This is my final simester of my BA and that means that it is time to start looking for a job!!!
Where to start from? What kind of job do i want? How much money to ask for? These are all questions that are sitting in the minds of all my class mates. Unlike most of my class mates i have work experience in the field that i want to find a job in, but this does not mean i can have any job i want.
For the last couple of weeks i have been in and out of dozens of internet sites looking for different jobs that i might want to do.I could easily stay at my current job where everything is nice and cozy but i would be cheating myself. I want to working in a new field that i dont have any experience in and so i feel like all my other class mates. Every job opening i see requires experience for that particular job. How am i supposed to get experience in a certain field if in order to get a job i need experience. It is a "Catch 22".
So i have sent out around 20 resumes and signed up for about 5 different job web sites and i am hoping to start getting some telephone calls back. Other than that i have also filled out forms on various government web sites applying for certain jobs.
I am very lucky that i worked for two years at a real company and had a real job before starting school. I hear all my classmates talking and see how difficult it is to get even the smallest amount of work experience. I know that it will be hard for me to change fields but at least i know that i can get a good job in the field that i have 5 years experience in.
The big question is how much money to ask for. This was a big problem for me when i first started going on job interviews right after the army. I would always get to that point in the interview and have a small internal panic attack. Now that i am starting this process over again it brings back all those memories. At the job i had before i started school i was making X amount each month. Now when i go to an interview and they ask me what are my expectations for salary i want to say X+4000. I obviously dont want to make the same as i did before school and i for sure do not want to make less. I need to somehow convey to the new company that i now have 5 years experience (2 years full time and 3 years part time) and i also have a degree for the university. But i also know that if i want to start in a new field that i might have to take a pay cut in the first year or two.
So these are all dilemma that i have to deal with while i am looking for a job. And on top of all of that i have to consider staying at my current job where i am very happy and enjoy my work.
So wish me luck on my hunt and if you hear of any good jobs please let me know.
Bye for now :-)
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
The GMAT
So i have decided to try and get accepted to the MBA program at Ben Gurion University. In order to get accepted i either have to have a certain average or get a certain grade on the GMAT test (either way i have to have above an 80 average to be eligible). So what is the GMAT test?
Well this week i started the course that is supposed to tell me what the GMAT is and help me get a good grade. The GMAT is a standardized test not unlike the "Psychometric" test that people in Israel take in order to get into the various Universities. The test is made up of three parts:
1. Essay writing - You have to write 2 different essays on two different subjects (30 min)
2. Math - Various math problems like algebra and geometry (no calculator) (75 min)
3. Verbal - English questions such as reading comprehension and sentence re structure (75 min)
Luckily the only part that matters to get excepted into the MBA program in Beer Sheva is the Math part. I say "luckily" with sarcasm obviously because if it was the English then i would for sure get a good grade. Math is defiantly not my field.
So the course is 10 weeks with each class being almost 5 hours!!! This week we had our first class and i am a bit scared about my chances of success. The math questions a re really hard and i don't know if i will have enough time to do all the homework in the course. They recommend to take the GMAT test 1 week after you finish the course. The course finishes on the 6 of July which is 2 weeks before my first test of the Semester at the University. The course cost 2,600 shekels and the test itself cost 250$ !!!!!!!!!
I am taking the test as a backup plan because i hope that my grades will be enough to get me into the MBA program. As of now i have an average of about 83 and i really hope that this semester will bring my average up to 84 at least.
Yesterday i took the opening test in order to help them determine in my level. I found the questions on the test to be really hard. I got a 33 with is like a 60 on a scale of 0-100. i was really bummed out about the grade i got and thought that i was in better shape then i actually was. So at least i know that signing up for the prep course was not a bad idea :-).
The place that i am doing the course in called "Kidum" which belongs to an american company called "Kaplan". I am really happy with the instructor and think he can really help get a good grade on the test. The course comes with lots of online materials which are great because it means that i do not have to carry around heavy books. Also the real GMAT test is on the computer so taking the practice tests on the computer helps to simulate the real thing.
