Interview: Student internship at CERN through the eyes of International Business (CZ) student Adam Kůs

Adam Kůs is a young student at the Faculty of International Relations in Prague who is currently working at CERN, a European organization for nuclear research. He holds a position in the Talent Acquisiton team and is responsible for Employer Branding, among other things.

Adam brings insight and inspiration on how one of the world’s most famous companies works and how HR is done in Switzerland.

 

How did you get into HR?
I first studied International relations with a focus on diplomacy. All the part-time jobs I had while studying were focused on marketing, PR, and communications. As part of the faculty PR team, I was involved in recruitment among other things, which is where I first met HR and found that I enjoyed sourcing candidates, reading CVs, etc. I also attended several career workshops where I met a large number of experienced people and was very impressed with how they talked about their work. And then I got an offer from CERN, and I was really excited. Now that I’m taking stock after a few months, I think I’ve really found myself in it.

 

How does a university student in Prague get an internship at CERN?
After completing my undergraduate studies, I switched to a Master’s degree in International Business and one of the obligations is to do an internship or Erasmus abroad. So I started scouting the market well in advance, looking at things like car companies in Germany or what the European Union had to offer. One of the organisations was CERN. I looked at their career site and was pleasantly surprised by the detailed and interesting descriptions of the internships offered, relevant to my field. Moreover, it was paid with interesting conditions, so I wrote there.

 

What does your position entail?
I am part of the Talent Acquisition team, so it is primarily recruitment. It’s split into student and staff side. I primarily focus on student positions. Hundreds to thousands of candidates apply for those and the biggest challenge is doing the screening. This takes the form of a questionnaire that is part of the selection process. If a candidate passes this questionnaire, they are automatically invited to the aforementioned asynchronous interview. I also set the questions for this interview and ensure that it runs smoothly. I am also in charge of the offer process and all other administrative steps. I am also a participant in the selection committees that decide on the final confirmation of the candidate. For the committee I create various statistics about the candidates, how many students applied, from which countries, how many were shortlisted, how many are men and women, because the issue of diversity and equal opportunities based on nationality and gender is very important to us

 

Thank you to Adam Kůs and other FIR students currently on foreign internship for the representation of the Faculty!

Interview: Student internship at CERN through the eyes of International Business (CZ) student Adam Kůs