"I joined this program called MITF where I primarily taught English to kids at school. The program ended and it was too hard for me to leave. I just couldn’t leave"
A little bit about me: I am from Columbus, Ohio and I went to the University of Wisconsin. There I studied human development and family studies because I wanted to head into the social work, nonprofit, or family counseling space.
Like many of my peers, the pandemic hit and I was left figuring out what to do. I took the pandemic as a chance to stay in Israel for a year. I joined this program called MITF where I primarily taught English to kids at school. The program ended and it was too hard for me to leave. I just couldn’t leave.
I don’t necessarily think that I am Israeli but I do feel adjusted to the culture. I have embodied the cultural aspects and lifestyle. I’ll always be the American Jewish girl from the Midwest suburbs, it’s not something that will go away. But, being in Israel has given me the “Leat leat” mentality of not rushing into things so quickly and being more aggressive in certain situations.
I work for a LinkedIn digital marketing agency called Remotion and I am a LinkedIn evangelist. My day-to-day is really sporadic. I do a lot of campaign management, social media management, and content creation. I work with designers on plenty of projects, just a lot going on. I didn’t come with any marketing experience but I have always been creative and a people person. It’s nice because I feel like I’m doing something that I really like. I’m really happy to work here, the people are really loving and amazing.
I personally did not use LinkedIn during university, I have seen LinkedIn as more of a recruitment agency, a place where you can find work or the work finds you. But I’ve come to see that it's truly a powerful social media site. It’s truly a place to build your personal brand. And you don’t have to build that solely by your new job post, promotion, or thought leadership. If you do it on LinkedIn your reach will in my opinion be bigger, cause you get to reach all kinds of people.
The biggest challenge is the distance from home along with acclimating to the new culture. You have to be your own advocate, figure out a new language, and deal with the government and its bureaucracy. It’s annoying because when you think you have accomplished something, something else just adds to the pile of things required to live here.
In the end, culture. You work to live, not live to work. Your social life and your post-work life are amplified. There’s a lot of room for self-exploration, and there’s not a lot of pressure!
Some advice, just laugh it off. When you're frustrated and things don't go your way, take a step back and crack up. The stuff that happens here is so niche, that no one else but Israelis get it, so you can talk about it with your friends and laugh it off.
Lastly, what is a fun fact about your life right now?
An only in Israel thing is how it feels like “no one works here”. It’s weird because everyone is busy, especially in hightech. Work plays a significant role here, but at the same time, it’s 13:30 on a Tuesday and there's people at the beach, the shuk, shopping, or with friends at a coffee shop. It’s really nice to see how people do things at their own pace and have the freedom to not be confined to a strict corporate 9-5.
I’m Israeli-born, Silicon Valley raised. I hold a BSc. in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from the University of Arizona. From my peers, I’m the “jack of all trades” marketer, helping companies scale and go to market.
In my free time, I kick-box, DJ, go to the beach, and do fun passion projects like this. If you’re an Oleh/Olah in tech and would love to be featured, let's connect on LinkedIn!