I will keep you posted on how the course goes and of course the grade that i get on my final test.
Bye for now...
Well this week i started the course that is supposed to tell me what the GMAT is and help me get a good grade. The GMAT is a standardized test not unlike the "Psychometric" test that people in Israel take in order to get into the various Universities. The test is made up of three parts:
1. Essay writing - You have to write 2 different essays on two different subjects (30 min)
2. Math - Various math problems like algebra and geometry (no calculator) (75 min)
3. Verbal - English questions such as reading comprehension and sentence re structure (75 min)
Luckily the only part that matters to get excepted into the MBA program in Beer Sheva is the Math part. I say "luckily" with sarcasm obviously because if it was the English then i would for sure get a good grade. Math is defiantly not my field.
So the course is 10 weeks with each class being almost 5 hours!!! This week we had our first class and i am a bit scared about my chances of success. The math questions a re really hard and i don't know if i will have enough time to do all the homework in the course. They recommend to take the GMAT test 1 week after you finish the course. The course finishes on the 6 of July which is 2 weeks before my first test of the Semester at the University. The course cost 2,600 shekels and the test itself cost 250$ !!!!!!!!!
I am taking the test as a backup plan because i hope that my grades will be enough to get me into the MBA program. As of now i have an average of about 83 and i really hope that this semester will bring my average up to 84 at least.
Yesterday i took the opening test in order to help them determine in my level. I found the questions on the test to be really hard. I got a 33 with is like a 60 on a scale of 0-100. i was really bummed out about the grade i got and thought that i was in better shape then i actually was. So at least i know that signing up for the prep course was not a bad idea :-).
The place that i am doing the course in called "Kidum" which belongs to an american company called "Kaplan". I am really happy with the instructor and think he can really help get a good grade on the test. The course comes with lots of online materials which are great because it means that i do not have to carry around heavy books. Also the real GMAT test is on the computer so taking the practice tests on the computer helps to simulate the real thing.
I will keep you posted on how the course goes and of course the grade that i get on my final test.
Bye for now...
Friday, March 25, 2011
Twitter - Knowledge Management and the Experience
So i have been using Twitter for a while now and i would like to discuss two aspects. The first is my experience using Twitter and the second is the use of Twitter in Knowledge Management and in Organizations.
My experience with Twitter - I did not really "get" the idea behind Twitter before starting it and i am not sure that i get it now. I see a lot of potenial for Twitter on a comercial and organizational level but not for noraml people. I dont have anything to say that i feel will intreset other people. On the other hand i like that i can get quick updates from important people or orginizations about what is going on with them. So i can see the point in following Israel or A major news paper but i can not see the point in following a friend or class mate. During the exercise i found myself writing things that i know will not intreset anyone else and could not think of anything that would intreset them. Also i did not feel the need to follow any of my classmates in order to know what they are doing. It is true that it is like reading the status of a friend on Faceboook, but somehow for me it is different. Maybe it is because i am already on Facebook and used to it by now or maybe it has to do with the frequency of the updates. Twitter makes you feel like you have to update every few hours but on Facebook it is ok to updated every few days. Even on Facebook i have friends that update everyfew hours and it is very anyoing. To sum up this part, i do not think that after this course i will continue to use Twitter.
Twitter in an organization and as a tool for knowledge management - I think that Twitter can play a very important role in any organization as far as knowledge management is consigned. It is useful in order to know what other people in the company are doing. For example project managers can notify people about which customer they are working and then other workers can share information with them. Also programs can tweet that they are having problems solving a certain computer problem and then other workers can try and help them out. Twitter can also be use to keep the informal communication lines open between the employees and the management of the company. I think that Twitter can help join people in the company that have knowledge with people looking for knowledge, and as we know this is the most difficult part of knowledge management in a company.
