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The development center in Herzliya Pituach: Microsoft's human capital - voila! Of money

2022-09-23T11:51:57.996Z


What is more natural than placing a development center in Herzliya Pituach? We went to close the week and the year at the Microsoft offices and met employees who love what they do


The development center in Herzliya Pituach: Microsoft's human capital

What is more natural than placing a development center in Herzliya Pituach?

We went to close the week and the year at the Microsoft offices and met employees who love what they do

Liat Ron

09/22/2022

Thursday, September 22, 2022, 2:02 p.m. Updated: 3:44 p.m.

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Microsoft development center.

From right to left: Nela Gurevich, Itai Gridi and Odelia Tefra (Photo: Reuven Castro)

What we do

: The development center in Israel takes part in Microsoft's transformation into the largest security company in the world.

Half of the employees deal with a variety of innovative technologies in the field of security.

40 different product groups lead the development of some of Microsoft's global core products in the fields of artificial intelligence, education, health and autonomous driving.



Participants:



Odalia Tefra

, 27 years old, single, lives in Bat Yam.

Position: Product Manager, working for the company for about a year.



Nela Gurevich

, 43 years old, married + 3, lives in Kneam.

Position: Software team lead, working for the company for three years.



Itai Gridi

, 40 years old, married + 3, lives in Or Akiva.

Position: Principal Threat Intel Manager, working eight years in the company.

Haim Cohen, make me coffee! (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Location

: Not far from the beach in Herzliya Pituach, in a tall and well-maintained nine-story building, is the Microsoft development center in Israel, one of three in the world.

There are a total of 2,700 employees in Israel, some of whom work from branches in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Nazareth.



In the green and open campus, which has a high international rating for a working environment. There is a water conservation system, which saves 35% in consumption through artificial intelligence. Employees can use free shuttles, shared electric vehicles , regular, folding or electric bicycles to travel to work and home. There are also prayer rooms for the three religions, unisex bathrooms, a gym, a yoga room, music rooms, and the garage, a sort of large room with sewing machines, laser printers and everything that can Stimulate the employees to creativity and art. Suspended bridges connect the floors and there are rest areas inside the building or on the balconies.



Coffee break:

Visitors are welcomed by a cafe run by Haim Cohen, who also manages the restaurant on site.

Employees who want to have lunch can go down to it, or save the elevator ride and order it to them.

On each floor there is a kitchenette looking out onto a square with bright round tables and chairs around them, and through the large windows facing Herzliya or the sea.



The transparent refrigerators attached to the wall have natural drinks, iced tea, fizzy drinks and juices.

There are also yogurts Peru, soy, milky, Yolo, yogurts with fruit, plus stevia, cottage cheese, gbanat, salads in individual boxes. On the island there is an avocado buffet, sweet and hot peppers, cut carrots, radishes, lemons and a jar with onion stalks Greens, green leaves, cabbage and thinly sliced ​​tomatoes and cucumbers. There are also sliced ​​yellow cheeses of all kinds, feta, Bulgarian, a large bowl with fruit, breads and pastries, and everyone can put together the breakfast they like.

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Shared half free

Have you heard about our creative corner? (Photo: Reuven Castro)

CV

:

Odelia

was not a computer girl, although she had one at home.

She studied in the most realistic major she had in her high school, biology and chemistry, joined an operational unit in Modi'in and signed for four years permanently.

She was an analyst, head of a team of analysts and then a team leader, and only when she worked with technical teams in the Intelligence Corps, was she exposed for the first time to the technological world and fell in love.



"I came to the conclusion that this is the field I want to go into," she says, "and when I was looking for something to study I ended up in computer science. Thanks to the good grades from high school and the psychometrics, I was able to get accepted to Reichman University and after a year I knew I wanted to go to Microsoft, because I wanted to be in a company that has a global impact, I did everything It was possible to be a student.



"To arrive at the product, I prepared quite a bit. I did simulations, I joined groups and forums to learn what it requires and absorb information and I consulted with product managers to understand what they were looking for. Through the product I establish the technological ability, and the ability to work with teams, to have a holistic view, Engage in research and work with clients and users. Everything from everything."



When

Nela

was eight years old, her father, an electronics engineer by profession, brought a computer with a green screen to the house in Ukraine and at that moment she decided to become a computer programmer, a dream that accompanied her all these years.

The family immigrated to Israel when she turned 11 and in her grade she joined the Technion's programming class using Lego and later joined the Technion's mentoring program.



She studied in a realistic major, enrolled in economics and after a year returned to the circle of technology and logic that she so missed.

After two years, she started working for a security company as a student.

Upon graduation, 22 years ago, she was hired for the first time at Microsoft as a software engineer.



"Because I didn't take a trip after the army," she recalls, "after two years I resigned and went with my husband to Australia and Southeast Asia for nine months. Everyone thought I was crazy when I left Microsoft. I didn't go back because I wanted to do a master's degree in computer science at the Technion. Towards the end of the degree, the first child arrived. I started working for a large chip company, where I was a software engineer for ten years and after four years I started managing teams.



