WayFind hosted a first-of-its-kind event this past Sunday night. Despite the rain, the room was filled to capacity, with very limited standing room. The topic of the evening was: Future Tech Careers for the Frum Community. The program began with opening remarks from Natasha Srulowitz, co-founder of WayFind, a career and education services company. WayFind’s mission is to help young people in the frum community choose a profession that best suits their strengths, interests and needs and educate them about careers across all sectors so they are positioned well for future financial and personal success. Sunday night’s focus was on the technology sector.
The audience got the opportunity to hear from a highly successful tech entrepreneur, Carl Valberg, co-founder and CEO of InVision. Many of the smartest companies in the world, including Twitter, Netflix, Hubspot and Amazon use InVision to power their product-design process from start to finish. He talked about what he looks for in employees, what he expects from them and how the opportunities are endless.
Mordy Golding, director of content at LinkedIn, and Avi Singer, CEO and founder of showd.me, both members of the Five Towns community, moderated a panel discussion with seasoned frum professionals. The panel included Chaim Fried, founder and CEO of OWAL, Sruli Derdik, principal engineer of platform services at Adobe Systems, Rachel Geisler, software engineer at Google, and Elisheva Cohen, technology analyst at a large financial services company. The audience observed a productive and stimulating discussion about the future in technology. They learned about in-demand and high-paying jobs, what they are about and how conducive many of these jobs are to the frum lifestyle when it comes to work-life balance, benefits and flexibility.
All the panelists and moderators lingered after the program, talking to people individually. We are very fortunate to have members of our community care so much about the next generation.
WayFind also discussed a new venture they have forged with General Assembly, an industry leader in preparing people for technology careers. They talked about three types of technology bootcamps in programming, design and data analytics—12-week courses with separate classes for men and women. The first bootcamp in full stack web development is scheduled to start at the end of January.
Rabbi Harry Rozenberg was present to discuss the ability to use these bootcamp credits toward an expedited college degree. Rabbi Harry is the WayFind college adviser and co-founder and president of Theological Research Institute (TRIO), a program that helps students leverage yeshiva and other credits to complete a SUNY college degree.
The large turnout on a rainy Sunday night demonstrated the interest in exploring tech careers, and that is very encouraging. “We are excited that people are taking the initiative, that they are motivated to learn and position themselves well for the future. We hope to continue to support our community and provide the resources needed to chart their paths to success. In addition to working one-on-one with individuals on their own personal career course, WayFind plans to offer more panel discussions and informational sessions and are excited to launch the technology bootcamps in early 2018,” commented Adele Dubin, co-Founder of WayFind.
For more information, please visit www.wayfindcareers.com or call 516-253-1147.
