Working at CERN isn’t always the experience people make it out to be
I currently work at CERN, and while I’m proud of that, I have to be honest, it’s not always what I expected. I wanted to write this post to talk about things that really bother me and that I think deserve more attention. There are so many posts out there saying it’s the best experience of their lives, and that if it isn’t yours, you just “got unlucky.” I don’t really buy that. From what I see and live through on a daily basis, a lot of what I’m about to describe isn’t rare at all. So I’m sharing this for anyone going through similar things and feeling like they’re the only one. Here’s what I observe:
Nepotism: This is probably the biggest problem. It creates these clusters of teams built around shared universities, shared nationalities. Diversity should matter a lot at a place like CERN, which is funded by so many different countries. And it’s not just about hiring. Promotions too. I watch people move up while others, who clearly work harder and contribute more to meaningful projects, get left behind because they are not friend with the right person. Every year we’re asked to recruit more people from certain nationalities, but no one is ever held to it and when it does happen, those people usually end up in the most temporary, low-stakes positions, like student roles.
Permanent staff who does not work: Honestly, it’s kind of predictable. When you’re essentially impossible to fire, there’s not much pressure to stay engaged. That’s what I see around me every day.
Student projects that just die: This one genuinely frustrates me. Money and time go into a student working on something with real potential, and then they leave and nobody picks it up. I get that students are under time pressure and can’t always finish, but why does the work just get buried? Why doesn’t anyone continue it?
No documentation: Barely anything is written down. “Documentation” usually means one person who’s been working on a something forever and has everything stored in their head. The moment they’re not around, you’re stuck.
Supervisors who supervise nothing: The title exists mostly on paper. As a supervisor, there’s genuinely no incentive to do the job properly other than just being a decent person. Letting a student figure things out on their own has zero consequences for you, so why bother? It’s just extra work with nothing in return. And yet those same supervisors still end up credited on every piece of work the student produces.
Homophobia and sexism: I’m not personally targeted, but I see it in my own team and hear plenty from others. Sexist and homophobic jokes are just normal. The kind of thing where struggling with a task becomes an excuse to call someone gay. Women have their work constantly questioned, downplayed, or taken credit for by their supervisors. Friends from other teams have told me directly that they’re experiencing what I’d call sexual harassment, that they’ve reported it to HR, and that nothing comes of it, no consequences, no changes. At an organization of this level, that’s not just disappointing, it’s unacceptable. I hope what I’m seeing is the exception but I’m not convinced it is.
I know some people will not like this post because they love their time at CERN or have a completely different experience. That’s fine. But what I’m describing is real, it happens more than people admit, and CERN doesn’t seem particularly interested in fixing it.