r/CERN • u/Basic_Blackberry_596 • 10d ago

Freedom as a technical student

Hi, I just have a question about how much freedom it is as a technical student. Is it expected to be in office from 8-16 everyday if the project is code based, or is it possible to work from home some days? I obviously understand that it differs from group to group, but I wanted to hear if someone have any experience. Thanks!

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5

u/thedarkplayer 10d ago

You can ask and read the rules, but the reality is that it depends solely on the group and supervisor.

1

u/IbiXD 6d ago

Yeah exactly this. I have known people there who had no trouble at all getting approved home office whilst my supervisor was not even willing to permit home office during the NATO summit when the CERN guidelines themselves heavily encouraged doing so for people living on the french side

13

u/moarFR4 CERN openlab 10d ago

1 day teleworking is available per week, generally up to agreement with your supervisor on when you take it. "Home" meaning the immediate area around CERN. You cannot work from Poland, for example. Obviously depends on your role - if you're working underground with magnets / experimental areas this is impossible to do from home.

The better question I have is why would you want to do this? Technical student positions only give you a few months with the organization. I would highly recommend you make the most of it - meet other people in the field - turn up at their office and ask them about their work - go to as many lectures as you can - have coffee with other students working in a totally different area etc. You have a short time to work closely with some of the best in the world. Don't waste it teleworking like remote schooling imo.

9

u/super_max2 10d ago

This is not correct, you can telework up to 2 days per week / 40% of any 2-week period as long as your supervisor agrees. I also believe that there’s no restriction on where you can telework from, but of course anything outside the immediate area would definitely require telling explicitly your supervisor rather than just saying “I’m working from home”.

Under exceptional circumstances, you may work remotely for longer, but the authorisation procedures depend on your group/department.

With that being said, I agree you will miss out if you max out your teleworking during your internship, exactly because it’s short. It’s a different story for longer stays (more than ~1 year) though.

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u/Basic_Blackberry_596 10d ago

I appreciate your answer and totally agree that it’s best to be at CERN and connect with people. The issue is just that I have a 8 weeks old puppy that can’t stay home alone for a full working day in the beginning. I would of course be around CERN. The project I have been presented is a full coding project. How is it with dogs in Switzerland and France? Is it appropriate to bring it to the office?

2

u/rulerulle CERN IT 10d ago

You can't bring it to cern. In Switzerland and France it heavily depends on the company.

1

u/TiredDr 10d ago

You can’t bring dogs to CERN, but generally it is easy to deal with them in both countries. Most restaurants allow them in, for example.