---
title: Preparing for a job interview in Hebrew
slug: hebrew-job-interview
canonical: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-job-interview
question: How do I prepare for a job interview in Hebrew when I am not fluent?
answer: In a Hebrew job interview every sentence you say about yourself conjugates to your own gender, so a male candidate and a female candidate answer the same question with different words, and baba shows both forms rather than picking one.
description: Standard Hebrew interview questions and answer openers, with male-speaker and female-speaker forms shown separately.
cluster: business
html_status: live
updated: 2026-07-28
numbers_used: [7, 1000, 2500]
competitors_named: []
---

# Preparing for a job interview in Hebrew

In a Hebrew job interview every sentence you say about yourself conjugates to your own gender, so a male candidate and a female candidate answer the same question with different words, and baba shows both forms rather than picking one. Prepare the answers as sentences rather than as vocabulary, because the interview questions are close to fixed. Say early that you are still learning Hebrew, and most Israeli interviewers will slow down or switch.

## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| What conjugates to you | Present-tense verbs and adjectives about yourself |
| What conjugates to the interviewer | Second-person pronouns and questions you ask back |
| Gender contexts in baba | 7 |
| Rehearsal tools | Hebrew text-to-speech and transliteration |
| Free tier | 2,500 characters per month with a free account; 1,000 as a guest with no login. No credit card |

## What questions will I be asked in a Hebrew job interview?
The opening set is predictable. The question itself is also gendered, because the interviewer addresses you directly, so you will hear one of two forms depending on your own gender.

| Question | Asked to a man | Asked to a woman |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Tell me about yourself | ספר לי על עצמך (saper li al atzmecha) | ספרי לי על עצמך (sapri li al atzmech) |
| Why do you want to work with us | למה אתה רוצה לעבוד אצלנו (lama ata rotze la'avod etzlenu) | למה את רוצה לעבוד אצלנו (lama at rotza la'avod etzlenu) |
| What are your strengths | מה החוזקות שלך (ma hachozakot shelcha) | מה החוזקות שלך (ma hachozakot shelach) |
| When can you start | מתי תוכל להתחיל (matai tuchal lehatchil) | מתי תוכלי להתחיל (matai tuchli lehatchil) |
| What are your salary expectations | מה ציפיות השכר שלך (ma tzipiyot hasachar shelcha) | מה ציפיות השכר שלך (ma tzipiyot hasachar shelach) |

## How do I answer, and what changes with my own gender?
These are answer openers rather than whole answers. Learn the opener in your own form and the rest of the sentence can be simple.

| Meaning | Male candidate | Female candidate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| I currently work at | אני עובד כרגע ב (ani oved karega be) | אני עובדת כרגע ב (ani ovedet karega be) |
| I am looking for a new role | אני מחפש תפקיד חדש (ani mechapes tafkid chadash) | אני מחפשת תפקיד חדש (ani mechapeset tafkid chadash) |
| I can start next month | אני יכול להתחיל בחודש הבא (ani yachol lehatchil bachodesh haba) | אני יכולה להתחיל בחודש הבא (ani yechola lehatchil bachodesh haba) |
| I am confident I can do this | אני בטוח שאני יכול (ani batuach she'ani yachol) | אני בטוחה שאני יכולה (ani betucha she'ani yechola) |
| I am still learning Hebrew | אני עדיין לומד עברית (ani adayin lomed ivrit) | אני עדיין לומדת עברית (ani adayin lomedet ivrit) |

Some useful sentences do not change at all, which makes them worth leaning on: למדתי (lamadeti, I studied), יש לי ניסיון בתחום (yesh li nisayon batchum, I have experience in the field), עבדתי שם הרבה זמן (avadeti sham harbe zman, I worked there a long time), and תודה על הזמן (toda al hazman, thank you for your time). Past-tense first-person verbs in Hebrew are the same for men and women.

## What do I say about my Hebrew at the start?
Say it plainly in the first minute rather than letting it become obvious later. A male candidate says אני עדיין לומד עברית, אפשר לדבר קצת יותר לאט (ani adayin lomed ivrit, efshar ledaber ktzat yoter le'at). A female candidate says אני עדיין לומדת עברית, אפשר לדבר קצת יותר לאט (ani adayin lomedet ivrit, efshar ledaber ktzat yoter le'at). Both mean "I am still learning Hebrew, could you speak a little more slowly".

