A Brief Guide to Finance and Consulting Jobs in Israel

Especially for Olim and prospective Olim

Often I'm asked about such jobs. First thing is to set expectations. Israel is no New York or London. As Max Kane wrote, the types of jobs here are different from those elsewhere. You probably wouldn't move to Detroit looking for a startup position in the same way you wouldn’t move to Boston with dreams to perform on Broadway.

So too, Israel is unique. High-tech drives the Israeli economy, not banking or consulting services common elsewhere. In the States, many college graduates go into banking or consulting before going operational. It’s almost a rite of passage, especially coming out of business school. Such a framework does not exist in Israel. There are accountants who spend two years interning at Deloitte, but there is no notion that every business graduate should do two years “boot camp” at McKinsey or Barclays to acquire basic skills and credentials before doing something riskier or going corporate.

That said, there is a growing finance and consulting landscape in Israel, mainly Tel Aviv, and such positions have many benefits in how fast you gain skills and responsibilities.

1. Investment banking 

   1. A small field growing noticeably due to the maturity of Israeli companies and increased demand for later-stage services. 

   2. There are three categories of IB firms in Israel: 

      1. Bulge Brackets – Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, Barclays and Citi. Longest hours, highest pay and most competitive. Most comparable to NYC.  

      2. Big Four accounting firms – Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, EY. Each has an M&A team. Shorter hours and much lower pay than Bulge and Boutique. Lots of young people. Probably the most exposure to Hebrew and Israeli companies. EY is the most tech-savvy. 

      3. Boutique firms –  Rothschild, Clarfield and others. Evercore and Moelis opened offices in the last 2 years.

2. Consulting 

   1. A small industry, for two reasons in my view: 1) the extreme reluctance of Israelis to be friers, i.e. people who waste money on consulting staff to advise them to do what they were already planning to do, and 2) since most high-tech startups prioritize spending on engineering, not Powerpoint decks advising on expansion strategy. 

   2. It is not uncommon to work on projects for the Israeli government on these teams. There are still only so many large corporations in Israel who can really afford such services. 

   3. There are three categories of consulting firms in Israel. They are small and highly competitive. 

      1. Top of the Line: BCG, McKinsey

      2. Big Four and Co: Deloitte Monitor and Catalyst, KPMG (Strategy & Change), PwC (Strategy&), EY Parthenon, Accenture, BDO 

      3. Israeli: Shaldor, TASC (more Hebrew required) 

3. Finance / consulting roles in-house

   1. Startups 

      1. There are standard FP&A roles, but also new ones that are popping up called “biz ops,” “strategic finance” or “business strategy associate.” Israeli startups are increasingly internalizing the need for more “soft skill” hires not only in marketing and sales, but also strategy and finance.  

   2. Larger companies

      1. Traditional: Teva Pharmaceuticals, Tnuva, Strauss, etc.

      2. High-tech M&A / corp. dev: Amdocs, Similarweb, ironSource, etc. 

      3. High-tech strategy: NICE Systems and others.

4. Venture capital 

   1. It’s a booming sector, but intern and analyst positions at such firms are minimal. Firms known to take younger people include iAngels, Hanaco, F2 Venture Capital, Samsung Ventures and Vintage, though most of their investors have several years experience. 

   2. Five types of VCs:

      1. 1st generation – the godfathers of the Israeli VC scene: Pitango, JVP, 10D/Magma, etc. 

      2. 2nd generation – Aleph, TLV Partners, Israel Growth Partners, F2, Team 8, Entree Capital, etc.

      3. Crowdfunding – OurCrowd, iAngels

      4. Local Israeli growth funds – IGP, Greenfield, Viola Growth, Red Dot, Qumra Capital

      5. International funds with offices in Israel – some of the world’s best VCs: Battery, Bessemer, etc. New players on the ground are General Atlantic, IGP and Insight Partners. Softbank and Blackstone, while not strictly VC, are also establishing local branches. Future Africa—based in Lagos, Nigeria—was recently the first African VC to set up shop in Israel. 

   3. Of course, local VCs can also be categorized by many other criteria including sector focus and stage of investment. For instance, Maniv Mobility only focuses on, well, mobility. Cyberstarts focuses on Cyber. 

   4. There are also a handful of private equity funds, like FIMI and SPC Global (Nili Capital).

5. Family offices

   1. A growing sector, including single-family and multi-family offices.

   2. Examples include Jesselson, Arison, GlenRock, and Goldrock Capital

A note about Hebrew – More than the army, national service, or university in Israel, I believe knowing Hebrew is the most important thing to integrate to Israel. That said, you can get by with English at many of these companies, if not all. But there will be coffee chats and lunches in Hebrew, not to mention probably some client meetings too. So I highly recommend an Ulpan. I did Ulpan Bayit, loved it. 

A note about “networking” – it’s essential in Israel. Everything is people here. Some companies post jobs, yes, but it’s usually a sign of policy, and many jobs are never posted. Tel Aviv is a small ecosystem and word of mouth is powerful here. Some companies will even create jobs for you.

Thank you to Michael Eisenberg, Ariel Sterman, Eli Serfaty, Yaffa Abadi, Zach Blank, Caleb Zipperstein and Gali Baram for reviewing drafts of this.

A note to subscribers — as you probably noticed, this piece was longer than the standard 500 words. It is an exception, I hope!