Pilot trip...finally!

tovarena

Mon, Jul 25 2011, 10:11 am

We have been trying to find a way to make our pilot trip for a while now and have finally been lucky enough to win air tickets! We'll be there for 12 days in November - with kids. Though we *hopefully* have kid coverage for the days we'll be busy with business stuff (there's a slight chance that my friend who has offered to help may be in the US at that time, though). So assuming that my friend is able to help us, we'll be based out of har nof to be near her in mornings and evenings. We are planning to rent a car. Any advice or assistance would be appreciated. We've contacted NBN, but they told us to only call back after the yom tovim. And us, being the planners that we are, are hoping to start getting the ball rolling sooner than that to line up our ducks.

At the moment, we know we need short term housing in Har Nof (though we would be open to being anywhere in central Israel if my friend ends up having to be away). Ideally we're looking for a decent vacation rental/condo - at least 2 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, and kitchen. Preferably no more than about $900/week ($130/night).

Shabbos accommodations - we for sure want to spend one of our two shabbosim in Maaleh Adumim. The second, maybe ramat beit shemesh? Not sure. Basically, we're looking to spend our two shabbosim in places that would likely be our first landing points (meaning places with cheap rent, a decent amount of Anglos, a dati leumi community, and relatively easy commuting distance to yerushalayim and/or tel aviv). Since we are travelling as 4 people (two adults, two 4 year olds), I wouldn't ask a family to put us up. Rather, if there is some sort of hotel/guest house in these communities, that would be great. So...any ideas/leads for where we might stay for shabbosim?

Business contacts - we're both in IT. DH is a PHP programmer, I'm a cobol and vb.net programmer. I have also done some technical writing. Is there anyone here who works (or has a DH who works) for companies with these types of IT people? Whatever leads you might have would be appreciated.

Vacation stuff to do with the kids - we're in Israel really for 11 days (not including the day we land at 3 in the afternoon and the day we leave early in the a.m.). We're hoping to use at least a few days for taking the kids places. We've both been to Israel a decent amount and anyway wouldn't drag the kids to some of the more traditional first-trip-type sights. So ideas for places to go would be great!

I'm not asking for much, right? Wink

Thanks in advance!

Marion

Mon, Jul 25 2011, 12:20 pm

You're welcome to stay here for Shabbat, if you can stand it. We are NOT in the "frum" part of MA, but it's walkable on Shabbat (my 5 & 3 year old do it; my 1 y.o. goes in the stroller - yes, there's an eruv), especially if we walk over to the "Anglo" shul in the morning and then go somewhere in the neighbourhood for lunch. (Hint, hint, RachelEve/Catonmylap/Grace413.) You'll get a good handle for the city that way too. There IS a garin Torani at my end too, but they all seem to live further down the hill... Sad

When you say you've done "some" technical writing, what does that mean? Are you talking user manuals for printers or something a little more complex?

Tamiri

Mon, Jul 25 2011, 12:31 pm

DH says there is probably a small market for Cobol at insurance companies and banks. However, a pilot trip isn't the time to start looking for a job. In most cases, no one will give you the time of day until you live here. So unless you are planning on starting work December 1st, for example, don't waste your time interviewing. Talking to people in your field - yes. Hoping to secure jobs - I'd say basically forget it.
Most high-tech jobs are along the sea corridor, from Rehovot to Netanya. There are some jobs in places north, such as Yokneam but the banks and insurance companies are in the greater Tel Aviv area, in case you wondered.
In general, the time to line up your ducks in areas such as housing, is maximum a month or two in advance. No one here thinks ahead. They think it's crazy that Americans have their summer camp plans made and paid for by February, for example. Here, they start letting you know about camp in June LOL

And by the way, there is a reason you were "lucky enough" to win those tickets. Someone wants you here.

tovarena

Mon, Jul 25 2011, 1:20 pm

Marion wrote:

Seriously? Thank you so much! That would be excellent! Very Happy

In terms of the neighborhood - it doesn't have to be in the center of it all - especially if it means we can get more for our money. But we do want the kids to have friends nearby that they can get to easily on shabbos. I don't know how it is there, but where we live now, the area has many small neighborhoods as part of the larger neighborhood. And it seems that people are of the mindset that if you don't live in their neighborhood, you live in the middle of nowhere and they almost don't even care to be friendly with you. So we just want to avoid that.