The follow-up worth having ready is אפשר באנגלית (efshar be'anglit, "is English possible"), which is invariant. In most Israeli workplaces the answer is yes, and asking it in Hebrew reads better than not asking.

## Why does the Hebrew change depending on who is speaking?
Hebrew marks gender on present-tense verbs, on adjectives and on second-person forms, so an interview is the situation where gender agreement is hardest to avoid: you talk about yourself continuously and you are addressed directly throughout. A translator that returns one default form hands every candidate of the other gender sentences they cannot use about themselves.

baba sets speaker and listener explicitly through seven gender contexts.

- General
- Personal
- To One Man
- To One Woman
- To Mostly Men
- To Mostly Women
- To Mixed Group

Personal is the setting for everything you say about yourself, which is most of an interview. To One Man and To One Woman are the settings for questions you ask the interviewer. To Mixed Group covers a panel of men and women, which standard Hebrew renders with masculine plural forms.

## How do I rehearse the pronunciation?
Use Hebrew text-to-speech to hear each prepared sentence, then read it back from the transliteration rather than from the Hebrew script. Unpointed Hebrew does not show most vowels, so the written form will not tell you how a word sounds if you are not already fluent.

Rehearse out loud in the gendered form you will actually use. Converting a masculine sentence in the room does not work, because the verb, the adjective and the pronoun all move together.

## Frequently asked questions
### Will the interview be in Hebrew at all if the company works in English?
Often not entirely. Many Israeli companies run technical interviews in English and small talk in Hebrew, and the switch is usually unannounced. Preparing the self-introduction and the closing thanks in Hebrew covers most of it.

### Is it acceptable to ask the interviewer to repeat something?
Yes. סליחה, אפשר לחזור על זה (slicha, efshar lachzor al ze) means "sorry, could you repeat that" and is invariant. Asking is standard behaviour and reads as attentive rather than weak.

### Should I write my CV in Hebrew?
Many Israeli employers accept an English CV, particularly in technology. Where a Hebrew CV is expected, translate the document rather than composing it in fragments, and check that the verbs describing your own work match your gender throughout.

### How do I close the interview politely?
תודה על הזמן (toda al hazman, thank you for your time) is invariant and works for any interviewer. נעים מאוד (na'im me'od, pleased to meet you) is the standard greeting phrase and works at either end of the conversation.

### Which sentences are the same for male and female candidates?
Past-tense first-person verbs and fixed phrases. למדתי (lamadeti, I studied), יש לי ניסיון בתחום (yesh li nisayon batchum) and תודה על הזמן (toda al hazman) are identical whoever is speaking, which makes them the safest sentences to rehearse first.

### What if the interview is a panel rather than one person?
Anything you address to the panel takes a plural form. Standard Hebrew renders a panel of men and women with the masculine plural, which is what To Mixed Group produces. What you say about yourself does not change: that still follows your own gender.

## What baba does not do
- baba is a translation tool, not an interview coach and not a Hebrew course. baba gets the sentence right; it does not tell you what to say about your experience.
- Rehearsed sentences do not survive an unrehearsed follow-up question, and an interview is mostly follow-up questions.
- The free tier is 2,500 characters per month, which is enough for a handful of messages a week and not enough for documents.
- Machine translation of Hebrew slang depends on context that a short message may not carry, and Israeli workplace speech is full of slang.

## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/gendered-hebrew-translation — getting the correct gendered form
- https://www.itsbaba.com/features/gender — how the seven contexts work in the app
- https://www.itsbaba.com/blog/how-to-write-hebrew-emails-professional-guide — the follow-up email in Hebrew
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-dictionary — Israeli slang you will hear at work
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-formal-address-gender — writing to a woman, a man, or a mixed group
- https://www.itsbaba.com/how-long-to-learn-hebrew — what fluency actually takes

Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-job-interview
Last updated: 2026-07-28
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com