So as far a a tool in my personal life i do not see the need for Twitter but i think that it can be a strong tool to help companies with knowledge management.
My experience with Twitter - I did not really "get" the idea behind Twitter before starting it and i am not sure that i get it now. I see a lot of potenial for Twitter on a comercial and organizational level but not for noraml people. I dont have anything to say that i feel will intreset other people. On the other hand i like that i can get quick updates from important people or orginizations about what is going on with them. So i can see the point in following Israel or A major news paper but i can not see the point in following a friend or class mate. During the exercise i found myself writing things that i know will not intreset anyone else and could not think of anything that would intreset them. Also i did not feel the need to follow any of my classmates in order to know what they are doing. It is true that it is like reading the status of a friend on Faceboook, but somehow for me it is different. Maybe it is because i am already on Facebook and used to it by now or maybe it has to do with the frequency of the updates. Twitter makes you feel like you have to update every few hours but on Facebook it is ok to updated every few days. Even on Facebook i have friends that update everyfew hours and it is very anyoing. To sum up this part, i do not think that after this course i will continue to use Twitter.
Twitter in an organization and as a tool for knowledge management - I think that Twitter can play a very important role in any organization as far as knowledge management is consigned. It is useful in order to know what other people in the company are doing. For example project managers can notify people about which customer they are working and then other workers can share information with them. Also programs can tweet that they are having problems solving a certain computer problem and then other workers can try and help them out. Twitter can also be use to keep the informal communication lines open between the employees and the management of the company. I think that Twitter can help join people in the company that have knowledge with people looking for knowledge, and as we know this is the most difficult part of knowledge management in a company.
So as far a a tool in my personal life i do not see the need for Twitter but i think that it can be a strong tool to help companies with knowledge management.
The State of our State
Usually i write about gadgets and technology in my blog but given the recent events in the country and in particular in the South i have decide to write about "The State of our State". On wnedsday morning at 5:30 am i was woken up by the sound of the air raid sirens. Luckly my bedroom is also a bomb shelter so i did not have to go far. Later that day the sirens went off again as more rockets were fired into Israel. Then is the afternoon a bomb exploded in the heart of Jerusalem. I think this situation has got to stop. I know that this is not a one sided story where we are the victims, but the fighting on both sides has to stop. What bothers me the most is the battle that is taking place in the media. When we retaliate the media shows only one side of the battle.
There is no other country in the world that would even allow one missile to be fired into there country. I would like to see how the French would react if a missile was fired into Nice for example. The French would bomb the crap out of any country that sent a missile into one of their cities. The Hamas are firing rockets into cities that are not part of the conflict. Beer Sheva is not close to Gaza it is not in the West Bank and no military action is being launched from there. It is the only western country in the world where people have bomb shelters in their homes.
This situation is crazy!!! It has become part of our daily lives here in Israel and it has got to stop.
I dont have the perfect solution and i dont think that more violence from either side will solve the problem. I do think that we need to give them their own country and build a secure boarder (like every other country in the world has). I think we need to stop supplying them with water and electricity and stop letting them come work here. They need their own country and even create an army. That way when the fire missiles into our country it will be an act of war and we will have all the rights in the world to attack. But i think that they like the current situation. They dont want their own country because this way they have someone to blame for all their problems. You can not forget that no other country wants the Palestinians. Lebanon does not want them, neither does Jordan, Syria or Egypt. The situation is good for everyone because they are used to show how "bad" Israel is. Once they have their own country they will have no more excuses as to why they can not get their shit together.
I prefer to write about phones and gadgets but i had to get some things off my chest.
So bye for now and see you soon.
There is no other country in the world that would even allow one missile to be fired into there country. I would like to see how the French would react if a missile was fired into Nice for example. The French would bomb the crap out of any country that sent a missile into one of their cities. The Hamas are firing rockets into cities that are not part of the conflict. Beer Sheva is not close to Gaza it is not in the West Bank and no military action is being launched from there. It is the only western country in the world where people have bomb shelters in their homes.
