So, what’s it like to have one of the coolest jobs in Israel?

People often tell Anat Meir, “I want a job like yours.” She’s a brewmaster, and to many people the idea of spending the workday downing beer sounds pretty good. Meir is one of five people interviewed by TheMarker who have jobs that rise above the humdrum. But as she notes, every job has its downside. Being a brewmaster isn’t about enjoying beer. “There’s a huge amount of responsibility,” she says.

The daily grind

For many people, a good cup of coffee is a daily pleasure; for Ayelet Ofek, 53, it’s an all-day pleasure, and she gets paid for it.

She took the first steps toward her unusual career as a professional coffee taster a teenager. “I studied chemistry and physics in high school because I really liked it. I was the only girl in the track. I dreamed of studying chemistry at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, but I realized I needed something else practical, so I also studied food engineering. When I looked for work in the field, I found the Elite instant-coffee factory in Beit Shemesh. I worked as a food engineer – in other words responsible for everything involved in the production process, including developing its recipe. But as part of my work, I discovered the need for a team of tasters,” says Ofek.

After the factory moved to Safed, Ofek presented to management her idea for the team of cuppers. Today, she is in charge of it. “We have 15 cuppers who come every day for regular tastings, in addition to their regular job. It can be the head of development or a food engineer. It’s important to say that they don’t get paid extra for it.”

What does your daily schedule look like?

“At 8:30 A.M. we hold the first tastings. They’re done in a certain way that assesses the quality of the coffee that comes to us from all over the world. We taste 150 to 200 cups a day.”

It takes 18-24 months of training to become a cupper. “It includes simple tests for ranking the sweetness and saltiness of the coffee. There’s also a special kit with coffee smells and they must identify its exact name. At a certain stage, they begin tasting coffee from all sorts of places. The cuppers need to be able to distinguish one growing region from another. For example, if they’re tasting Colombian coffee they need to know the aroma is supposed to be sour.”

Another tasting is held during the morning of products under development. “The knowledge received from the panel helps us to make technological decisions. I analyze the cuppers’ notes with the goal of understanding what the consumer experience will be. Many things affect that – the color of the coffee, its smell, even the sound of the machine.”

Ofek says her greatest pleasure in her work is researching and developing the product. The downside, if she has to name one, is that the coffee she is served in cafes isn’t as good as what she has at home. Jobs like hers pay 12,000-50,000 shekels ($3,670-$15,270) a month.

Sound thinking

Carmin Bittermann is a freelance sound designer and composer for mobile and PC video games, animated films and trailers. She got into the business through her love of music, which began at a very young age. She has played piano since she was little and at 13 she took up the guitar. “Music always interested me and I wanted to know how to bring out the melodies I had in head,” she says.

In 2014, she began studying music production at BPM College in Tel Aviv. She found a course on sound design for media particularly interesting. “I began to research the topic and after my studies I continued with online courses in composition and researched in-depth how sounds are designed.”

How did you get into the field?

“It takes time. I knew people in the industry through Facebook, and I went to industry events to make contacts. There’s something about this business that requires a strong connection between people. You need to show that you understand the concept of the product because through sound you create its image. You start from small jobs you get from other sound designers, or participate in game-designing marathons, where you practice and become more professional in composing sound.”

Sound people work either as freelancers, as Bittermann does, or as full-time employees. Her daily schedule changes from project to project. “You can sit for hours at a screen and design sound, and sometimes you find yourself at home checking what makes an interesting sound. Once I played with pillows to understand how they sound. Sometimes you also need to go out and listen to the world outside and learn how things sound. Sometimes a gentle sound is appropriate for a game or video clip, and you need to take that into account. In the end, this is a creative process that can be a bit scattered, like any creative process.”

If Bittermann has any complaints about her profession, it’s that sound is often the last component put into a game. “It means that sometimes your work is limited because you need to adapt the sound to a finished product,” she says. Pay is about 12,000 shekels a month.

The biggest pleasure she gets from her work is seeing how the sound gives life to a lifeless image. “It’s also fun to realize the vision of the game’s designer, because each time it’s different. Sound that is appropriate for an adventure game isn’t appropriate for a scary game.”

Feeding time

To a great extent, Aviv Levy’s life story directed him toward the minute he began working in one of the rarest professions in Israel: shark feeder. Levy, who was born in the southern resort town of Eilat, began diving at 15 and was soon diving with sharks.

“As a child of Eilat, I was always interested in what was going on under water. Not just sharks, but the marine environment too, fish and the systems of communication, to understand why corals behave the way they do, or why the sea cucumber is found in the sand. In the end, I studied marine biology, because it was clear to me that it would be part of my life,” he says.

Levy began working in the city’s underwater observatory 24 years ago. “We have a staff of 12 people who are involved, among other things, in feeding the animals such as sea turtles, and among them is a group of nine people who are involved in feeding sharks – I’m one of them. Sharks are fed twice a day, and each feeding can take half an hour or more. Not all the sharks eat at every feeding, most eat once a week, and some eat from your hand.”

