Translating Your CV from English into Hebrew

There are multiple issues in moving from English (or some other language) into Hebrew with your CV in preparation for your Israeli job search.

The initial thing to consider is whether this is even necessary for you to do. There are a variety of opinions.

One is that if you won’t be able to understand your own CV in Hebrew, then there is no reason for you to have such a version, and it is even misleading in giving the impression that your level of Hebrew is higher than it actually is. Others say that you should send your CV in the language that the employer used to advertise the job itself, independent of your own level of Hebrew. I can attest to the fact that in my personal experience of receiving thousands of CVs in Israel, the majority are submitted in Hebrew, with the exception of sales/marketing and technical jobs, where English CVs are a more common occurrence than in other professions.

If you think back to the objective when sending your CV, it is to move forward in the recruitment process. You have 10-20 seconds to make a positive impression. Since you don’t know what the level of English the person(s) reading your CV will have, it is dangerous to send your CV in English, even if the job requires a high level of English. Keep in mind that multiple people may be reviewing your CV, and the first can be a person simply doing filtering on keywords and/or past job titles. Again, since in most cases you can’t know who will read your CV and what their comfort level is in Hebrew and/or English, a safe approach is to send your CV in both languages, and let the reader decide which is preferable for them. The CVs can be sent in two separate files with names that make the contents obvious, or put together into one suitably-named file.

If you do decide to create a Hebrew language CV, then you need to confirm that your CV is designed according to Israeli conventions, meaning among other things, short and targeted. Of course, any English CV that you use in Israel should also conform to the Israeli standard.

The Hebrew output needs to be both grammatically correct as well as using the accurate professional/technical terms. The second requirement is as important as the first. If the translator is not familiar with the current sector-specific words for your employment objective, then the result will generally be a document that gives a clear indication that you don’t know the subject matter adequately, putting yourself immediately at a grave disadvantage.

Certainly for either one of these goals, using an automatic translating service (eg. Google Translate…) is out of the question – there is no chance to generate a suitable document.

The translator must be at a minimum mother tongue level Hebrew with relevant knowledge of sector, in order to ensure the profession-appropriate terms are used. At the same time, if you need assistance massaging the non-Israel-style English CV into an Israel-style Hebrew CV, then the translator must be knowledgeable in this area as well. Sometimes this might even require getting assistance from two separate people, one knowledgeable about Israeli-style CVs and another with the Hebrew skills to perform the translation.

Whether the person is paid or not is dependent upon the cheapest and most reliable access you have to someone that meets the above criteria. Your CV is generally your first impression-maker to the employer – make sure you consider all of the implications of your language decision.

Is your Hebrew and Foreign Language Personality Identical?

I have lived in Israel for about 15 years. Granted, my language aptitude is somewhat below average, and I certainly speak Hebrew at a level lower than the average immigrant who has been so many years in the country. However, one thing that I have noticed about myself is that I have a very different personality when interacting in Hebrew than when I am conversing in English. I am more tentative in Hebrew than in English, and because my Hebrew vocabulary is not large, I end up not always being able to give the impression that I have knowledge and ability to get the job done.

On the face of it, it is not strange to recognize that people have various personalities depending upon the situation. We all behave differently when acting in the different “roles” that make up our normal everyday life. For instance, a person has a variety of personas, depending upon whether they are serving as parent, employee, or friend. This is natural and automatic, and it may or may not be important to consciously recognize this fact.

On the other hand, if you are not fully confident in Hebrew (or even if you are), and the impression you make on others when speaking a language other than your mother tongue is not identical to the impact you make in your first language, then at a minimum you should be aware of this, and even try to alter the situation if necessary. Of course it is always difficult to gauge the impression you are making on others, and many times our initial assumptions are not necessarily correct. Sometimes it is worthwhile to ask colleagues or other acquaintances for their honest feedback.

Let’s examine a common example. How can a job candidate come across as confident and knowledgeable in a job interview conducted in Hebrew when they do not feel that they have the comfort level in the language to succeed? Clearly, raising your Hebrew level generally is always a good idea, and the more you can put yourself in situations in which you must communicate in Hebrew, the quicker your abilities will improve. Practicing job interviews with native level Hebrew speakers is also a good idea. You can anticipate some of the questions that will be thrown at you in an interview, and combining this with knowledge about interviews (for instance, see: http://jobsearchinisrael.blogspot.com/2010/03/interviews-what-is-employer-really.html) will allow you to practice in Hebrew the answers you will supply and raise both your ability to respond to these questions as well as your confidence level. Of course, you can always try to cheat by asking the interviewer if it is acceptable to conduct the interview in English (or some other language), but there are risks with this approach, including the negative impression you might make by avoiding Hebrew combined with the possibility that the interviewer will not be capable of making the switch.

The implications are equally important when you pass the interview stage and are working. In my first main job in Israel, working in technical support at a hi-tech company, I was always afraid that my co-workers thought I was an idiot. Between the combination of learning a new technology and having poor Hebrew language skills that minimized my ability to understand and express myself, I generated many strange looks from the company’s engineers. Thank goodness I passed that stage successfully, but the memory of that experience has not totally disappeared. Working hard to learn the material and doing my best to improve my language skills (and relying on the fact that most people in hi-tech companies have a good level of Hebrew :>) were the basis of my coping strategy, and this allowed me to ultimately become a strong contributor to the company; however it certainly required awareness and effort on my part.

Everyone, including me, advises immigrants that concentrating on improving their Hebrew language skills is one of the most important things they can do increase their attractiveness in the Israeli employment market. As you go through the stages of improvement, being aware of the perceptions that others have of you when you express yourself in Hebrew can be used to even further improve your successes in the Israeli workplace.