How to Focus Your Job Search? Start by Doing Research

When you don’t know something, usually, the best way to start is by doing research, right?

People who decide to open a new business, what’s their first step? Research.

When you receive a diagnosis from your doctor, what do you do next? Research.

Well, when you arrive in Israel, or any other new country, why not start your job search by doing research?

Many people I talk with decided to just translate their CV to English or Hebrew, visited LinkedIn, Glassdoor or Indeed, created new job alerts – and waited for open positions to apply to. Sure, this is the easiest way. But by doing “the easiest way” you compete with many other potential candidates. Have you noticed that some positions have +400 applicants (per channel)?! Companies like Facebook, Google, Wix and Monday.com, for instance, have this “problem”.

You can view the picture larger here: https://prnt.sc/18j425l

To avoid becoming just a number in huge companies, competing with so many people from different backgrounds and experiences, I usually suggest people to focus their job search by looking for companies that they’ll want to work for. The criteria to make a short list of those companies can be diverse, like some examples I selected below:

The location: if you live in the Center, you won’t want to work in the North or in the South, right? I worked for a company in Haifa while living in Ramat Gan, and discovered that commuting in Israel is quite complicated, especially if you don’t own a car.
The industry: if you came with previous experience from your home country, don’t you think it can be easier to find a job in an industry that you have experience in? It’s known that, in Israel, companies are disrupting many industries. If you know the industry, you could easily understand (and explain) the problem the company is solving.
The product: wouldn’t you prefer to work with a company that sells a product you can relate to?
The company size: there are both big corporations and small start-ups in Israel. At a big corporation, you may need to be very specialized in a specific field, while in small start-ups you may need to be more generalist.

When I arrived in Israel, almost 6 years ago, I wanted to learn more about the Israeli ecosystem. I’ve done many things to learn and keep myself updated with the local news. We know it’s quite difficult to find good information in English, but today is easier than 6 years ago, I can assure you that! Back then, I created a shared sheet with the main information I found in English for my own job search. This is far from an exhaustive list and I don’t update it as I used to. But at this shared sheet, you’ll find:

Job Search Websites
Placement Agencies
Podcasts (both in English and in Hebrew)
Talent Network/Venture Capitals (VC) Job Boards
Media in English Websites
Meetups/Bar Talks
Facebook Groups – Job search
Business and industrial parks

For the purpose of this blog post, I’ll explore the “Media in English Websites” tab, more specifically two of them: Startup Nation Central (SNC) and Dun’s 100 rankings – my favorites!

Then, I’ll give you other ideas on where to look for information and, finally, summarize this first blog post of this new series.

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Startup Nation Central (SNC)

SNC is a non-profit organization, backed up by philanthropic organizations. It was founded in 2012, following the release of The New York Times bestseller Start-Up Nation by Dan Senor.

One of its departments, known as “the Finder”, has a large team of analysts and researchers, who scan, inspect and learn the ecosystem, offering a free-to-use updated platform. If you haven’t visited their website yet, you should explore this amazing tool now!

You can choose from many filters that are very similar to the criteria I suggested above. After signing up (a new requirement), you can simply download the information you want.

After downloading, what I did for my own job search was to look for their career page and save the URL in the same sheet – this will save time later on. To make this search easier, I usually perform a Google search within the company’s website, using site:(main company’s page), like the example below:

You can view the picture larger here: https://prnt.sc/18j4lbf

If I don’t find a career page, I change the keyword “career” in the example above to “job”, “join” or “team”. Some companies are still too small and don’t have a specific career page. In this case, you can always visit their social media pages and check for updates there.

Dun’s 100 rankings

The Dun’s 100 rankings present the leading companies in a range of sectors, including non-tech/traditional companies. Dun’s 100 is offered by the well-known American company Dun & Bradstreet.

Below is a list of all the sectors you can find information on this website:

Architecture & Engineering
Communications
Construction & Real Estate
CPA Firms
Electricity, Infrastructure & Energy
Electronics & Computing
Financial Services
Food Industry
High-Tech
Holding & Investment Companies
Industrial Companies
Insurance
Law Firms
Local Authorities
Medical Equipment Cosmetics
Service & Trade
Transportation & Vehicles
Urban Renewal

You can even read the full virtual magazine, in English, here (link for the 2020 edition).

Within each sector, you can find other options to choose from. For example, for the high-tech sector, you’ll find two very well-known rankings in Israel:

Below is a quick look at the TOP 10 Best High-Tech Companies to work for in 2020.

You can view the picture larger here: https://prnt.sc/18j4t65

Other ideas

There are other rankings like the one offered by Dun & Bradstreet, such as:

Secret Tel-Aviv
The Marker (it’s in Hebrew, but you can see the companies’ logos)

Another way I love to discover new companies is by searching for industries landscapes. It has been a world trend for VCs and other research companies to create and publish these landscapes. Since we have many of those companies in Israel, you can just Google the keywords: “industry you’re interested in learning more about” + Israel landscape. Below is the result of my “Cybersecurity Israel landscape” search.

You can view the picture larger here: https://prnt.sc/18j4xfd

You’ll be impressed by how many companies exist in every industry in Israel. Below are some ideas on industries you could search for landscapes:

Cybersecurity
FinTech (Financial Technology)
AgTech (Agricultural Technology)
EdTech (Educational Technology)
MedTech (Medical Technology)
AdTech (Advertising Technology)
HRTech (Human Resources Technology)
LogTech (Logistics Technology)
SportsTech
CleanTech
RetailTech
LegalTech

Then, create your personal sheet, look for relevant information about those companies (you could use SNC as mentioned before) and choose the companies you’ll want to work for based on the criteria I mentioned in the beginning of this blog post, or others, such as the company’s culture.

After choosing the companies, it’s time to network

After doing all this research and selecting the companies you’d like to work for, you’ll be able to focus your job search. This way, it’ll be much easier to find and choose the right person to network with. And that’s what I’ll write about in my next blog post. Stay tuned!