This situation is crazy!!! It has become part of our daily lives here in Israel and it has got to stop.
I dont have the perfect solution and i dont think that more violence from either side will solve the problem. I do think that we need to give them their own country and build a secure boarder (like every other country in the world has). I think we need to stop supplying them with water and electricity and stop letting them come work here. They need their own country and even create an army. That way when the fire missiles into our country it will be an act of war and we will have all the rights in the world to attack. But i think that they like the current situation. They dont want their own country because this way they have someone to blame for all their problems. You can not forget that no other country wants the Palestinians. Lebanon does not want them, neither does Jordan, Syria or Egypt. The situation is good for everyone because they are used to show how "bad" Israel is. Once they have their own country they will have no more excuses as to why they can not get their shit together.
I prefer to write about phones and gadgets but i had to get some things off my chest.
So bye for now and see you soon.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
One week with the Desire HD
Ok...I have had the phone for one week and overall i am very happy but there are some things that are really pissing me off.
I am now trying to work on a problem with the WiFi that is driving me crazy. Yesterday i spent 7 hours trying to downgrade the OS version from 2.2.1 to 2.2. But what did i expect? The truth is that i expected exactly what i got and i love it!!!! I love reading posts in forums, i love solving problems and i love the fact that not every 12 year-old girl has the same phone as i do. I have signed up in the past week to 6 new forums that deal with HTC or Android (both English and Hebrew).
I have already learned so many things, for example:
1. What is a ROM (i knew what ROM was but now i know in connection with android)
2. Gold Card (a Micro SD card used to make a phone Sim-Free)
3. Radio (not the kind you have in the car but the kind that controls all the radio frequencys and controls of the phone - Wifi, Cell, bluetooth)
4. Gingerbread (the next version of the OS - 2.3)
5. How to flush the ROM
6. How to create a Gold Card (physically changing the HEX code on the SD card :-))
7. How to do a factory restart
8. And much more...
The battery is one of the things that is driving me crazy and not in a good way. This phone loves the battery. It loves it so much that it wants to completely consume it in a few hours.
The phone does not really like the WiFi connection at the University. I can see to get a good connection for more than a couple of minutes and today i can not get a connection if my life depended on it. All the forums say that i have to do a factory restart to my phone which means that everything that i have done so far will be erased (which is not necessarily a bad thing).
The interesting thing is that this week i also got a new phone from Comverse. I got a Nokia E5 smart phone (fully QWERTY keyboard, no touch). The wired thing is that it is not the worst phone that i have ever used and actually has some features that are useful and that the Desire does not. The Nokia will sync the Exchange to-do list and the HTC (and the iPhone for that sake) will not!!!
I will keep you all updated on how the adventure with the HTC goes.
Bye for now :-)
I am now trying to work on a problem with the WiFi that is driving me crazy. Yesterday i spent 7 hours trying to downgrade the OS version from 2.2.1 to 2.2. But what did i expect? The truth is that i expected exactly what i got and i love it!!!! I love reading posts in forums, i love solving problems and i love the fact that not every 12 year-old girl has the same phone as i do. I have signed up in the past week to 6 new forums that deal with HTC or Android (both English and Hebrew).
I have already learned so many things, for example:
1. What is a ROM (i knew what ROM was but now i know in connection with android)
2. Gold Card (a Micro SD card used to make a phone Sim-Free)
3. Radio (not the kind you have in the car but the kind that controls all the radio frequencys and controls of the phone - Wifi, Cell, bluetooth)
4. Gingerbread (the next version of the OS - 2.3)
5. How to flush the ROM
6. How to create a Gold Card (physically changing the HEX code on the SD card :-))
7. How to do a factory restart
8. And much more...
The battery is one of the things that is driving me crazy and not in a good way. This phone loves the battery. It loves it so much that it wants to completely consume it in a few hours.
