Not the End of the World But the Start of a New Career

Faculty placement students go all over the world and for over ten years some of them have gone to CERN Large Hadron Collider on the Swiss French border near Geneva.  This is very special placement and only the top 2% of students are invited to apply but it opens the door to a whole world of exciting opportunities.

Ian Baker BSc (Hons) Computer Science student "It's great to be here at CERN, the atmosphere is really relaxed and there's a real buzz surrounding the beam testing that took place on the 10 Sept and the experiments that will follow in the next couple of months.
It feels strange to be working at the very place where this new and (black holes notwithstanding) groundbreaking science is taking place, I think I'm getting used to seeing future Nobel prize winners in the restaurant at lunch time!

My placement itself is going very well.  Although I'm here for a year my deadline is actually governed by the Large Hadron Collider to a certain extent.  My project is to implement a centrally managed distributed compilation service that will be made available across CERN.  Essentially, what this means is that users will be able to compile their application code much quicker thereby reducing the time taken to build applications significantly.  When experiments finally get underway scientists will analyse the resulting data using their custom written applications and, inevitably, they will want to change certain things that will necessitate a re-compile.  Some of these applications have thousands of lines of code, in one case over 2 million, so my service will save users time and enable them to make their changes when they need to.  It's nice to know that I'm making some kind of useful contribution, and of course, the nice weather, the views of the mountains, and all the great places to visit help as well!

It sounds obvious, but I want to get as much practical experience as I can from my placement and to learn as much as possible for the people I'm working with, who after all are some of the best in their field.  As I progress I'm also picking up ideas for my Final Year Project so hopefully I can establish a firm idea before I leave.  I also intend to do lots of exploring as there is so much to do here, and also maybe learn some French!"

Travel is always an option with a placement since students go to Deutsche Post and Hewlett Packard also in Germany.  Or you could be planning virtual flying working on the Eurocopter new flight simulator.  For the stay at home there is the chance of a placement at GCHQ or with local government in London.  IBM, AstraZeneca, Syngenta and Virgin radio are also options. A placement gives students invaluable experience and a salary plus a break from studying and a better appreciation of the world of work.