My experience interviewing for CERN (Origin Programme)!

CERN is the largest nuclear research organisation in the world. Known for it's breakthrough experiments in particle physics, CERN is a dream place to work for. Physics has always been an area of interest for me and I love reading books on Astrophysics (Physics of the large) and Quantum Mechanics (Physics of the small). My dad being a huge fan of Physics himself, discussed with me a lot about the experiments at CERN when I was a little kid. It might be around 2006 or 2007 when he showed me the picture of the world's largest particle accelerator being built. I didn't understand much about the experiments then but the admiration for the machines and the excitement in dad's tone piqued my interest. Never did I know then, that CERN would be the place where I would have my first interview for an international organisation. Although it was a failure at the final step, the try was worth it! 😄

Application process 1. I applied through the CERN careers portal for the Origin programme. This programme has four cycles throughout the year. The ORIGIN programme is for individuals who are in their final year of undergraduate studies or has had less than 2 years of experience in the engineering domain. The requirements matched and I went for it.

2. The application asks for basic personal information, resume, graduate degree certificate (if graduated), choosing a maximum of 3 projects we would like to work at (this is an important step, we should choose the projects that match exactly with our skillset) and writing a brief paragraph on the motivation behind applying for the role. 3. I received a web interview invite through mail, immediately after applying. The interview happens in ModernHire and it's a one-way interview. There will be 5 questions asked and we have a preparation time of 1 minute and answering time of 2 minutes. 4. After 2 weeks, it was the morning of a fine October day that I received a mail from the Tech Lead of one of the 3 projects I selected. I am still unable to express the happiness of the moment I saw the mail. It was for a full stack developer role. 5. I was asked to develop a Restaurant application using Python, Vuejs, Sqlalchemy (basic code for which was provided). Python was new to me since I just then completed a course on Udemy (Please refer to this blog for details about the course!) but it provided the basics I needed and I love exploring new domains.

6. The project requirements were given, with a week's deadline. The Tech Lead was very kind in his way of interactions and replied to all my email doubts immediately. That one week was worth for all the time I spent learning new concepts for optimising and writing clean code and pushing all my code to GitHub. I completed all the requirements and submitted the compressed file on time with 6 hours in hand! 7. I received a mail a week later, and guess what? I received an interview invite with the team!!! This was another moment with no words to describe. This was the final lap of the application process. After that, the decisions would be announced. I was given to choose a time slot between Monday and Friday of the next week. I did that and my happiness soared, so did my anxiety. I wanted to represent myself really well. 8. THE INTERVIEW: I scheduled my interview in the afternoon. The panel had 3 members, including the Tech Lead, a backend developer and a frontend developer. They introduced themselves and were very fun and kind. I was asked to introduce myself. The next stage of the interview was the discussion on the app that I developed. That went well too but I didn't know the answer to 2 questions they asked. They finally asked me if I had any questions and I asked them about the project in detail. They explained the project very well and appreciated me for answering the questions in an honest manner. 9. I received a mail 3 days later from the Tech Lead that I didn't get through and he wished me the best and not to give up! This was the best interview experience since I got to talk to employees at CERN and explain my application to them. I would like to try again after some time. Reliving the experience through this blog is great 😀. Please comment if you have any doubts in the application process. Do not under estimate yourself. I never thought I would get through to the final round but I did. So try before you deny!!

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