The phone does not really like the WiFi connection at the University. I can see to get a good connection for more than a couple of minutes and today i can not get a connection if my life depended on it. All the forums say that i have to do a factory restart to my phone which means that everything that i have done so far will be erased (which is not necessarily a bad thing).
The interesting thing is that this week i also got a new phone from Comverse. I got a Nokia E5 smart phone (fully QWERTY keyboard, no touch). The wired thing is that it is not the worst phone that i have ever used and actually has some features that are useful and that the Desire does not. The Nokia will sync the Exchange to-do list and the HTC (and the iPhone for that sake) will not!!!
I will keep you all updated on how the adventure with the HTC goes.
Bye for now :-)
Saturday, March 12, 2011
My Brand New HTC Desire HD!!!!!
Hello All,
Yesterday i received my HTC Desire HD. I can not put into words how nice the phone is. The huge screen is amazing and the phone feels great in my hands. From the first second you turn on the phone i noticed how different it is from the iPhone. I still think that the iPhone is a great phone but the HTC is so much different. It is going to take me a while to get used to the new interface but i will have a lot of fun learning new things. The thing that is going to take me the longest to get used to is the fact that there is a "back" button on the phone that lets you go back to where you just were.
I think that the main difference in the UI is the fact that the HTC feels like it is always working. For example in the iPhone i had to open the facebook app in order to see my notifications. In the HTC all the apps are integrated into the phone so well that all notifications from all apps are shown on the phone all the time. All types of notifications are shown at the top of the screen including things like: app download, app installations, SMS, e-mail and more. Another example is the use of "widgets" like in the windows 7 OS. There is a Ynet widget that shows news updates all the time. There is no longer a need to open the Ynet app in order to get the main news.
Of course the fact that it is a Google OS and it is open source has many advantages (which i am sure i will learn about as i learn more). One thing i was amazed to see was in the Android store, where the Angry Birds app is FREE. I also noticed lots of other apps that cost money in the Apple store are free in the Android store. Making ringtones is also a breeze because all you have to do is pick a song from your library and make it a ring tone which one touch.
The HTC is a phone that allows you to do so much more. For example controlling the way apps run is possible in the HTC. I can control how much memory each app will use and can also view the memory status of the phone. These types of things are only possible on the iPhone after performing a jailbreak and adding some intrusive software. If after a while i do not like the HTC version of the OS i can use someones version of the OS called ROM. Any person can make there own special ROM and put it in the internet. This gives me the freedom to choose a ROM that best suites my needs.
The fact that there is no more need for iTunes or converting movies in order to play them on my phone is a huge advantage for me. i no longer need to be worried about upgrading my iphone through itunes and having to reinstall everything on my phone.
All in all i think that i am going to have lots of fun with this phone. I will keep you up to date with my experience as a new android user.
Yesterday i received my HTC Desire HD. I can not put into words how nice the phone is. The huge screen is amazing and the phone feels great in my hands. From the first second you turn on the phone i noticed how different it is from the iPhone. I still think that the iPhone is a great phone but the HTC is so much different. It is going to take me a while to get used to the new interface but i will have a lot of fun learning new things. The thing that is going to take me the longest to get used to is the fact that there is a "back" button on the phone that lets you go back to where you just were.
I think that the main difference in the UI is the fact that the HTC feels like it is always working. For example in the iPhone i had to open the facebook app in order to see my notifications. In the HTC all the apps are integrated into the phone so well that all notifications from all apps are shown on the phone all the time. All types of notifications are shown at the top of the screen including things like: app download, app installations, SMS, e-mail and more. Another example is the use of "widgets" like in the windows 7 OS. There is a Ynet widget that shows news updates all the time. There is no longer a need to open the Ynet app in order to get the main news.
Of course the fact that it is a Google OS and it is open source has many advantages (which i am sure i will learn about as i learn more). One thing i was amazed to see was in the Android store, where the Angry Birds app is FREE. I also noticed lots of other apps that cost money in the Apple store are free in the Android store. Making ringtones is also a breeze because all you have to do is pick a song from your library and make it a ring tone which one touch.
