Israel is no doubt a contentious subject, to say the least, in the west. However, I assure you that this article will have nothing to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict or any of the geopolitical stuff that normally makes alarm bells go off in your head when that friend of yours brings the topic up during brunch instead of their FairGo casino login. All you need to know is that the state of Israel exists, and that it has mandatory military service (just like South Korea, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, China, Taiwan… etcetera).
However, that doesn’t mean that every person at the age of 18 is dragged to an army base and given a rifle. There are tons of noncombat positions and services within the IDF for those who have no interest in putting themselves in danger, from the support units to medics to the army of officer-workers that keep everything organized.
One of the IDFs programs is a service called Atidim, in which you agree to delay service so that you can go to college / uni for four years, the IDF will pay the tuition, but you sign on for six years of service instead of the minimum three (for males).
Within this program, there’s a relatively new sub-program called Paami Atidim specifically for engineering. In this program you study for both a practical engineers certificate and for the bachelors degree in engineering at the same time. In addition, instead of studying for four years, you study only for two, then join up to the idf, serve for a year, before completing the degree during the next two years of service.
Think about it like this: If the Atidim track is a 10 year time investment (4 years of uni, 6 years of service) then the Paami Atidim track is an 8 year time sink (4 and 6, but overlapping, so only 8 in the end), which gives you a certificate, a degree, and experience. On paper, that sounds like a good deal: But is it though?
My Experience
If I didn’t say so yet, this is a program I’m currently participating in. I am currently finishing year two of my Uni studies, and I’ll be starting my service at the end of the summer semester. So, I guess the point of this whole article is to sum up my experience in this program so far.
First of all, let’s talk expectations: I had really no idea what I was getting myself into when I started this program, and from what I’ve heard from my classmates, they hadn’t either. The way the program was presented, it didn’t come across as anything special. It required a lower psychometric score (550 instead of 600, compared to other tracks), and since this program is only for engineers, it seemed like a small specialty niche. What I hadn’t been told was that the IDF considers this program to be an elite, flagship program, and is sinking a ton of money and resources into it- and is going to be expanding it in the coming years.
I also had no idea what the heck the difference was between a “practical engineer” and an “engineer”. The difference, it turns out, is like that of an electrician versus and electrical engineer. The former deals with actual installation and equipment, while the latter designs new stuff.
The Practical Engineers Certificate is a two year program, and once it’s over you are liscenesed to do certain kinds of engineering work at factories and whatnot (this is the part I’m almost done with. Yay!), and as far as I know, there’s no one-to-one equivalent in the US.
The degree is just a standard Bachelors degree, like any graduate gets. My degree will be in Mechatronics (Mechanical plus Electrical). I should also point out that the Practical Engineering Certificate is piss easy, while the latter is making me pull my hair out.
The biggest challenge is that when doing both, there just doesn’t feel like there’s enough time in the day to get everything that needs to be done, done. Oh, did I mention that you also have to do a project? As in, build a functioning thing with mechanical parts, an arduino brain, and 100 page project report? On top of that, the IDF doesn’t cover the most expensive part of uni, which is room and board- so I work a part time job writing articles like this one so that I can keep a roof over my head.
The bottom line is that this program is hard. Really hard. In one semester, I ended up taking eleven courses. I have no idea how I survived unscathed. Everyone in this program (except me, #humbleBrag) have failed at least one class so far, which wouldn’t be so bad if all the courses were offered every semester- but at my Uni, they’re not.
So if you flunk a class this ends up snowballing and delaying a majority of the degree until a semester rolls around where the course is taught again. If you don’t pass a class like Statics (which is only taught in the Summer semester for some reason), then you can’t go on to learn Solids 1 or Solids 2, and they have to wait a year to try again.
The Rewards
So, do I recommend this program? For me, it’s hard to say. Part of me wants to say “no”, but part of me wonders if that a “grass is always greener on the other side” kind of thinking from being in the middle of this program. I am at the cusp of finishing an important milestone in this program, and, theoretically, it should get significantly easier from here on out (once the practical certificate is done, and I have half as many classes to do).
However, I’m also lucky enough to have not failed any classes so far (and some of them were really close). I have heard some of my classmates say that if they were to make the choice to join this program over again, they wouldn’t do it.
Yet, I think we also have yet to start seeing the fruits of our sweat, blood, and tears. This program is hell now, but once we’re through, we’ll have a certificate, a degree, multiple projects under our belts, zero debt, and experience working with the skills we’ve been taught. In theory, in another six years from now, we should be able to finish our service, and have companies vomit money at us to get us onboard.
In theory.
So again, it’s hard to say whether or not I recommend this program. It’s a lot of damn work, for a reward that only exists in abstract at the moment. At the moment, I’m 100% invested in this program, and I’m not backing out now. I think I’ll have to write an update in the future, and compare how I feel then versus now.
So yeah. I hope you make something of my lukewarm, milquetoast excuse of an answer.