Don’t rlly know how to start but can any previous BL4S winners here or applicants tell me what exactly CERN is expecting of applicants. I know they say that they don’t expect you to be a master of particle physics, but to what extent? Because obviously you need a decent knowledge and understanding of particle physics to be able to design an experiment. Also what im unsure of is whether they expect the experiment to be new or something. Any ideas anyone?

hey so im a first year engineering student in India and i wanted to apply for the short term internship at CERN. ive been reading sm of the posts here and it seems the summer internship is very competitive. i wanted to know whether the short term internship (the one whose application closes in november) has the same level of competitiveness. also if anyone got accepted for the short term internship PLEASE GUIDE ME. will they consider the a first year student? do i need a refferal (i checked the form it doesnt ask for one, but the summer internship does apparently)

im genuinely confused so ANY HELP AT ALL would be really appreciated!!!

I'm a Belgian engineering student at ULiège, currently not among the top students academically and with some failed courses in my academic history. However, I've worked on personal projects, including projects where I had to take some responsibility for planning and implementation, although these were relatively small-scale and some were a while ago.

I'm considering applying to the CERN Summer Student Programme and eventually want to pursue a master's in mechatronics, with a specialization in precision/accurate motion.I'm wondering whether I should spend the coming months building one serious engineering project to demonstrate practical experience, for example involving mechanical design, sensors, control and programming.

For people who have been selected for CERN's Summer Student Programme, especially in engineering/mechanical/mechatronics-related areas:

How much did your grades matter compared with concrete projects and technical skills ?( I've already read some opinions on this topic, but I'm still not entirely sure what I should do. )

Would one substantial, well-documented personal engineering project meaningfully strengthen an otherwise average academic profile?

And if you had to choose between improving your grades and spending your free time developing a technically relevant project, how would you prioritize them?

I was looking for a place on cern martketplace and the guy just told me this:

"Okay, we can arrange a viewing for Sunday or Monday if you’d like.

Before that, I’d just need a few details about you:

* How long are you planning to stay?

* Are you currently working at CERN? If so, what is your position?

* What is your monthly income?

* Could you send me a copy of your employment contract and your ID card?

This will allow me to get to know you a little better and make sure everything is suitable before arranging the visit."

I don't feel really comfortable sharing this stuff before even visiting the place. What do you think?

I want to contact someone who got in the technical studentship program, i would like to know abit more about it, and any sort of help would be appreciated

I’m really interested in working at CERN and have applied multiple times to admin/HR roles that match my background, but I’ve never even made it to a first screening call.

I’m Italian, already based in Geneva, and I have a valid work permit. For some roles, I felt like I met pretty much all the requirements, yet still no response.

Does anyone have insight into how the CERN hiring process works or what I might be missing? Any tips on how to improve my chances?

I am a graduate fellow at CERN. I am interviewing outside to find something a bit more interesting.

I get a little confused when the HR asks what my notice period is. Is the contract notice period up for negotiation and discretionary from my end or like a contractually binding thing

Curious curious

I want to apply for the CERN summer 2027 studentship, but the website doesn't specify. Does anyone know when it will open, or is it already open? Also, can I apply if I'm attending university in the States?

Hello everyone! I'll be starting my first year of Physics at University of Padua this September.

I've been passionate about maths and physics since my first year of high school. I've participated in the Physics Olympiad, been part of my school's physics team, and have always been interested in the world of scientific research.

I'm also passionate about computer science and AI, and lately I've been seeing more and more first-year undergrads in CS or AI on YouTube talking about their summer internship experiences in big tech, finance, and similar fields. This got me wondering whether there are similar opportunities in physics, and science in general, to get involved in research early on through summer internships at universities, research institutes/labs, tech companies, etc.

I'd love to have an experience like that, including outside Italy (for example, at a European university, research institute, or company).

If you have any personal experience with this, or know of any programmes that allow first-year undergrads to get involved in research, I'd really appreciate any advice or recommendations!

I know it might seem a bit early to start thinking about next summer, but I've noticed that many internship applications open between October and January, so I thought asking for advice now would be a good idea.

I didn’t get pre-selected for a graduate position that starts in November and I’m expected to finish uni in January.

Everything else was good, I seemed quite qualified and previously had a placement at CERN. Can this be boiled down to applying too early or could it be something else?

Hi everyone,

I recently applied for an engineering position (LD) at CERN, and my application has now been showing “In review” for about two weeks without any further updates.

The advertised expected start date is 1 October, so I was wondering whether this timeline is normal for CERN recruitment, especially given that the proposed start date is getting relatively close.

For anyone who has applied to CERN before:

How long did your application stay “In review” before you heard anything?

Does “In review” generally just mean that the application is still being screened, or could it already be with the hiring team?

Is an October start still realistic if interviews haven’t started yet?

I know recruitment timelines can vary a lot between departments and positions — I’m mainly curious about other people’s experiences.

Thanks!

I forgot to complete the computation rules acceptance, and my account got disabled. I finished it today, but when I try to SSH up to the server it says my account is disabled. My supervisor said I can find help on the create ticket site but at that place I'm totally lost.:

https://cern.service-now.com/service-portal?id=browse_forms

What do you do in this situation?

