Hi All,
I hope someone can give me some insight, I am planning on applying for a position at CERN in the very near future and I was hoping some folks on here might already be working at CERN and may give me some insight into what life is like in that area and also share their thoughts and experiences of working at CERN.

Best Regards

Dom

Hi there

it could be just me, but where and what is CERN?

The European Nuclear Research facility in Switzerland

It's the Large Hadron Collider, exciting stuff!! And it's Geneva, so I suppose there will be a french connection!

Sorry guys I should have explained that a bit better.

Yes the french connection is that I would plan to live on the French side of the border.

Cheers

Dom

how exciting!! <Good luck with the move!

Hi, my brother-in-law used to have a house in Prévessin - a lot of people lived there or in nearby towns, e.g. Ferney-Voltaire, and commuted to Switzerland daily (called "frontaliers"). Much cheaper than living in Switzerland!

Most of the scientists at CERN live in France not Switzerland. Believe it or not, taxes are cheaper here.

Anyway, CERN or at least the LHC is located in both countries.

Thanks guys, That's what I thought, that most people live in France and commute.

I haven't yet applied for a position, but I just wanted to do some research before hand.

Cheers

Dom

What do you need to know?

Hi Cuthbert,
Thanks for your reply, I was wondering what the housing situation was like initially to rent and what anemities are in the surrounding area.

I would also be very interested to hear peoples opinions on working at CERN.

Cheers

Dom

We have a friend working at CERN but living just over the border in Chevry. (Ain)

They enjoy the life and are raising two small children and find life much more agreeable on the Frencg side!

I've been here nearly thirteen years and in that time I can only think of two families that have gone back to the UK, because they preferred the lifestyle over there or missed something and have not since said they wish to come back here.

You will often hear companies in the UK (and elsewhere) use a favourite buzz phrase of "work life balance", invariably this means they don't give a monkeys about it. CERN does it without even trying. That doesn't mean that it is relaxed working environment where you get to do what you want, just that you are given more autonomy in your daily working life to achieve the same results, and you are individually responsible for those results without the regimentation of the private sector. Those who abuse it, don't tend to get a permanent contract after 5 years. It can often seem haphazard and chaotic, and add into the mix the different nationalistic idiosyncrasies, working at CERN can sometimes be exasperating, but the less regimented approach also allows people to achieve things they could never dream of doing elsewhere, creativity and ingenuity rules. If it didn't, we wouldn't have been able to build the LHC I suppose. I took a step backwards career wise, but coming here from a blue chip company based in the UK was the best thing I did and we have no plans on ever returning to the UK, in large part due to my work.

For living it is all dependant on your family situation. If you are single, live in Geneva, family live in France. There are two French options working at CERN, you can live in 01 l'Ain (the immediate region around CERN is known as the Pays de Gex) or 74 Haute Savoie. Firstly the Gessiens (people from the Pay de Gex) are the most the most annoyingly obtuse, closed and sometimes downright rude people in France, (yes even more so than Parisians). But and it is a huge BUT, put yourself in their shoes living beside Geneva, loads of affluent jolly foreigner types keep coming in, demanding if they speak English (or their own national language) and it's no surprise they get irritable, or somewhat closed, but make an effort and they can very quickly warm up. I live where I live because I didn't want to be in Little Britain (the expat enclave of Thoiry), I get on great with my neighbours and once you integrate, it's no different to living in any countryside village. Where, all depends on how much you are willing to travel to work. I live along the Jura about 15 minutes from my office (01), I love it here but I'm a country boy at heart. If you are willing to travel then with the new auto-route through Cruseilles, you can almost get from CERN to Annecy in an hour. Amenities you have to be a bit more specific, cinema in Ferney & Balexert, pools in Meyrin and Ferney, football clubs nearly everywhere, rugby clubs at CERN (has a swiss first division side) and Gex on the French side, 5 golf courses in the area, including a 9 hole opposite CERN; restaurants, not so many in the Pays de Gex, but alot of good Auberges around the vineyards of Satigny, Dardagny, Choully, Russin etc. Pubs, none on the French side worthwhile with maybe the exception of Paddy's in Ferney. Charlie's in St Genis used to be good, but ..... Hospital, Hopital de la tour, right next to CERN (be thankful for the private health insurance). Schools are good, depending on the age you try to integrate kids (if you have them and they're older, there's millions of posts on this forum about integrating kids) all my kids were born here and those at school are 100% bilingual, which is far less problematic.

Now you might see the basic starting salary of CERN staff and think you will be rich beyond your wildest dreams ...... HA!. Renting a three bedroom matchbox here can cost you easily 3000 chfs a month and more, food is expensive compared to the UK. CERN has it's own notice board and housing notices which can make life easier to find a place to rent, but count on 30%+ of your salary going in rent. In most towns cities there can be upwards of 5% of housing in turnover at any given time, Geneva has less than .5% making finding a place sometimes quite difficult, it's a landlords dream.

Look through my other posts, I've written about this area before, but if you need more detailed information just ask.

Got a Quantam Physcist friend here in Melbourne that goes there occasionally, so I dont actually think you have to live there to work on it

Via MARC at Melbourne University.

There are around 9,000 people at CERN, about 2300 staff, similar amount of contractors and then around 5,000 physicists, scientists (known as users, as they use the scientific facilities), fellows, doctoral students etc.

CERN staff members are in effect paid by their home nation, and as with all international organisations staff members do not pay tax on their salaries. The main reason is it wouldn't be fair on all the member states, if they paid money into the organisation, to then have their nationals pay tax into the coffers of France or Switzerland. And not sure on the numbers who live in switzerland, but I would "guess" it could be maybe 40% live in Switzerland though it is a guess.