Can you teach sharks the feeding routine, or communicate with them?

“Sharks are not an intelligent animal like dolphins, but they can learn a daily schedule. They can identify their feeder. You can see when they’re irritable, too.”

You’re not scared?

“It’s not that there aren’t shark attacks, and you need to be alert when you dive with them, but statistically the chance of being injured by lightning is higher than being injured by a shark. Most people are afraid of them for no reason. The movie ‘Jaws’ did a lot of damage to their image. I’ve dived with sharks in other places, on vacation. The most dangerous thing I do during my workday in the long run is to get in the car and drive to work.”

Is there one experience you remember in particular?

“Once I held a piece of squid in my hand to feed a shark. Suddenly a pufferfish came and swallowed its food, and the shark swallowed the fish, maybe for revenge, or maybe from instinct. But it immediately regurgitated because those fish contain toxins. For two weeks I was worried about [the shark], until she started eating again.”

Pay is a relatively modest 7,000- 10,000 shekels a month, but that doesn’t bother Levy. “I’m paid for doing something I enjoy. I get an experience and personal satisfaction from seeing the animals and educating visitors at the underwater observatory about the truth about sharks. The disadvantage is that it is physical work and you always need to be alert, even when you don’t feel so well.”

Head honcho

More than 25 years ago, Anat Meir, brewmaster at the Carlsberg brewery in Israel, happened upon a newspaper ad that changed her life after she graduated from Ariel University with a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology. “I opened the paper and saw that in Ashkelon they were building a food plant and looking for technicians. My brother persuaded me to apply. The factory was in its early days. I started as a laboratory technician, and then my boss offered me the opportunity to study to be a brewmaster in Copenhagen.”

During the six-month course, students learn to make beer and manage the process. But no one prepared Meir for the intensity of the job. “Sometimes, I’m here until late at night because there’s an urgent problem that needs to be dealt with. I get to the factory at 8 A.M. and check whether the beer was boiled as it should be overnight. You need to be precise with the recipes, for example, to add barley if needed. It also means constantly tasting the beer, though I estimate that I drink about half a liter of beer a day, no more.”

To Meir, the biggest benefit of the job is the creativity it requires. “One of the most enjoyable things is developing recipes for the beers and introducing new technology,” she says. “They enable you to express yourself. The only disadvantage as far as I’m concerned is that sometimes I have to work unusual hours. I get calls at home in the middle of the night.”

Another thing that makes the job a bit harder is that she has almost no colleagues. “Because there is no one to consult with in Israel, you need to get help more from people overseas – and that means flying a lot. On the one hand, there’s something nice about it, but on the other, it makes it a bit hard to develop in the job.”

How do people respond when they hear what your job is?

“Mostly with jealousy. I have a nephew who was discharged from the army two years ago and he’s always asking me where he can learn the profession.”

Having a ball

Gal Sternberg Fish has been a fan of the Maccabi Haifa soccer team since he was very young. To work for the club was to fulfill a dream, but it took time. He completed an undergraduate degree in industrial engineering at the Ort Braude College of Engineering in Carmiel and worked for eight years in systems engineering and data analysis. “Two and a half years ago I came to the conclusion that I wanted to make a change in life and work in something I have a greater desire for, and I began researching technology and data in soccer.”

Sternberg Fish began by reading books and at the end of 2018 he completed a course on scouting and sports analysis. “The person who did data analysis for Maccabi Haifa left the job a year and a half ago, and a mutual acquaintance told me the position had opened up,” he recalls. “I interviewed with CEO Assaf Ben Dov and realized that the club, in addition to my support for it as a fan, had an innovative approach – and that’s what I was looking for.”

What does your schedule look like?

“There’s no real 9-to-5 schedule. I have an office in the team’s training complex in Kfar Galim, and a lot of my work is done in front of the computer. Part of the week I work on ways to improve the club’s technological abilities and help the professional staff prepare for games with the opponents. The job also includes meetings with the scouting department to examine where we can find new players. Data analysis has become an important side of soccer, just like [strength and conditioning] trainers. Today, every action that a soccer player makes is recorded. … My goal is to tell a story using this information.”

What is the biggest attraction of your job?

“There’s a connection between what I know and like to do (to work with technology and data) and what I love (soccer). I get up every morning and work in something I’m interested in. As a systems engineer, I was exposed to a great deal of data and tools for data analysis. It started from there. After that I connected it to soccer. It completely changed the way I watch soccer.”

The downside is that data analysis is still in its infancy in Israel. “Because Maccabi Haifa was among the first clubs to employ a full-time job a person responsible only for data analysis, we suffered a lot of labor pains. On the other hand, the field is progressing. More openness to hear what professionals have to say and enhance our skills,” he says. “When people hear what I do, the response ranges from curiosity and interest to questions about the job. A lot of people ask about the nature of the job – and if there are any job openings.”