"After the third birth, I decided to do a reset. I started working as an employee as a consultant for methodology and development in a consulting company. After three years, someone told me that a job had opened up that was tailor-made for me at Microsoft, to establish a software team for a large software-hardware project. I had good memories of my previous incarnation at the company. Although there was only A small branch in Haifa, with few people, but the atmosphere was excellent. Today I manage the software team of eighteen people, all of whom I recruited. We deal with network acceleration in Microsoft's cloud, so that customers have a fast and smooth network experience."



The computer he got

with me

at the age of five changed his life.

He was addicted to the green screen and the cassettes, he was very interested in what was happening inside it, so he took it apart and reassembled it.

When he was in the division, he took out of the bin next to the neighborhood computer store in Herzliya, defective joysticks that cost NIS 600, repaired them, and sold them, and that was, he says, the first money he made in high tech.



"I started out interested in development and code development and I majored in computers. I went to a programming course at Maram, six months of intensive studies, and service at 8200, where I stayed for seven years in total.

During the service I met my wife, we got married when I finished it and we went for six months around the world.

When we returned, I started looking for a job and received an offer to return as a civilian to an intelligence unit as a commander of soldiers, so in total I was in the army for 11 years.



"When I was released, I found a job in a defense company at a high level. After two years, I moved to become a developer in a start-up company that was acquired by Microsoft and suddenly I found myself in a huge company and I was very afraid of the transition from intimate to very large, but the start-up got its autonomy and we learned how to work properly in such an international corporation.

I managed the research and after a year at the company, I flew to Redmond and heard a lecture there about a sophisticated attack that was stopped by Microsoft employees.

I was shocked that people from within the company did this and I knew that someday I would get there.



"And it happened. I was privileged to establish the Israeli branch of the group of researchers who deal with cyber threats, with a focus on sophisticated attacks. Because our cloud is huge, we are exposed to hostile activity and there is no outside company in the world that can deal with them like we do."

Who runs, who walks and who grows plants? (Photo: Reuven Castro)

For the soul

: Nela started running outside after the birth of the second child, got into it deeply and runs between 30 and 80 km every week. When one of the children started doing triathlons, she joined him and has already participated in thirteen competitions to date.



In Corona, I live in a small apartment. and started growing plants on the windowsill, most of them for food and over time he became a professional. A year ago, the family, with their three daughters, moved to Or Akiva, to a larger apartment with a huge balcony, which became his orchard. He grows all the spice plants there, cherry tomatoes, strawberry guavas, Blueberries and blackberries.



Odelia loves traveling in Israel and the world, with a preference for nature and special places. She has been to Iceland, Scotland, Namibia and China, until the corona stopped it and now she is warming up her engines again.

Flexibility in working hours is the most important thing (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Added value

: flexibility in working hours is the most important thing for student Odelia.

"You can use the workspaces to prepare for exams, and choose from a huge variety of courses for personal development. During the exams, we received a cute kit with a nutritious breakfast and sweets.



I am part of a think tank that initiates social activities and volunteering. I told the group about the holiday of the Tzigd, and exactly these things provide the connection personal to the place".



"The company sees us as people and that's the most important thing," says Nela, "the life of the employee at the center. That's how it was during Corona when they showed great flexibility and those who need time with the children get it. We are also involved in projects for the community, for me it's important to encourage young women who enter hi-tech."



Beyond the worldly things, the Microsoft guys know how to make life.

In Corona there were a lot of pampering home deliveries, and they celebrated the company's 30th anniversary at the exhibition grounds with Nega Erez, Ran Denkar, Zehava Ben, Noa Kirel and Guy Vihal, and on Purim they indulged in a performance by Neta Barzilai.

Itai tells about a group trip they took not long ago, with a night in a boutique hotel in Kinneret and Sapp.



Itay: "There are a series of courses that are not related to work at all and are not technological, such as playing the guitar. I took a course in criminology and it was one of the most fascinating things I have done in my life, and yes, I was also in a gardening course."

"Internal and professional process" (Photo: Reuven Castro)

What to wear: Before the corona virus, I came to work more than a tailor.

"When my wife saw how many t-shirts I had in my drawer, some of them branded, she warned me, either wear them or they will be thrown in the trash. Following this warning and a home organization course I took at the company, I switched to a t-shirt and jeans."

Nela is a fan of socks and a big fan of sneakers, because you have to take care of your feet for running.



Where do you work:

usually three days in the office and the rest from home.



Salary:

Odelia says that the salary is very rewarding and together with the professionalism and personal attention, the compensation she receives is above expectations.

Nela also agrees that the compensation is as usual in large companies like Microsoft and Iti admits that he never made comparisons with others, because he is satisfied with what he has.



What next:

Itai plans to learn to play the guitar soon thanks to the company, and besides, he says that his job is a dream, so he is here and strong.

Nela confirms that every word of Itay's about his position at Sela, is really a dream, and apart from continuing to progress and doing challenging things, she intends to break her personal record in a ten kilometer run and get closer to 40 minutes. Odelia wants to develop at Microsoft and reach management. "I receive feedback Along the way and going through a professional and internal process, I hope to continue here for years to come."

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Tags

  • Microsoft

  • happy hour

  • High tech

Source: walla

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