Attention College graduates who are currently spending too many hours fixing your resumes, perusing career websites, attending "networking events," searching craigslist, and miserably signing up for LSAT courses because...well... there's a plan that sounds good.
And Welcome perspective Career Israel participants, current participants, curious applicants. Welcome to the reader who is searching the web looking for something meaningful to do with their life. Welcome to the reader who googled "Israel" and "Job" and miraculously stumbled across a link that contained both words and didn't require a resume or cover letter. Welcome to the reader looking for a way to come to Israel with some purpose. I graduated from college with an honors degree in English Literature backed with lots and lots of wonderful - supposed-to-connect-you-to-future-jobs-type -of-internships, and yet found myself only with question marks. As my second year post college graduation began, my fellow peers were returning as a second year teacher, promoted to head matre di at a five star NYC restaurant, beginning law school, going into labor, planning weddings and deeply entrenched in graduate school studying...I was left with a big question mark as the first job I took out of college announced it was going out of business.
Before coming to Israel I spent months doing the most annoying and supposedly strategic thing possible: Networking. Based on the business cards I now have stacked on my desk at home, I met with over 30 people about job opportunities. And yet when it came down to it, "what do you want to be doing?" I had no answer. With no answer, no one can help. And that is why I decided I needed to spend some time away, not touring and shopping, bumming on the beach or partying, but working toward figuring out my career without all of the expectations, distractions, and competition that laced my career searching at home.
Bottom line - finding a job is hard because the economy sucks, it is hard to find a job that will carry you through and make you happy, and employers in general reflect very well on people who spend time out of the country. If you have not yet picked up a copy of Start Up Nation, now is the time. Israel is filled with entrepreneurial spirit and the motivation to make things happen. For someone searching for their next career choice, this is a lovely environment to participate