Depois de terminar a faculdade, Ana passou a procurar oportunidades fora do seu setor.

Because depois de is the fixed expression for after when it is followed by a verb in the infinitive.

• depois de terminar = after finishing
• depois da faculdade = after college / after university

So in Portuguese, depois normally takes de before a noun or an infinitive verb.

Examples:

• Depois de comer, fui embora. = After eating, I left.
• Depois do trabalho, vou descansar. = After work, I’m going to rest.

In Brazilian Portuguese, faculdade often refers to college or university studies, depending on context.

In this sentence, terminar a faculdade usually means to finish college / complete a university degree.

A useful distinction:

• faculdade = college, university, degree program, or the institution in everyday speech
• universidade = university as an institution more specifically

So Brazilians very commonly say:

• fazer faculdade = to go to college / attend university
• terminar a faculdade = to finish college / graduate from university

Passar a + infinitive means to start to, to begin to, or to come to do something.

So:

• Ana passou a procurar = Ana started looking / began to look

This structure is very common in Portuguese:

• Ele passou a estudar mais. = He started studying more.
• Nós passamos a entender melhor. = We began to understand better.

Here, passou is the past tense of passar, but in this expression it does not mean passed in the literal English sense. It is part of the verbal phrase passar a + infinitive.

Because the expression is passar a + infinitive.

So the a is required by this verb pattern:

• passar a fazer
• passar a estudar
• passar a procurar

It is not the feminine article a here. It is a preposition that belongs to the structure.

Both procurar and buscar can often mean to look for.

In Brazilian Portuguese:

• procurar is extremely common for to look for / seek
• buscar can also mean to seek, but very often it also means to fetch / go get

So:

• procurar oportunidades = to look for opportunities
• buscar oportunidades = to seek opportunities

Both are possible, but procurar oportunidades sounds very natural and common.

They are similar, but not exactly the same.

• fora do seu setor = outside her field/sector
• em outro setor = in another field/sector

Fora do seu setor emphasizes leaving her current area. Em outro setor emphasizes moving to a different one.

So the original sentence suggests Ana was looking beyond the field she was already connected to or trained in.

Do is the contraction of de + o.

So:

• de o seu setor becomes do seu setor

This contraction is mandatory in normal Portuguese.

Other common contractions:

• de + a = da
• de + os = dos
• de + as = das

Examples:

• fora do país
• perto da escola
• gosto dos livros

In this sentence, seu means her, referring to Ana:

• seu setor = her sector / her field

Yes, seu/sua can sometimes be ambiguous in Portuguese, because it can mean:

• his
• her
• your (formal or in some regions)

But here the subject is Ana, so the natural interpretation is her sector.

If someone wanted to make it extra clear, they could say:

• fora do setor dela

That is often more explicit in spoken Brazilian Portuguese.

Because the sentence has an introductory phrase:

• Depois de terminar a faculdade, ...

Then the main clause begins:

• Ana passou a procurar...

Portuguese often keeps the subject explicit for clarity, especially after a long introductory expression.

Could you omit it? In some contexts, yes, if Ana had already been clearly established:

• Depois de terminar a faculdade, passou a procurar oportunidades...

That is grammatically possible, but with no wider context, including Ana sounds clearer and more natural.

They are close, but not always identical.

• terminar a faculdade = to finish college/university studies
• se formar = to graduate

In many everyday situations, they refer to the same event. But:

• terminar a faculdade focuses on finishing the course/program
• se formar focuses on graduating

Examples:

• Depois de terminar a faculdade...
• Depois de se formar...

Both would work in a similar sentence.

Because Portuguese often uses the plural when talking about job or career opportunities in a general sense.

• procurar oportunidades = to look for opportunities

Using the singular, uma oportunidade, would mean one specific opportunity:

• procurar uma oportunidade fora do seu setor = to look for an opportunity outside her field

The plural sounds broader and more natural here.

Yes. Setor can be translated in several ways depending on context:

• sector
• field
• sometimes industry or area

In this sentence, a natural English meaning is probably field:

• outside her field

But the Portuguese word itself is setor, and it can refer to a professional area, segment, or division.

The sentence order is very natural:

• Depois de terminar a faculdade = time expression
• Ana passou a procurar = main action
• oportunidades fora do seu setor = object/complement

You could change the order a little and still be grammatical, for example:

• Ana passou a procurar oportunidades fora do seu setor depois de terminar a faculdade.

That means the same thing. The original version puts the time information first, which is very common in Portuguese.

A more informal version might be:

• Depois que terminou a faculdade, a Ana começou a procurar oportunidades fora da área dela.

Possible informal changes:

• depois que terminou instead of depois de terminar
• começou a instead of passou a
• área dela instead of seu setor

The original sentence is perfectly natural, but slightly more neutral or polished in tone.