I applied online. The process took 5 months. I interviewed at CERN in Feb 2016
Interview
I was not the first choice; I got an e-mail (two months after applying) in which it was stated:
"On this occasion, no positive decision was taken in your case. However, your name has been put on the list of reserve candidates and your application may be reconsidered if a suitable vacancy arises (please note there is no ranking on the reserve list).
For information, in case you do not hear from us by mid-February, you can consider your application as unsuccessful for this Committee."
That was in December. I was sure it was just a nice way to say that I am not accepted but then: I actually got the call in mid-February! It was by a person from CERN's HR asking me am I still interested, and if I am my future supervisor will be informed and he will contact me. I was, of course. So I got an e-mail from him, with short description of what his group does, and he asked me if we can speak by phone on that and that date, in a certain time frame. So we did.
He was great on the phone, my initial fright quickly dispersed and after all the questions and answers (from both of our sides), at the very end of the conversation, we even laughed. It was a very pleasant experience for me.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
All of the questions were connected to the information I provided in the CV. The position was related to the CAD so we just casually talked about my experience. I really like working in CAD programmes, so I guess enthusiasm was felt in my voice. There were no "exam-type" questions. I believe you just have to be able to handle the vocabulary regarding the topics you yourself enlisted in your own CV's experience part.
And I was asking questions too, regarding the project, design and my future role.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at CERN in Apr 2026
Interview
There were 3 people at the interview.One of them was a supervisor, the other two were engineers I would be working with.The supervisor didn't ask much, but the other two pressed her a lot.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe a problem you encountered while working in a team and how you solved it.
Un entretien par visio en différé, puis un physicien m'a contactée et on a continué le processus de cette manière, ça a été plutôt rapide. Ensuite il faut attendre la date donnée du CERN pour voir si le profil a effectivement été retenu
It was not too difficult. It firstly asked to introduce myself. Then I was told why I am motivated to work for cern. Then they asked if I had applied to other organisation.