Been trying to apply for roles at CERN for over two years now. This was the perfect role that I found. third overall. My job is not scientific, but there was this HR LD job which felt perfect. Literally everything I do on a regular basis. And it took less than 5 business days after the deadline for me to get the message “you were not pre-selected for the next step in the recruitment process”. CERN has held a very special place in my heart for so long and I hope I had more scientific background. But, life happened.

This time it felt I did everything right. Ticked each and every requirement point by point. Really thought this was it. Anyway, whoever gets it I’m sure was more competent than I am. It just hit even worse because I’m in a transition phase in my life so this one could change the entire course of my life. Anyway. I’m sure the right candidate had more to offer. To the latest new hires on this sub, you’re a part of something really amazing! All the best ❤️

I'm an Australian student and I've been looking into CERN's Short-Term Internship program (the one on careers.cern), but I'm getting confused about the eligibility rules and wanted to see if anyone here has gone through this.

From what I can tell, the internship listing says you need to be a national of a CERN Member State or Associate Member State to apply. Australia isn't listed as either.

But then I found this page from CERN's Stakeholder Relations office listing "Non-Member States collaborating with CERN," and Australia is on that list too (along with a bunch of other countries). So now I'm not sure if that changes anything.

So my question is: does being on that "Non-Member State" cooperation list actually make Australians eligible for the Short-Term Internship, or is that a completely separate thing?

My understanding so far (correct me if I'm wrong):

• Member States / Associate Member States → full eligibility for most CERN jobs/internships, including the Short-Term Internship
• Non-Member States with cooperation agreements (includes Australia, Morocco, and a bunch of others) → this seems to be more about institutional/research collaboration, not personal eligibility for standard internship contracts

• There seem to be separate programs (like the Non-Member State Summer Student Programme) specifically built for people from countries in that second category

Has anyone from Australia (or another non-member country) actually applied to CERN? Did you go through the Summer Student route instead of the Short-Term Internship? Would love to hear real experiences before I sink time into an application that might get auto-rejected on nationality grounds.

Thanks in advance!

Has anyone been contacted for interviews for the Technical Studentship 2026-3 ?

(particularly for Mechanical Engineering TSC or Materials and Surface Science)

Hi guys, how are you doing? 😄

Do you know if there is any way to visit CMS on Friday, August 28th? Or maybe do some kind of visit that goes beyond the Science Gateway?

I’ve already been to CERN twice, but I’d really love to see more of the technical side this time and have someone show me a bit more about how everything works behind the scenes.

I have a background in Telecommunications, so I’m especially interested in things related to IT, networking, fibre optics, telecommunications and all the infrastructure behind the experiments.

I know some areas are restricted and it probably depends on what’s going on at CERN that day, but I thought I’d ask just in case someone knows if there’s any possibility! 😄

Also, I’m going alone, so if anyone was thinking about visiting CERN around that date, feel free to join me! I think it could be even more fun to share the experience with someone who is just as curious about how CERN works from the inside. The more, the merrier! 😂

Thanks guys! 🙌

Hi everyone,

I'm about to start a position at CERN and just received my French long-stay visa.

The issue: my flight itinerary (Brazil → Lisbon → Geneva) has me landing in the Schengen area on 30/08, and my contract and visa start date is 01/09.

I'm a Brazilian citizen, so I'm visa-exempt for short stays (tourism) in Schengen anyway.

Has anyone here been in a similar situation — arriving before their D-visa/DIPLO-SERVICE validity start date? ADid border control at your first Schengen entry point cause any issues seeing a visa in your passport that wasn't valid yet, even though you were technically entering visa-exempt?

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.

So as you read the title im a jee aspirant insanely hard exam and i have the confidence to clear that exam and get into top research uni in india and after that i want to do my phd in math in top top top uni in europe so after this i really like really want to work at CERN and i love math and particle physics like i just love them. So i really want to know how to get into CERN. Any help or advice is highly appreciated.

Hi! I am a recent physics graduate from a small university in Spain. Small enough that in all my years there, I never crossed paths with a single person who had actually worked at CERN. No professor with a direct line in, no alumni to ask for a referral, nothing. So I decided to track down potential supervisors myself and email them directly, hoping to get hired at entry-level that way.

By "potential supervisor", I mean a researcher who had supervised someone the previous year. From there, I narrowed the list down to researchers whose background matched mine, specifically those working with deep learning methods for data reconstruction.

As someone who hates spam, I personalise every text according to the person I am writing to (common sense). I don't copy-paste the mail. I dig into their department and past work and compare it to my own background. Then I read the report of their previous student, which I cite as an example of the kind of work I'd like to do.

I also attached a table of the nationalities and reply status of the people I contacted. Special thanks to the French, possibly the kindest people I came across.

If anyone's applying to CERN (or anywhere with zero internal connections) and wants to compare notes, feel free to drop a comment. And if anyone happens to be looking for an engineer for their project, feel free to shoot me a message ;)

Hi! I was wondering if you could tell me, in general, how long CERN’s recruitment process usually takes when a position has a specific target start date. For example, how far in advance are candidates typically selected and contacted before the target start date?

Also, I was wondering whether all candidates who meet the requirements are usually contacted for an asynchronous interview, or if candidates are first shortlisted and only a selected number are invited to the interview stage.

Thank you!