Jobs in Israel | Imamother

amother

Mon, Apr 14 2008, 9:58 am

We are iy"H moving to E"Y in the next year or so. I wanted to take some classes online to make my job skills more marketable. What fields are good to transfer to Israel? I currently have a masters in jewish education, but I'm considering taking classes in a different field. If anyone who lives in E"Y now or did live there recently could give me some fields that are better to find jobs in I'd really appreciate it.
TIA

shalhevet

Mon, Apr 14 2008, 12:37 pm

Editing, copy writing, technical writing (in English) are very marketable here.

amother

Mon, Apr 14 2008, 1:23 pm

Do you know what type of background you need for that? I know you're not from America but does anyone know how I could go about looking into those types of jobs.

shalhevet

Mon, Apr 14 2008, 1:33 pm

You can take courses for all of them. For editing you need good language and grammar skills, for copy writing creativity and language, and for technical writing a head for such things.

In Israel you can find jobs through agencies and there are yahoo lists with job listings - outside Israel I don't know. It's like any type of business, that you need to slowly build up a clientele. For technical writing, more people seem to find a job inhouse with a company and there is less freelancing.

amother

Mon, Apr 14 2008, 1:36 pm

What are some yahoo groups with job lists? I'd be interested to see them.

amother

Mon, Apr 14 2008, 1:54 pm

are there any jobs that aren't totaly about writing? I don't think gramar is my strength Smile

shalhevet

Mon, Apr 14 2008, 1:55 pm

COandPI is copyeditors and proofreaders in Israel.

CIWI is writers in Israel.

techshoret is technical writers.

Then there are groups like janglo, taanglo and israemploy that have general job listings. There is also a Ranaana list (don't know what it's called).

Imaonwheels

Mon, Apr 14 2008, 1:57 pm

I was an in house technical writer for a while. Otherwise you have to have a car and be mobile. People with tech backgrounds are preferred, also most jobs require American English. Part of my job was doing global search and replace of words with an extra u. for a fellow tr from South Africa. I have a programming background.

Jewish ed only pays good if you teach post HS, not sem.

Really polishing your Hebrew by taking accredited courses in a college or university definitely would not be a waste of time. I took an olah chadasha to an interview as an elementary school English teacher. She had years of ESL experience but they wanted her to have at least basic Ivrit to communicate with staff and students.

Some of it depends on where you will be living Hi tech is centered in Gush Dan and Haifa. Educational opportunities are most numerous in the Y-m area.. I would not try to take any pure comp sci in one year. If you are asthetically minded doing web design pays very well. It is an artistic field so your talent and portfolio matter more than your courses. There's a guy I know in Y-m pulling down $85/hr by doing web sites. He has clients all over the world because everything moves over the web. He started in a little room of the Mayanot yeshiva dorm and now works out of his apartment.

As to the editing, your degree could get you into a Jewish book publisher most likely in editing, proofreading and even composing if you are so inclined.

I would be in touch with a school like the Michlala of Bayit v'Gan for academic and educational openings. Therer is an education ministry website if you know Hebrew.

amother

Mon, Apr 14 2008, 2:10 pm

Thank you imaonwheels and shalhevet so much for your responses! I definately don't need to stay with teaching. I just want something that has a decent pay and I'm willing to invest some time now before we move to getting trained. Any other ideas are appreciated. My Hebrew is not fluent yet so I would need to take an ulpan or something when I get there.

Imaonwheels

Mon, Apr 14 2008, 2:15 pm

I think the biggest asset in an Israeli workplace is "rosh gadol". This is an expression that means being flexible, creative and see the big picture.

Ingrid

Sun, Apr 27 2008, 1:22 pm

A lot of people start in telemarketing since there are so many jobs available in this field. Then, once you get a little settled, it's easier to switch into various fields.