Quote:

When you say you've done "some" technical writing, what does that mean? Are you talking user manuals for printers or something a little more complex?

Most of it has been writing user manuals for specialized software packages. However, I've also done some more in-depth stuff. My most recent writing project was analyzing a number of legacy programs to pull data locations and business logic into a single reference document to be used for a complete system rewrite. The consulting firm the company was using loved it.

Tamiri wrote:

Yeah, we're aware of that. We know it's not the boom of the 90s when people were getting offers practically sight unseen. Really, we are just hoping to start talking to people that would have the sorts of connections we'll need once we get there and get some ulpan done. Especially because we're taking this trip this year only because the tickets MUST be used in 2011. But the earliest we'd realistically be looking at getting there is summer 2012. So we know that job offers are not happening now. Though we actually have talked about that if for some reason it WERE to happen (for DH at least), he would come back home, give his two weeks notice and be off as soon as possible after that. I would follow with the kids as soon as possible after dealing with all the stuff in the house. But that's just the pipe-dream part of being able to go over with a job. Smile

But if your DH knows of someone that might be willing to take some time to meet with us, that would be excellent!

Tamiri wrote:

In general, the time to line up your ducks in areas such as housing, is maximum a month or two in advance. No one here thinks ahead. They think it's crazy that Americans have their summer camp plans made and paid for by February, for example. Here, they start letting you know about camp in June LOL

No kidding. I've already hit up against that in planning for this trip. First with NBN, and then when I called a leasing agent that has vacation rentals. And they were like, "You want to rent something NOW? For November??? shock

Call me back in two months!" I even said to my DH, "See, my first taste of aliyah - they already think I'm nuts!" LOL

Tamiri wrote:

And by the way, there is a reason you were "lucky enough" to win those tickets. Someone wants you here.

Yup...it's funny, the tickets are for anywhere the airline travels. When we got them, DH and I looked at each other and said, "Well, we could use these to go on a really cheap vacation...or we could finally make that pilot trip." Let's just say that talk of just a plain vacation didn't really even get debated.

Tamiri

Mon, Jul 25 2011, 2:06 pm

tovarena wrote:

But if your DH knows of someone that might be willing to take some time to meet with us, that would be excellent!
[

I am going to tell you that with this attitude, it's going to happen! Go in thinking "this is it: we're getting a job and DH is going to start working in a month" and it will happen. Don't hem and haw and say "we're planning Aliya". Go in and say we're going to be here Dec. 5th and I'd like to start work then". You may be surprised. We did that... and DH signed on the dotted line on July 23rd 2003 to begin work Sept 1st.
BTW the boom of the 90s is a myth. Even then, no one would hire us if we didn't live in Israel. DH tried for years but until he said "I'm here the day you need me", nothing happened. Even in the 90s. So in 2003 when we were going to be here in person for our son's bar mitzva, he had interviews lined up from the day he got off the plane, without saying he lives abroad. You can be creative too. I suggest NBN gets you the names of head-hunters in your DH's field and you send out his resume, preferably with an Israeli phone number and address on it, like that of a friend. If they call during the day, the friend can say your DH isn't there at the moment and he'll call them back.

amother

Mon, Jul 25 2011, 9:08 pm

I know you're not looking now, but I just saw on the nbn linkedin job list that a company is looking for cobol. my husband is also in cobol (we're in US but are hoping to make aliyah in 1-2 years) but was advised by many in israel that he would be much more marketable as a .net programmer. he just took an entry level .net position (even though he's been doing cobol for the past 8 years) so he can get experience in .net before we come to israel. nbn gave us a lot of contacts who gave us info but at the end of the day, none of them can actually give dh a job. nbn also gave us lists of headhunters and suggested we can try sending resumes and see what happens...we haven't done that yet.

hila

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 2:21 am

Please send me your CVs to hil613@yahoo.com
I can send them to my company (aIT outsourcing) and my old company(very big IT outsourcing) and I have a friend who is a manager where they use quite a few tech writers.

No promises - but it cant hurt.

