Hi-tech internship in Israel that will take you to the next level

Taking a gap year is a very inspiring decision and really great.  Taking a gap year in Israel is even greater – you get to travel, to meet new people, and to get new experiences that you can’t get anywhere else.  Many students and high school grads today are looking how to elevate their gap year.

The answer for that: Take a gap and an internship in Israel. “BIG IDEA” Gap Year offers an internship in Israel at the last part of its program, which is powered by Masa Israel Journey, the leading organisation in the long term Israel experience programs.

First you take 4 months of hi-tech boot camp, learning how to code, develop apps and get certified as a Front-End developer. Next, you get hands-on experience, by volunteering and creating apps for non-profit organizations in Beer-Sheba(the city that host’s the program) during an impact month. And then as a last part of the program, take all the knowledge you got in these 4 months and build your future career having an internship of 5 months in Tech companies in Israel.

The hi-tech scene in Israel can offer several options for internships, some would be in large hi-tech companies and some will be in fairly new start-ups with smaller staff.

Jonathan Shitrit, 20 years old from New York City, got to do his internship at a major high tech company in Tel-Aviv. “I am working at “Radware”, a global cyber security company in Tel Aviv. My responsibilities are for building a website in Php / MySQL as a tool for the Quality Assurance Automation team. This tool helps them manage their resources which avoids connecting to the wrong server by accident.” Says Shitrit “I have learned a lot about Php MySQL, networking and the Linux operating system during my internship.” Radware employs thousands of employees around the world.

Jay Singer from Melbourne Australia had a different experience than Jonthan. He was assigned in a smaller, but successful, Israeli start-up in Hertzelia named Juno. “Working in a company in Israel was truly a highlight for me” Singer tells us “Not only did I get to experience working in a high-intensity workplace with amazing people, I got an experience that has helped me in my future career”.

Summer internships in Israel that will boost your career 

 Some students choose to spend their summer working, and gaining more experience for their future career in high-tech. BIG IDEA Tech Hub offers career development in Israel and coding bootcamps. Last summer, around 30 college students from USA and Europe spent their summer in Israel and worked in the hi-tech community in the south of Israel as a part of Onward Israel’s engineering, research and technology internships program.

“The best thing about taking an internship in Israel is that I get real world experience but also travel around this country and live in Israel for a few months.” Tell us Marlyn Jacobson, who took her internship at SCE, Shamoon College of Engineering, located in the heart of Beer Sheva. “My responsibility in the lab was to work on a code for image processing.”

Jacobson is very happy she took an internship in Israel during the summer. “BIG IDEA gave me the opportunity to build my resume and gain real world experience in Israel, but also gave me the opportunity to meet more people like myself, who are also Jewish and also engineers.”

Ariel Ichak from Miami, FL wanted to use his internship in Israel to see another side of engineering, so it will help him decide what he wanted to do in the future. He was assigned for an internship in Stratasys, a 3D printers factory located in Kiryat Gat. “ Working at a 3D factory is very interesting, there are a lot of new technologies I’ve never been exposed to. I pretty much learn something new everyday.”

Another happy intern is Ruben Levy from Lakeland, FL who was assigned at the Telekom offices at the Hi-Tech Park in Beer Sheva. “We are using deepfake and deep learning to create live video calls with the deepfake. The most exciting part is that I am doing something that no one ever did before!”

Getting a head start in Israel 

There is so much to gain in a 4 month internship in Israel. Apart from getting your first work experience in a foreign country and building up your resume, you also get to network with Israeli developers and use your technological skills in a real and challenging environment.

When asking Ruben about what he gained during his Internship in Israel, he knows exactly what it is: “I’m getting a real experience in Israel, learning about computer science, coding and artificial intelligence, to a level I never thought I would have.”  He tells us proudly “I’ve really elevated myself during this internship. I am now definitely way beyond the level of my peers who stayed in the USA for the summer, and I am very grateful for this internship!”