israeli-cv-builder

name	israeli-cv-builder
description	Generate a ready-to-send Israeli CV (korot chayim / קורות חיים) in Hebrew, English, or both: 1-page reverse chronological, mandatory military service section, dugri (direct) language, metrics-driven bullets, plus an optional Israeli cover letter (michtav mukdam / מכתב מקדים). Use when writing a CV for Israel, building a resume for AllJobs, Drushim, JobMaster or LinkedIn Israel, preparing a bilingual tech CV, or drafting an Israeli-style cover letter. Automatically omits personal data prohibited by the Equal Employment Opportunities Law 1988 (age, photo, marital status, religion) to prevent discrimination risk. Do NOT use for job market research (use israeli-job-market), tech interview prep (use israeli-tech-interview-prep), salary negotiation (use israeli-tech-salary-negotiator), LinkedIn strategy (use israeli-linkedin-strategy), employer-side screening (use israeli-hr-recruitment-automator), or employment contract review.
license	MIT
allowed-tools
compatibility	Works with Claude, Claude Code, ChatGPT, Cursor, and any agent supporting markdown output. No API keys required.

Israeli CV Builder

Problem

Israeli job seekers waste hours rewriting CVs because the local conventions differ from American and European formats: 1-page reverse chronological, a mandatory military service section that tech HR scans first, dugri (direct) language, and a strict no-photo / no-age / no-marital-status rule under the Equal Employment Opportunities Law 1988. Most online CV builders default to US templates that either get rejected by Israeli HR or expose the candidate to discrimination claims. This skill produces a ready-to-send Israeli CV in Hebrew and/or English in one pass, plus an optional tailored cover letter.

Instructions

Step 1: Collect Inputs

Ask the user for the minimum viable inputs. Do not require everything up front, fill gaps with reasonable defaults and flag what is missing.

Input	Required	Notes
Target language	Yes	he, en, or both. If applying to Israeli startup with English website, offer both
Target role / job description	Yes	Paste full listing or describe the role. Drives keyword tailoring
Full name, phone, email, city	Yes	Phone in +972-XX-XXX-XXXX format for EN, 0XX-XXX-XXXX for HE
LinkedIn URL	Recommended	Standard on Israeli tech CVs
GitHub / portfolio URL	Tech roles only	Put next to LinkedIn
Work history	Yes	Company, role, dates, 3-5 bullet achievements each
Military service	If Israeli citizen	Unit type, role, rank, dates. Critical for Israeli HR
Education	Yes	Degree, institution, year. Below work experience unless recent grad or student
Languages	Yes	With proficiency level (native / fluent / professional / basic)
Technical skills	Tech roles	Ordered by recency and depth
Generate cover letter?	Yes/No	Ask explicitly. Default to No unless user says yes

Step 2: Enforce Equal Employment Law Compliance

Under Employment (Equal Opportunities) Law 5748-1988, Israeli employers cannot make hiring decisions based on §2's protected grounds: age, gender, race, religion, nationality, country of origin (ארץ מוצא), place of residence (מקום מגורים, added by Amendment 22, 2014), marital status, parental status, pregnancy, fertility (IVF) treatments, sexual orientation, political affiliation, or reserve duty. Asking for these on a CV exposes the employer to discrimination claims. (This is why the CV drops the street address and any country-of-origin marker, not just age and marital status.)

NEVER include any of these on an Israeli CV, even if the user provides them:

Field	Reason	What to do
Date of birth	Age discrimination risk under Law 5748-1988	Omit silently. Do not mention
Photograph	ATS-unfriendly for EN CVs; invites appearance, age, gender, and ethnicity bias	Omit for EN. For HE, omit by default and only include if user explicitly requests AND the role is non-tech (acting, hospitality)
Marital status	Protected under Law 5748-1988	Omit
Number of children / parental status	Protected	Omit
Religion	Protected	Omit
Teudat Zehut (ID number)	Privacy risk, no legitimate reason on a CV	Omit
Home address	Place of residence is a protected ground (Law 5748-1988, Amendment 22); city only is sufficient for commute signaling	Keep city, drop street
Nationality / country of origin	Both are protected grounds; only include if the role genuinely requires work-permit clarification	Default off

If the user insists on including one of these (e.g., "I want a photo"), warn them once with the reason, then respect their choice for the Hebrew version only. Never add a photo to the English version.

Step 3: Build CV Skeleton

Use this structure for both languages. Content is tailored per role, the skeleton stays constant.

