How to learn and work at CERN

[Matteo Castoldi]

In this discussion I want to talk on how to learn and work at CERN.
If interested, I strongly recommend to read the official CERN e-Recruitment web pages.

[dam]

Hi Matteo!
It would be great to work at CERN. I've already given a try, but unsuccessfully... Today I received the bad news: "application unsuccessful for a Fellowship ". Better luck next time!
Bye, Damiano

[paolo marenco]

Matteo, how did you get in? how is your personal story? can you tell us something.....
Paolo

[Matteo Castoldi]

Hello Paolo,
it is a pleasure to tell about my personal story at CERN.

I started my career at CERN in 1997 just at the end of my 5th year of university, as a Technical Student. The idea was to use one year of work on the optimization of the thermo-mechanical design of parts the LHC cryomagnets, to prepare my Master’s degree thesis.
Once I got my degree, fascinated by CERN, I decided to stay longer.
From 1998, I collaborated with the CMS and TOTEM experiments, where I was in charge of mechanical design, development of innovative welding techniques and other challenging engineering matters.
In 2001 I started working in the OH&S department, as a mechanical safety engineer, reviewing projects and evaluating engineering files and technical specifications.
In 2003, I was asked to work on OH&S and environmental management.
Today I am responsible for the OHS&E management system of CERN, for OHS&E audits and for the preparation of the OHS&E regulations of the Organization.

That’s it!

[Matteo Castoldi]

Hello Dam.
CERN receives every selection session hundreds of candidatures for fellowships. It is not easy to get one. By the way what is your background?
Have a nice day,
Matteo.

[dam]

Hello Matteo.

First of all, I'm sorry for being so late, but I've been very busy once back to Italy both because of relatives/friends and because I graduated for my master at the end of December.

About my background, I have to admit that it's not really related with CERN research, but I'm really attracted by almost any challenge coming from over-the-top technology. I'm an Aerospace Engineer, now with master degree with Space specialization, from Politecnico di Milano. I thought I could work at CERN in fields such as thermal control, fluid dynamics, structure analysis, system engineering, and computing. I tried to apply for fellowship counting especially on my good (not excellent at all) experience as C/C++ and Matlab programmer.

At the moment I'm still looking for a job and I think I'll try again to apply for fellowships at CERN next time.

Have a nice day,
Damiano