Recruitment Process

How to hire our students?

The company creates an account on the EPFL internship portal

This account allows the company to post internship proposals and to receive student applications.

The account has one account holder whose email address is linked to the account. The personal contact information (name, phone, email address) is not accessible to the students. The account holder connects to his/her account using his/her email address and a password automatically generated when the account was created (the password can be changed later). Several employees within the same company can have accounts.

The name of the company may appear publicly on the site as offering internships at the EPFL.

The company posts internship proposals, ideally between September and November and/or February and April

The company must specify at least:

Other fields are optional and the internship proposals can be submitted in French or English.

The best times to post an internship proposal is between September and November and February and April. The Calendar and Conditions menu provides further details on student availability. The internship proposals will automatically be archived once the start date of the internship has passed or the position is filled and a student is marked as “Hired”.

At any time, the company can remove the job posting by editing it.

 The internship topics are validated by the EPFL and are published/released to the students from relevant programs

Only students with a compulsory internship that are enrolled in a master’s courses relevant to the company’s need have access to the internship proposals. To ensure the best match between the student’s profile and the company’s need, the EPFL may post the internship proposal to other master’s programs other than those originally selected by the company.

Students profile

Interested students apply by submitting their applications to the company’s account

Students browsing the list of internship proposals will have access to the company’s name and the description of the positions but will not have access to any contact information.

Interested students will upload their CV, motivation letter and any other documents (certificates, letters of recommendation, transcripts, etc.) to the company’s account.

If the company wishes to receive the applications on its own career portal or directly by email, it should specify it under the internship description. Please note that the EPFL cannot guarantee that students will not also apply using the EPFL portal.

The company is notified by email of the arrival of applications on its account

Notifications will be sent by email to the account holder. Notifications are usually sent weekly (or according to student pre-selection rounds for students in the school of Computer and Communication Sciences).

The company reviews the applications and follows its usual recruitment process. At the end of the recruitment process, the company indicates on its account if the candidates will be hired or not

Once the company has made its hiring decision, it should update the candidate’s status on its account (“Hired”or “Refused”).  The student and the EPFL are automatically informed of the decision by email after the update.

Students may apply to several internships. It is therefore recommended to check the availability of the selected student before rejecting the other applicants. The EPFL tries to keep the status of applications up to date by indicating which candidates have found another internship (status “hired elsewhere”).

The company signs the EPFL internship agreement

The EPFL offers tripartite internship agreement  between the student, the EPFL and the company. Master’s projects are not concerned with this type of agreement. If needed, the professor can propose to the company an agreement for master projects (optional). Students in architecture have their own agreement for architects.

The student is responsible for the organisation of this agreement and must get three signed copies of the agreement (one for each parties – Company – EPFL – Student).

The company evaluates the student at the end of the internship

At the end of the internship, the student’s supervisor will receive an electronic evaluation form that should be filled out as soon as possible. The supervisor’s feedback is very important for the EPFL to evaluate the student’s performance and professional skills.

Sample of evaluation form

Depending on the student’s field, he/she may have to report additional information to the EPFL. (i.e. report or presentation). If this is the case the student will inform his supervisor at the beginning of the internship. The supervisor will check the document to remove any confidential or sensitive information before transmission to EPFL.

The evaluation form is not systematically used for master projects in industry. The student will complete his/her master’s project with a written report (master’s thesis) and an oral defence in front of a jury.

 

Contact

Internship coordination

Phone: +41 21 693 79 72

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday

people.epfl.ch/catherine.marselli


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