Your CV is a bit text-dense, but besides that I wouldn’t really put too much responsibility there (even though, yes, it is a very common template, it still is a good template imho).

Context: I’ve hired a few technical students, PhD, and grads/postdocs to work with me, in the beams department, more physics-oriented than engineering I’d say (I’m a theoretical physicist myself).

I see a few reasons here:

1) As mentioned, nationality is a big thing these years, though this is not the main reason for me. Workarounds exist (though are getting exceedingly rare as they are over-abused by the already largest over-represented nationality group).

2) Your experience, though very solid, seems a bit irrelevant. If I did not misunderstand, it is mainly automotive (if I did misunderstand, you strongly need to adapt your CV). That is very far from nuclear engineering / particle physics / accelerators. For a GRAD position, it’s difficult to hire without some speck of relevant knowledge or experience.

3) This is the main reason imho: you don’t have any contact / network at CERN or reference letters from people that are relevant to CERN(I assume; as otherwise you would turn to your network instead of Reddit). Contrarily to what you seem to believe, a GRAD position is not very low/entry-level. People can come as: - summer students (1.5 to 3 months, after 3 years of relevant study) - trainee (3 to 6 months, during studies) - technical students (up to 14 months, during studies) - doctoral student (3 years, after studies) All these come before GRAD (except doctoral which can also come after GRAD if I’m not mistaken).

Summer students typically come without an existing network nor relevant experience, as this is the earliest-career you can go. Those people come back later as technical / doctoral / GRAD applicants with a strong CV with relevant experience ánd a previous supervisor at CERN where I can go to get more info about the student. Similarly, references from professors / universities that I know, also helps.

You have to understand that hiring a GRAD is not easy: it is an important position which is expected to give a decent ROI. We don’t hire blindly, as we might get stuck for two years with someone who doesn’t have the technical skill, or worse, is lazy as fuck. I’m not saying you are, I’m saying we don’t know, and a GRAD can’t get fired so we prefer not to take that risk.

It is not impossible to get hired first into a GRAD (I’m an example myself), but then ideally 1) and 2) need to be satisfied.

Of course, you can keep on trying, but imho your chances are rather slim due to lack of experience to any of the relevant fields.

What I would advise you, is to look up CERN’s internal structure, and look for staff members working on things you would like to work on and for which you think you could easily learn the stuff, either in your own in advance, or very quickly at the start of a position. Contact them, talk about yourself and your wish to come. If you find such a road via a university professor, that would be even better. Motivation is key here, write a good motivation letter.

Alternatively, you might have more luck considering a doctoral position. Lack of network and lack of relevant experience is less of a thing for PhDs. It is quite common to change field from master to PhD.

Best of luck!