This is YOUR Career!

Student Shani Haizler, who has a full ride Intel scholarship given for the advancement of women in hi-tech, has produced a faculty evening to provide students tools and techniques for job placement.

When the second semester of this school year began, Shani Haizler decided to hold a job-market preparatory event for female and male- students of the Faculty of Engineering at Bar-Ilan. “Female students often lack the confidence and tools to seek hi-tech positions, because, in our world, women in hard sciences is not yet a given. So we decided to hold an evening dedicated to female students, to provide a glimpse to the job market and help them find a placement,” says Shani.

The event began with a professional panel of two female engineers from Intel, who shared their experience of the job market, and a PhD candidate from the faculty, who spoke about an academic career path. Later, two rounds of professional workshops were conducted, in which the participants learned how to write a professional resume, how to conduct themselves in a job interview, and how to choose and manage their career path. Those workshops were given by female hi-tech recruiters and Intel engineers. The event drew over 100 participants, as well as guests from the department of computer science. “It was empowering to see such a large number of female students at the faculty in one evening,” says Haizler. “Each of the women present was made to feel powerful and a part of a growing trend. For a woman in this world, it’s very easy to feel like we are alone in our attempt to have a career in a male-dominated world.”

Haizler 23, a married mother of one, is a third-year undergrad in Electrical Engineering, specializing in signal processing and bioengineering. As a winner of the Intel scholarship for the advancement of women in hi-tech, she is required to create such opportunities for female students. Along with co-scholarship winner Sarah Earnest, she organized the event with the help of the Faculty of Engineering. “The Intel scholarship aims to encourage women to develop a career in hi-tech, and we were given a carte blanche in choosing to create any event relating to women, technology, and academia,” shares Haizler. “This scholarship is hugely important because it provides us, the honorees, as well as all event participants, power and motivation to launch a hi-tech career. It’s wonderful that a large corporation invests resources in the advancement of women, and believes that women can provide a unique contribution of their own. I can personally certify that the event has helped me a great deal and provided me with practical means of preparing and succeeding and job interviews and entering the workforce.”