1. Header
   - Full name (large, top center or top left)
   - City (not full address) | Phone | Email | LinkedIn | GitHub (tech only)

2. Professional Summary (3-4 lines max)
   - Years of experience + domain + 2-3 standout strengths
   - Must include 2-3 keywords from the target job description

3. Work Experience (reverse chronological)
   - Company name, role, dates (MM/YYYY - MM/YYYY or "Present")
   - City (Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Petah Tikva, remote, etc.)
   - 3-5 bullet points per role
   - Each bullet: action verb + what + quantified result
   - Example: "Reduced deployment time from 45min to 6min by migrating CI from CircleCI to GitHub Actions (saved 80 eng-hours/month)"

4. Military Service (Israeli citizens only)
   - Unit name or type (e.g., "Intelligence Corps, Unit 8200", "Armored Corps, 7th Brigade")
   - Role and rank (e.g., "Team Leader, Sergeant First Class")
   - Dates (YYYY - YYYY)
   - 1-2 bullets on transferable skills (leadership, cleared projects at declassified level, systems maintained)
   - NEVER include classified info. If uncertain, list only role title and skill area

5. Education
   - Institution, degree, major, year of graduation
   - Honors (cum laude, magna cum laude / בהצטיינות)
   - Relevant thesis or final project for recent grads only

6. Skills (for tech roles)
   - Languages: Python, Go, TypeScript, ...
   - Frameworks: React, Django, NestJS, ...
   - Infrastructure: AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform, ...
   - Tools: Git, Docker, Datadog, ...
   - Order by depth and recency, not alphabetical

7. Languages
   - Hebrew: Native / Fluent / Professional / Basic
   - English: ...
   - Additional languages only if at professional level or above

8. Additional (optional, only if space allows and relevant)
   - Open source contributions (with repo links)
   - Speaking engagements at local meetups (TLV Dev, Big Things, etc.)
   - Certifications (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, CISSP)

Step 4: Apply Israeli Tone and Format Rules

Rule	What it means	Example
Dugri language	Direct, no fluff, no marketing speak	Bad: "Spearheaded synergistic cross-functional initiatives". Good: "Led 4-person team to ship feature X in Q3"
Quantify everything	Numbers beat adjectives	Bad: "Improved performance significantly". Good: "Reduced p95 latency from 800ms to 120ms"
Keywords from job posting	ATS-friendly tailoring	If posting mentions "Kafka", include it in skills AND in a bullet if relevant
1 page for juniors and mid-level	Senior (10+ yrs) may use 2 pages	Ruthlessly cut internships, student jobs if you have 5+ years experience
Active verbs	Past tense for past roles, present for current	Built, launched, migrated, owned, scaled, automated, shipped
No first person pronouns	Bullets start with verb, not "I"	Bad: "I built a pipeline". Good: "Built a pipeline that processed 10M events/day"

Step 5: Language-Specific Rules

English CV:

• Left-to-right (LTR) layout
• Phone format: [phone]
• Dates: MM/YYYY - MM/YYYY or Jan 2023 - Present
• NO photograph ever
• Use American English spelling only if the role is at a US HQ startup. Otherwise British English is also fine
• Military unit names in English (e.g., "8200 Intelligence Unit")

Hebrew CV:

• Right-to-left (RTL) layout
• Phone format: 050-123-4567 (no country code needed)
• Dates in Gregorian calendar: 01/2023 - היום
• Use gender-neutral phrasing where possible. When impossible, match the user's gender. Never assume
• Military unit names in Hebrew: "מודיעין - יחידה 8200", "שריון - חטיבה 7"
• Photo omitted by default
• Avoid formal biblical Hebrew. Use modern tech Israeli Hebrew: "פיתחתי", "הובלתי", "שיפרתי", not "ביצעתי" or "הוויתי"

Step 6: Generate the Output

Output the CV as clean markdown that converts well to .docx via pandoc or Word paste. Use H1 for name, H2 for section headers, H3 for company names. Bullets with - prefix. Dates right-aligned via trailing spaces (markdown does not enforce alignment, the user formats in Word after).

Give the user three things:

1. The CV in markdown
2. A one-line pandoc command to convert to .docx: pandoc cv.md -o cv.docx
3. A list of target keywords from the job description that were included (so the user sees the ATS tailoring)

Step 7: Optional Cover Letter (only if user said yes)

Ask ONCE in Step 1 whether to generate a cover letter. If yes, output it AFTER the CV in a separate code block.

