José Viana graduated in History in 1994, but his career is in the air. He is a pilot in Vietnam, lives in Macau with his wife Yilun and daughter Gabriela, and in August he was in Porto visiting family, friends and the university.

More than 20 years after graduating in History, he returned to Universidade Portucalense where he shared with us a little of his “improbable” professional life and even met Isabel Freitas, his teacher during the course.

José Viana recalls that he still had the doubt “History or Law”, but he won History. After completing the degree, training in Hospitality followed. Shortly thereafter, a friend from Braga, whose mother was a teacher in Macau, challenges him: “Don’t you want to go to Macau?”

He was 24 years old, when that question opened the door to the world. “At that time, my parents went to the bank to collect 100 contos [500 euros today] and there I went to the territory that at that time was still Portuguese Macau. And as someone who had never left Porto, I remember saying on arrival: but, this is just Chinese. ”

For “happiness and luck”, a few weeks after being in Macau, the local newspaper “Ponto Final” published a recruitment announcement for the new Macau International Airport and thought: “it wouldn’t be a bad idea!” He prepared the curriculum and was selected to take a four-month Airport Operations course. For eight years he was responsible for parking planes, doing runway inspections or calculating landing fees.

Ten years ago, with the financial help of his parents and the support of his wife, he fulfilled his dream of becoming a pilot. He studied in Australia and went to Malaysia and deep China to “earn flight hours”. “Air Macau” followed for five years and “Jet Star Pacific” in Saigon last February. Currently, José’s month of work is reduced to “three weeks‘ on ’and one week‘ off ’”.

“Being a pilot is very attractive, but there is another side – you don’t sleep at home every day, you don’t watch your children’s first steps, and rigorous medical examinations are repeated every year. Despite this, flying is the best place.