I was driving deep into the heart of Burbank for a job I hated, a boss I hated, on a commute I hated. How did I get here? I had graduated from Georgetown, worked a few years in management consulting, and was then recruited for a role on the West Coast. Then I’d switched jobs in Los Angeles, and slowly, my life began missing the very things I lived for: international affairs, foreign languages, and a career of solving hard and meaningful problems.
It was during this very commute that I knew I needed to redesign my life.
As soon as I woke up the next morning, I got on the phone with a Masa representative. The Masa Israel Journey programs allow Jews from all over the world to pursue their passions in Israel – and receive a grant to do it, too.
Right before I turned 30 (which also happened to be the last year of eligibility for these programs), I was accepted into “Israel by Design.” This was a fitting name in keeping with my desire to redesign my life. This Masa program provides the tools to build a personalized program, allowing you to pick your start and end dates and interview at a host of companies. I landed a job at Playbuzz, a digital media company specializing in online brand-awareness, user-engagement, and content optimization. The platform, headquartered in Tel Aviv with offices in London, New York, and Sao Paulo, has a network that reaches hundreds of millions of users per month.
When I started, my team launched a new video player product that streams editorial content along with premium ads. There was a steep learning curve in my first-ever digital media role at a startup – and not to mention a cultural adjustment – but it’s because of these challenges I was, for the first time in my professional life, excited to wake up early every day to go to work. I now work full-time for Playbuzz remotely, managing international partnerships, with the hope of relocating to Tel Aviv in the future.
If the career aspect of my Masa experience was the only highlight, it would be more than enough. But, the personal growth and relationships I made are the real takeaway from this experience. With Masa, I traveled to the Negev, the North, West Bank, Jerusalem, and of course took day trips around Tel Aviv to wineries, chocolate factories, farms, museums, and political seminars.
Sometimes I still ask myself, why Israel? Why did I choose Israel as the launchpad for my professional transformation? I didn’t grow up particularly Zionist-In fact, my sister and father have never been. Even though I went to Hebrew school three times a week before graduating high school, it was sometimes easy for me, as a fifth generation American, to forget that I am Jewish. There’s nothing I can really say about why I felt the need to move to Israel, for at least a small time in my life, other than feeling compelled to visit a place that my ancestors could only dream of-a place made for people like me. It’s hard to explain if you’ve never been, but spending meaningful time in Israel feels like the homecoming I never knew I was missing.
Living in Israel allowed me to travel with a diverse cross-section of people who broadened my horizons. On the career front, I encountered the kinds of disruptive start-ups which changed the lens through which I view the workplace.
Perhaps most importantly, Masa created a platform for people to really get what they want out of life.
Remember my terrible commute from earlier? I swapped out an hour-long commute in LA for a 20-minute electric scooter ride to work, zipping through traffic and actually enjoying the ride. To that end, I created four goals at the beginning of my time in Israel to help me design my life: to perform exceptionally at work, to travel, to learn Hebrew, and to lead a healthier lifestyle. I was able to fulfill all of these goals.
It might sound cliché, but Israel by Design allowed me to design my life. I’ve taken control of my destiny, and I know that I can continue to choose adventures and challenges that are consequential, fulfilling, and meaningful.
Yosh Miller, a Parkland native, is an alum of Masa Israel Journey’s Israel by Design program and is currently a business development manager for International Partnerships at Playbuzz.