However it may pay to send the CVs after the chagim. they wont give you interviews now for November either, but no harm trying

Hatslacha

moon__star

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 3:23 am

I work in Hi-tech, and it's a very VERY competitive market - you want to start looking months ahead of time, and expect to go on several interviews before you find something unless you're really lucky, and even the company you end up working for may ask you to come back a few times for "follow-ups".

If you want, I can send you contact information for a head-hunter company that works specifically with Anglos... just send your email address to me PM, or I can send you the info in a PM, whatever works best.

BeershevaBubby

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 3:27 am

You're welcome to come to us for Shabbat too. We've certainly got the room... and playmates for your kids (there's another Anglo family here with 4 y/o b/b twins).

My husband is a programmer, when it comes closer to the time of your Aliyah, have your husband send my husband an e-mail.

mominisrael2

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 5:20 am

I live in between Marion's neighborhood (07) and the "Anglo" neighborhood (Mitzpe Nevo), you're welcome to check out "the middle" too Smile

mominisrael2

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 5:22 am

And there are TONS of programmers/tech writers in MA -- great place to network for those things. (My DH is also in IT, but on the other end -- tech support Smile

)

Marion

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 5:43 am

Maybe we should do round-robin meals that Shabbat? We can start at Musar Avicha with kiddush at MominIsrael2's house followed by lunch at RachelEve's and seudah shlishit at Cat's? (It's November...that's a LOT of food in 6 hours!) Or pre-kiddush snack at Cat's on the way to shul, kiddush at Grace413's, lunch at RachelEve's and seudah shlishit back at MominIsrael2's? (Wow, I'm committing a lot of people to a lot of things...) That's also an awful lot of food... Maybe we should just get a sitter for motzaei Shabbat and make one of those stops a melave malka...

RachelEve14

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 8:31 am

You can stay by us for Shabbot if you want to also. We live in Mitzpe Nevo, the religious neighborhood. It's also the most anglo neighborhood.

Marion

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 8:36 am

RachelEve14 wrote:

You can stay by us for Shabbot if you want to also. We live in Mitzpe Nevo, the religious neighborhood. It's also the most anglo neighborhood.

Stop stealing my Shabbat guests!

tovarena

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 8:52 am

Marion wrote:

RachelEve14 wrote:

You can stay by us for Shabbot if you want to also. We live in Mitzpe Nevo, the religious neighborhood. It's also the most anglo neighborhood.

Stop stealing my Shabbat guests!

You guys are making me laugh! Good way to start my morning!

Marion wrote:

OMG! That IS a lot of food for six hours! Ah well...however you slice it, we'll look forward to meeting everyone (okay, AND eating our way through town Wink

)

Yesha and Hila, I will definitely send CVs as we get closer. We aren't expecting anything in advance, but even if we can just sit down with people and chat for a little bit, that would be excellent. It never hurts to know people face to face so that we can reestablish contact once we're on our way.

And Yesha, thanks for the shabbos invite as well! Smile

I will get back with you soon on that one!

Moon__star - I pm'ed you.

And thanks! I am still very, very nervous about making all the pieces fit together. But you are all helping boost my confidence that this CAN happen!

hila

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 8:58 am

Marion wrote:

Maybe we should just get a sitter for motzaei Shabbat and make one of those stops a melave malka...

how about an imamother melave malka and she can meet a whole bunch of us ?

Marion

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 12:03 pm

hila wrote:

Marion wrote:

Maybe we should just get a sitter for motzaei Shabbat and make one of those stops a melave malka...

how about an imamother melave malka and she can meet a whole bunch of us ?

Yay!

But somewhere there's parking...

catonmylap

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 12:27 pm

We'd love to see you/have you in Maaleh adumim. We are central in Nachalim....

how about trying a seudat shlshit in the park?

Aliyah Lift Shipping

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 1:47 pm

Have a lovely trip! Check out lots of places! Israel is a splendid place to live!

RachelEve14

Wed, Jul 27 2011, 2:12 am

Marion wrote:

RachelEve14 wrote:

You can stay by us for Shabbot if you want to also. We live in Mitzpe Nevo, the religious neighborhood. It's also the most anglo neighborhood.

Stop stealing my Shabbat guests!

No stealing guests, just trying to be friendly.

You are also welcome to come on Friday for a tour around, or stay over until Sunday.