Job at a particle accelerator?

enian

I've been reading a lot about jobs in physics being scarce. What about jobs at accelerators though? How would one get a job at fermilab for ex? Does it require additional schooling on top of a b.s. or Ph.D.? Would these offer stable positions?

oedipa maas

Many people who work at accelerators (especially research staff) are actually employed through universities as professors, post-docs or graduate students. Lots of undergrads work at accelerators too! (I did!) It was fun - whenever the electromagnet was switched on, my CRT computer monitor would change from blue to green.

The permanant technical staff at an accelerator ranges from machinists to PhD-holding research associates, who are hired on a permanent or semi-permanent basis. A lot of the highly qualified technical staff acquire positions after doing graduate work on the project they are eventually hired for.

PS - one of my friends worked at Fermilab for a summer. When he arrived he had to pass a security check and take a urine test. So be sure to lay off those mind-altering drugs if you'd like to work at Fermilab.

mgb_phys

A friend of mine had a u-grad summer job at CERN writing Tex macros that handled the 100s of 'contibutors' to each HEP paper.
But he wasn't allowed to add his name to all the papers as an extra contibutor!