After finishing school, Jakob wanted to be independent. He moved to the residential barrack for single workers.

First he became a fisherman. Then he was employed by the cooperative, to herd the sheep of the settlement for four years. After an apprenticeship as a car mechanic in Haifa he was chosen despite his youth in the leadership of the cooperative. He was taught to be a police officer and was commander of the settlement during the war of liberation.

In the cooperative, he became a foreign secretary, cashier, and finally the manager of the cooperative.