After years of constant promotions and working in various capacities at Intel, Efrat Yehudai isn’t stopping, as she continues on to her next destination: Teva’s global headquarters in Jerusalem, as Vice President of Teva’s Global Finance. In addition to her work, Yehudai volunteers on behalf of gender equality in organizations, teaches an MBA course, and never misses her weekly get-togethers with friends.
Where should we begin?
Let’s begin at the end: In her most recent position at Intel, Yehudai managed the company’s construction, infrastructure, and public services in Europe and Israel. Last January (2021), she “relocated” (as she calls her transition) to Teva, where her new position combines her extensive experience in financial management, with the purchasing roles she really likes:
“My team works with purchasing groups and the supply chain to optimize expenses. It combines everything I love to do in one role.”
The biggest change she underwent for this new position was location: in Israel instead of in the United States, where she worked for Intel. “There is a big difference in location in the ability to influence decision makers and to make meaningful decisions in a company.”
As someone who has worked for Intel both far from and close to headquarters (after two relocations in Portland, Oregon), Yehudai shares a surprising perspective on Covid, which in a sense has been advantageous for remote workers: “Americans as well have not really been working from the office, and it’s harder to make big decisions in the hallways or at the coffee stations, so there’s an advantage for those working from home.”
“It was very hard for me to disconnect and make a change”
Even after years of transitioning from position to position at Intel, Efrat shares that the emotional connection she creates in each place makes it difficult to make a change. Although she knew that it was the right move, the fear of failure alongside the emotional connection made deciding very difficult. Despite these hesitations, she jumped into the water and made a brave decision that ultimately led to her current path:
“For example, I remember that I applied for a position that I really wanted, but I knew that my chances of getting it were really low. I was interviewed, and I was not accepted. After they finished their round of interviews, they came back to me and said, “Listen, we know you didn’t get this position, but we really want you to work for us in a different role’.”
From university to industry
“I felt like I was in my first driver’s lesson, when I sat in the car and the instructor told me, ‘Start driving’.”
Efrat earned her Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Business Administration, and from there she continued straight to her MBA with a specialization in Accounting and Finance, both at Hebrew University. She explains that her studies taught her how to think critically, how to deal with problems, and how to see the bigger picture.
While she was getting her Bachelors in Business Administration, Efrat felt like “it was a little taste of everything, but it was not in depth.” But after her years of experience, she has looked back and understood that those small tastes have helped her over the course of her career: “I remember for example that I looked at an inventory problem for the first time, and I thought, ‘Wow, I’ve learned this before!’”
Crisis in her career
When she completed her undergraduate degree, Efrat found her first job as an economist for Bezeq, where she experienced the first crises in her career. “I was very caught up in ‘what do I know how to do?’ I felt like I didn’t know how to do anything!”
What helped her move forward was her first boss, who became her mentor. “I would go to meetings with her, and when we exited, she would ask, ‘So what did you understand?’, and then I would explain to her what I understood. She would then explain to me what she understood, and it was completely different from what I got out of the meeting.”
Efrat explains the importance of receiving guidance from someone experienced, in order to understand the organizational dynamics, the language of the business world, and the various challenges in a new environment that are so different from the world of students.
From Bezeq, Efrat continued to her first position at Intel, where she worked in finance and risk management. There, she realized how meaningful her Economics courses were, and reached the conclusion that “economists know how to do all sorts of things, and their field is very diverse and heavily dependent upon what a person finds interesting.”
Enlightenment
Yehudai was once working with engineers in an attempt to solve an economic problem. “It was very clear to me how to approach the problem. Then I saw that the engineers think very differently. They understood all of the technical solutions that they offered, but this economic thinking of looking at the margins, understanding where the money is coming from…they didn’t understand what I was talking about.” In that moment, she says, it became clear to her how much her studies had helped her in her various positions.
One motivation behind teaching her graduate course was the need to connect industry to academia. The realization came when she began interviewing students for positions at Intel.
“Suddenly I felt like I was out of the loop. I realized that there are all kinds of theories that have been developed since I graduated. I felt out of the loop because I went into the world of industry, where we’re very advanced in certain things, academia has a lot to offer in the field of research.”
A new start
“Very early on I realized that this was not the right career path for me.”
Efrat’s advice on navigating your career path is not only to think about ‘what job I want next’, but rather “…what I want to do ultimately, and how can I get on that track.” Efrat navigated through her career by obtaining new skills and positions that would teach her skills that she never had previously.
Even to the students of the career management course she taught at Intel, she recommended getting new assignments every few months, or trying out a new position every two years or so, as she does herself.
“There were places that were easier for me and places that were harder for me, but I understood that I wanted to do this because it’s important for me in building my career.”
“I never felt that there was a glass ceiling”
In addition to her many responsibilities, Efrat finds time to volunteer at Koach Nashim (Women’s Power), an organization that helps promote women to positions of influence. While she strongly believes in this mission, she says that as the daughter of a career mother, she did not always value its importance. Cheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In, which she had to read for an Intel conference, opened her eyes. “At first I looked at this task [reading the book] as a punishment,” she says. But she did Lean In, and the rest is history.
“Today it’s very clear to me that there is no reason why the number of women in positions of power should not reflect our population: 51%.”
Accordingly, she invests a lot of time and resources in advancing women’s issues and accelerating their processes through her work at Koach Nashim and on the Industry Committee at the Science Ministry. “Men and women together need to make this social change; this is one of my main priorities”.