The HTC is a phone that allows you to do so much more. For example controlling the way apps run is possible in the HTC. I can control how much memory each app will use and can also view the memory status of the phone. These types of things are only possible on the iPhone after performing a jailbreak and adding some intrusive software. If after a while i do not like the HTC version of the OS i can use someones version of the OS called ROM. Any person can make there own special ROM and put it in the internet. This gives me the freedom to choose a ROM that best suites my needs.
The fact that there is no more need for iTunes or converting movies in order to play them on my phone is a huge advantage for me. i no longer need to be worried about upgrading my iphone through itunes and having to reinstall everything on my phone.
All in all i think that i am going to have lots of fun with this phone. I will keep you up to date with my experience as a new android user.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
טכנולוגיה נוספת
Today I created my own internet site within 5 minutes using a new technology and a new site calle about.me.
The site enables anyone to easly create a personal site with no need to type even one line of code.
The site takes you step by step to build you site and design it the way you want.
The first thing you have to do when you go to the site is enter an email address and a password.
Once you have done that then you have to pick the URL for your site. All the URL's start with:http://about.me/ then you add whatever you want to create your own personal URL to your site.
The Site I Created
One you pass this step the site takes you through the design process. The first step is to pick a background image and to write some things that will appear on your home page.
The second step is to add some more personal information that will be displayed on your site. At this stage you can also edit the things that you wrote in the previous step.
The third step is to pick the colors that you want for your site. You can change the colors of the text and of the header.
The fourth step is to choose the fonts that you want for the site.
the fifth and final (and most important) step is connecting your new site to all your other sites. about.me allows you to add various services to your new site such as:
1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Flickr
4. Linked In
5. Blogger
6. And More
It is important to note that if you add services it takes at least an hour to upload the information to the new site.
One of the coolest things that the site offers is the "Dashboard". The dashboard allows you to see statistics about your site. Statistics such as:
1. Number of views
2. Time spent at your site
3. Clicks from your site to other sites
4. Links to your site
I think that this is a great tool for creating a personal web site quickly and easily.
Having a personal web site looks really good on a Job Resume and also is a great hobby.
This site (about.me) is an easy way to share information with lots of people in a fun and interesting way. The fact that any person can create their own web site with in a few minutes and for FREE is an amazing step forward for information and knowledge sharing.
The site enables anyone to easly create a personal site with no need to type even one line of code.
The site takes you step by step to build you site and design it the way you want.
The first thing you have to do when you go to the site is enter an email address and a password.
Once you have done that then you have to pick the URL for your site. All the URL's start with:http://about.me/ then you add whatever you want to create your own personal URL to your site.
The Site I Created
One you pass this step the site takes you through the design process. The first step is to pick a background image and to write some things that will appear on your home page.
The second step is to add some more personal information that will be displayed on your site. At this stage you can also edit the things that you wrote in the previous step.
The third step is to pick the colors that you want for your site. You can change the colors of the text and of the header.
The fourth step is to choose the fonts that you want for the site.
the fifth and final (and most important) step is connecting your new site to all your other sites. about.me allows you to add various services to your new site such as:
1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Flickr
4. Linked In
5. Blogger
6. And More
It is important to note that if you add services it takes at least an hour to upload the information to the new site.
One of the coolest things that the site offers is the "Dashboard". The dashboard allows you to see statistics about your site. Statistics such as:
1. Number of views
2. Time spent at your site
3. Clicks from your site to other sites
4. Links to your site
I think that this is a great tool for creating a personal web site quickly and easily.
Having a personal web site looks really good on a Job Resume and also is a great hobby.
This site (about.me) is an easy way to share information with lots of people in a fun and interesting way. The fact that any person can create their own web site with in a few minutes and for FREE is an amazing step forward for information and knowledge sharing.
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