Diane Be'ery

I made Aliyah soon after IGF. I worked at NGO Monitor for a number of years as a researcher for the English desk, and from there I returned to IGF as a staff member. I loved working for IGF and the Begin Center, and I worked for the Begin Foundation for a short time as well. At the same time I pursued my Masters degree in Political Science and Communications at Hebrew University, where I met my husband Gilad, who is now an Economist at the Ministry of Economy. I was ready to explore the realm of marketing and communications, and that was when I moved on to work for two tiny seed-stage start-ups. After that one of my former fellows reached out to me and recruited me to work at Mobileye as a marketing content writer. I've been at Mobileye for 4 years now, and I am now the VP of Marketing at the company.

 

I came to IGF with reasonable Hebrew, and I asked to do work in Hebrew within my IGF internship. It was the first time I had worked in Hebrew. It was a big challenge, and overcoming it was a big step in my career in Israel. My internship taught me a great deal about the reality of working in Israeli government and in the Israeli workforce at large. 

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IGF was a way for me to test-run Aliyah. I was very Zionistic, I was seriously considering Aliyah, but it was still so daunting to make that leap. IGF was a way for me to spend more time in Israel, while also getting a taste of what it might feel like to actually work in Israel. In that sense, IGF was very much a part of my decision to make Aliyah. After IGF, I knew that I could do it. I also learned a lot about Aliyah through my internship in the Ministry of Absorption. IGF allowed me to bring this big scary goal down to earth and to a practical timeline.

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Mobileye has been a professional home to several IGF alumni over the years. I was recruited by an IGF alum, and there was another alumna who was there before I arrived. Soon after that, in my marketing department we want to hire a number of additional alumni, some of whom are still in the department. IGF alumni instill a confidence that they are able to handle complexity, to work hard and deliver meaningful results. It's a fantastic pool of Zionistic, adaptable and capable candidates. The IGF alumni network as a whole is a wonderful network of interesting people from varied backgrounds who you're automatically connected to through the network. In my early years in Israel, I definitely found great friends within the very young alumni network, and we've stayed great friends to this day.