Success Story – Sharon Shtraks, Purchasing Coordinator at Voltaire / by Tal Ben-Baruch

after working for a year and a half at a student job and after finishing her degree studies in behavioral sciences, business administration and economics, 27-year-old sharon shtraks started looking for a job in operations and purchasing. among the jobs she was offered was a new position at voltaire as a purchasing coordinator.
sharon, who is ambitious by nature, decided to build the position from the ground up and today, a year and a half later, she is certain she made the right choice. she found the job through the jobnet site.

on voltaire:
voltaire was founded in 1997 by amir prescher and erez diamant. at first the company was involved in providing security solutions for computers on company networks. in 2001 the firm changed directions and started specializing in providing solutions to accelerate communications on grid networks. today the company develops and sells solutions based on grid and infiniband technologies (infiniband is a high-speed communications protocol that works up to 20 times faster than today’s standards) for computer and data storage systems.

last year the company executed a share issue on the nasdaq exchange, and today it’s a public corporation. the company’s development center is located in herzliya pituach and numbers over 150 employees. the marketing and sales center is located near boston, with additional branches around the us, europe and asia.

sharon shtraks at the voltaire offices

you earned a degree that combines several disciplines. how did you choose the field you work in?
i completed my bachelor’s degree two years ago in behavioral sciences, business administration and economics at ben gurion university. my studies were very interesting and these fields complement one another, and combining them provides a broader outlook than any of them separately. the tie between business administration and economics, which are relatively objective fields, to psychology, which is more subjective, allows you to understand what makes people tick and how you can enhance this to promote the organization.

when i started college i was thinking in terms of human resources, and a lot of young women i was studying with went in that direction. during my studies i looked for a student job that would bring together my areas of study and found work at applied materials, where i started out as an administrative assistant in the product safety department and was later promoted to plc (product life cycle) office operations. these positions exposed me to the high-tech world and to operations, and i realized that was the field i wanted to work in.

so why did you decide to leave and look for work?
the job at applied materials was right for me as a student, but after completing my degree i started looking for a fulltime position. first i searched for a job at applied materials that fit my capabilities and that would challenge me, and when i couldn’t find one i decided to look for a job outside the company.

how did you conduct your job search?
i focused primarily on placement companies and internet sites. i came to the jobnet site based on a recommendation by a friend and i was happy to find the site really was user-friendly and contained a large and varied selection of jobs.
i looked for work in operations and purchasing and began screening processes with a number of companies. after a month and a half of searching i had two serious offers in hand, and one of them was from voltaire.

what did the screening process entail?
three days after sending in my resume to apply for the job at voltaire they contacted me, interviewed me by phone and asked me to come in for an interview with nivi, the recruitment manager. afterwards i was interviewed by my immediate supervisor. a few days later i had an interview with the vice president of operations and within just a week i was notified i’d been hired for the job.

what made you wind up choosing voltaire?
the other offer i had was from a large company and the main point that tipped the scales was the fact that the job i took up at voltaire didn’t exist previously, and in my interview with my direct supervisor i was told i would have room to take a lot of initiative, define the position according to my personal abilities and would have an opportunity to learn new things. also, i preferred working at a company that was a bit smaller because it means the job each person carries out is a bit more varied.

how did your integration go?
my acclimation at the company was very quick and the people i work with have become good friends.
the operations department i belong to has 20 people. it’s an exceptional group of people, both professionally and personally, and it’s a real privilege and a great pleasure to come in to work in the morning to work with these people. my immediate supervisor gives me the opportunity to take on tasks beyond the scope of my job and that gives me gratification and makes my work more interesting.

what tasks does your job entail?
my job title is purchasing coordinator. i send out orders to suppliers, verify delivery dates, oversee scheduling and advance or delay deliveries based on production and sales.
i also execute purchasing for products such as servers, computers, courses for workers, product certification/testing, etc. i’m involved in a variety of projects related to purchasing at the company.

do you feel you’ve advanced professionally since arriving at the company?
i’ve advanced at lot professionally, primarily because i love to learn and i’m given room to show initiative. i’m constantly taking on new projects that contribute to me professionally, and i try to keep my work varied.

do you have any advice for jobseekers?
the most important advice is to take the matter seriously because looking for work is a job in and of itself and you have to take it seriously. it’s important to define in advance what interests you and what you’re looking for in the job you’re aiming for, and to run your search accordingly. it’s also good to be constantly on the alert and apply for every new position advertised.

nivi rabi, recruitment manager at voltaire, talks about the company’s collaboration with jobnet:
we’ve been working with jobnet for over two years, particularly on positions in operations, administration and finance, and we always get a good response in these fields. our collaboration with the site has been very successful. we’ve hired excellent employees through it.

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for the hebrew article