Israeli cover letter rules:

• 3-4 short paragraphs maximum. Israeli HR skims, they do not read
• No "Dear Hiring Manager" filler. Open with hook: why this specific role, this specific company
• Paragraph 1: Why them. One sentence on why this company specifically (product, mission, recent news)
• Paragraph 2: Why you. 2-3 sentences tying your top 2 achievements to their stated needs
• Paragraph 3: Concrete next step. "Happy to walk through my work on X in a 20-min call"
• Sign off: "Thanks, {Name}" in EN. "תודה, {שם}" in HE
• No more than 250 words in EN, no more than 200 in HE
• No passive voice. No "I would be thrilled to". No "I am writing to apply for"

Bundled Resources

References

File	Purpose
references/israeli-cv-structure.md	Full section-by-section Israeli CV template with field-level notes
references/cover-letter-templates.md	3 Israeli cover letter templates (tech IC, manager, career changer) in HE and EN
references/eeo-compliance-checklist.md	Equal Employment Opportunities Law 1988 checklist for what to exclude from a CV

Scripts

File	Purpose
scripts/cv_keyword_extractor.py	Extracts ATS keywords from a pasted job description for CV tailoring

Recommended MCP Servers

This skill is standalone and does not require an MCP server. The CV is generated entirely from user-provided inputs.

MCP	When to pair	Purpose
None required	N/A	Skill is self-contained. For market research and salary benchmarks, use the israeli-job-market skill separately before this one

Gotchas

These are the most common mistakes AI agents make when writing Israeli CVs. Each item reflects a real failure mode observed in practice.

1. Including a photo on English CVs. US ATS systems cannot parse photos and Israeli EEO law makes photos a discrimination risk. Agents default to "professional CVs look nicer with a photo" which is wrong for Israel. Always omit for EN, omit by default for HE.

2. Listing date of birth because the user mentioned it. Even if the user writes "I'm 34 years old", never put age or birth date on the CV. Silently drop it. Asking age on a job application is illegal under the Equal Employment Opportunities Law 1988.

3. Using formal biblical Hebrew instead of modern tech Hebrew. Agents pull from religious or legal corpora and produce "הנני מתכבד להגיש" instead of "שלום, אני {שם}". Israeli tech HR reads it as tone-deaf. Use direct modern Israeli phrasing.

4. Inventing military unit names. If the user says "I was in intelligence", do NOT guess they were in 8200. Ask or write the generic "חיל המודיעין / Intelligence Corps". Inventing a specific unit is a credibility-killer if the user is called on it in an interview.

5. Translating word-for-word between Hebrew and English. Hebrew bullets and English bullets are not the same text in two languages. They use different verb structures and idioms. Regenerate each language independently from the same source facts.

6. Keeping US-format phone numbers or addresses. If the user copy-pastes a US-style resume, the agent often leaves "[phone]" and "123 Main St, San Francisco, CA 94102" in place. Convert to Israeli phone format and drop the street address (city only).

7. Padding junior CVs to 2 pages. Juniors with no experience think more words = better. They do not. Israeli HR prefers a tight 1-page CV with 3 strong bullets over a 2-page CV with 10 weak ones.

Reference Links

Source	URL	What to Check
Employment (Equal Opportunities) Law 5748-1988 (official English text)	https://www.icj.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Israel-Employment-Equal-Opportunities-Law-5748-1988-eng.pdf	Protected categories that must NOT appear on a CV
Wikipedia: Employment (Equal Opportunities) Law, 1988	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_(Equal_Opportunities)_Law,_1988	Overview of the law and its amendments
Nevo legal database: Equal Opportunities Law text	https://www.nevo.co.il/law_html/law01/p214m1_001.htm	Hebrew source of the law
Nefesh B'Nefesh: Israeli Resume Do's and Don'ts	https://www.nbn.org.il/aliyah-inspiration/nbn-blogger-network/nbn-employment-blog/writing-your-israeli-resume-the-dos-and-donts/	Aliyah-specific CV guidance for olim
JobMob: Israeli CV translation tips	https://jobmob.co.il/blog/israeli-cv-translation-tips/	Converting foreign resumes to Israeli format
Anglo-List: Preparing a stand-out resume for Israel	https://anglo-list.com/your-israel-resume/	Tone, length, and section order

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Fix
CV is 2 pages for a junior	Too many bullets per role, too much padding in summary	Cut summary to 3 lines, max 3 bullets per role, drop any role under 6 months unless directly relevant
Hebrew CV reads as translated English	Word-for-word translation from EN draft	Regenerate HE from source facts, not from EN text. Use active Israeli tech verbs
User insists on including age	They are older and want to front-load experience	Warn once about EEO Law, then respect choice only for personal copy, never for the ATS-submitted version
Military section is empty because user is oleh chadash	Did not serve in IDF	Omit the section entirely. Do not write "Did not serve". Replace with a "Volunteer / Community" section if relevant
Phone number has wrong format	Copied from a US resume	EN: +972-XX-XXX-XXXX. HE: 0XX-XXX-XXXX
Cover letter is too long	Default verbosity	Cut to 3 paragraphs, max 250 words EN / 200 words HE. Rewrite paragraph 2 to link 2 achievements to 2 company needs