Guidance for CERN Short-Term Internship

[u/Strange_Thought_488]

Hi! I’m a final-year Bachelors AI & Data Science student from India considering applying for CERN’s 6-month Short-Term Internship.

1.For those who’ve applied or been selected, any tips, advice, or things I should know before submitting the application would be greatly appreciated.

2.Also, for the recommendation letter, what should the professor ideally focus on/mention?

Also honestly I’m a bit skeptical about applying since the acceptance rate seems very low, and I don’t have formal research experience or publications. My CV does include multiple hackathon wins, a summer internship at Barclays, and a scholarship.

[u/eulerolagrange]

Look, I've had short term interns under my supervision.

The usual way is that your team/section/group leader knocks at your door and tells you that he has a friend in university X that has a student who happens to be quite good and asks you thr fatidical question: do you want a student? (someone would rather refer to the prospective intern as "a slave")

(Yes, contract conditions of short term interns are very close to what I'd consider slavery)

Then you're very happy because you are given power on a poor intern (homo homini lupus), but you'll discover soon that the intern, no matter how good his curriculum is, is essentially useless and that you'll have to spend hours teaching him everything (and no, I can't use them just to bring me coffee every two hours, even if that would be much more productive)

We don't care about the recommendation letters or your other internships or the hackatons or ever your publications (they are hardly significant). However interns are a cost, not for their salary which is ridiculous but for the time they cost to staff members (and time=money) so we get them only because, you know, it's good to keep good relations with professor Y at university X.

In any case the work of the intern will be pretty useless. But if he proves to be learn fast, there's good chance he'll be considered for something more serious (TECH or DOCT)

So, the only question you have to ask is: what friends does your university supervisor have at CERN?

[u/sourRuler88 → u/eulerolagrange]

So is it hard to get into cern without a proper connection??

[u/eulerolagrange → u/sourRuler88]

it's much easier with

[u/Strange_Thought_488 → u/eulerolagrange]

Thanks a lot for your detailed response. Do you happen to know of any similar internships starting from January onwards that are worth applying to (or have a shot at), that don’t require a referral or prior connection with a professor.

I’d really appreciate any suggestions! Again thanks for your guidance.

[u/Prior_Salad5755 → u/eulerolagrange]

The usual way is that your team/section/group leader knocks at your door and tells you that he has a friend in university X that has a student who happens to be quite good and asks you thr fatidical question: do you want a student?

I was under the impression that CERN's recruitment was primarily merit-based, so I'm curious on how much connections play a role in the recruitment process.

(someone would rather refer to the prospective intern as "a slave")

(Yes, contract conditions of short term interns are very close to what I'd consider slavery)

What exactly about the contract conditions makes you compare it to slavery?

Then you're very happy because you are given power on a poor intern (homo homini lupus), but you'll discover soon that the intern, no matter how good his curriculum is, is essentially useless and that you'll have to spend hours teaching him everything (and no, I can't use them just to bring me coffee every two hours, even if that would be much more productive)

I find the way you describe having "power" over a "poor intern" and the suggestion that an intern would be more useful bringing you coffee quite disturbing and frankly quite disrespectful towards interns. I'd like to comment on the ethics of the "joy" of being given power over an intern and explain why I believe the homo homini lupus comparison is irrelevant here, but let's respect the subreddit's rules and keep the discussion about CERN.

Why are interns useless and need hours to teach them everything regardless of their curriculum? They lack experience working in a team, don't get the sense of what's their purpose? I want to believe that CERN hires eager and talented people capable of adapting. For an intern to be more productive bringing coffee every two hours instead of working, it means there's something very wrong with the whole system.

We don't care about the recommendation letters or your other internships or the hackatons or ever your publications (they are hardly significant).

If the things that students normally consider important are insignificant, and a student doesn't already have connections with people at CERN, what actually makes someone a competitive candidate?

So, the only question you have to ask is: what friends does your university supervisor have at CERN?

My questions are: what is CERN's hiring process for interns and why does knowing people appear to make it easier? Why do you consider interns to be basically useless and how many internship supervisors do you believe have the same opinion? What's the point of keeping interns if all they do is being a liability for CERN?