"Choose courage over comfort - that's the motto of the surfing club I'm a part of, and it’s also my personal motto."

Meet Bar Agamy, Senior Software Engineer at Palo Alto Networks in Israel. During her army service, Bar served as a programmer, and it became clear to her quickly that this was the field she wanted to work in.

"Most people come to the world of programming with biases, they think that it’s monotonous and boring. But when you enter it, you discover a huge abundance of opportunities to learn and deepen your knowledge and a real ability to influence."

Bar is the kind of person who goes deep into the things she likes, and just as she does with programming, the same goes for surfing.

She joined Palo Alto Networks right after a long trip to South America. Up until the trip, Bar had never gone into the sea, let alone gotten on a surfboard. "During the trip, I decided to challenge myself, a kind of exposure therapy, and I decided to learn to surf. When I returned to Israel, I wanted to continue, so I found FEM, a surfing club and community for women.”

Bar's surfing hobby and her professional world may seem unconnected. But in Bar's eyes, there are many parallels, including a strong community of women. "Surfing and programming are two fields that statistically have more men, but I chose to surround myself with leading and supportive women in both. In my professional world, what unites us is our occupation - peers who work in tech cooperate and help each other. In my personal world, surfing connects us - no matter who you are and what field you come from, you can join an amazing community of surfers who get out of their comfort zone together.”

Bar's biggest tip is to invest in your professional world, but at the same time to always leave room for hobbies, "The trip I took reinforced the importance of investing in the things I love. When I start the morning with things that fill me up, I arrive at the office full of energy to take on the day.”