the same uncertainty changes something fundamental about how you see your own position.

When a former bank compliance officer and a former secondary school head of department both recognise something in each other's professional story, it shifts how both of them understand their own transferability.

  • Peer reflection surfaces blind spots that individual sessions miss
  • Cross-industry perspective broadens your sense of possibility
  • Cohort accountability creates consistent progress over four weeks
  • Shared experience reduces the isolation of career uncertainty
Diverse cohort of mid-career professionals in animated discussion during a career transition programme session in Lisbon

Who facilitates your transition?

Our facilitators have worked in the industries we serve — and made their own transitions. They bring methodology, not theory.

Ana Costa, Programme Director at Global Memorandum, a professional woman in her forties with warm expression

Ana Costa

Programme Director

Former organisational development consultant with background in financial services restructuring. Designed the competency mapping methodology at the core of our programme.

Miguel Ferreira, Lead Facilitator at Global Memorandum, a professional man in his forties in business casual attire

Miguel Ferreira

Lead Facilitator

Spent twelve years in civil engineering before transitioning to organisational psychology. Leads the skills audit methodology and works directly with technical professionals navigating sector change.

Sofia Mendes, Narrative Development Specialist at Global Memorandum, a professional woman with thoughtful expression

Sofia Mendes

Narrative Development Specialist

Former teacher and later education policy advisor. Specialises in helping professionals build coherent career stories that communicate value across industry boundaries.

Rui Santos, Portuguese Market Specialist at Global Memorandum, a professional man with engaged expression

Rui Santos

Portuguese Market Specialist

Twenty years navigating the Portuguese professional landscape across hospitality, tourism, and technology sectors. Leads the strategic networking module with specific focus on the Lisbon and Porto markets.

Where we work

Address

Edifício, R. Soeiro Pereira Gomes, Andar 11
1600-024 Lisboa, Portugal

Programmes run in Lisbon. Sessions are held in-person at our Lisbon office and at partner venues across the city. Contact us for current programme dates and availability.

Contact Us

Ready to understand what you've actually built?

The first step isn't deciding where to go. It's getting a clear picture of what you have. Our programme starts there.