QUINFOG is a research group in a Spanish public institution. This means that job applications must follow some strict rules, guaranteeing transparency, open competition and a strict verification of merits.
If you apply to a standard contract, you need to first register with CSIC’s job market. This is the link to the job market, and this is the Spanish version of the same portal. Now, let us guide you through the steps to complete your application.
a) Select the right type of contracts
The first step is to create a profile that can apply to contracts of the right category. In our case, we use PGM3 and M2 contracts for postdoc and PhD applications. Use that option unless told otherwise, or ask your supervisor in case of doubt.
b) Enter contact information
c) Select our institute
Your profile will only receive information about positions that are created in institutes in which you have shown explicit institute. Please mark at least “Instituto de Física Fundamental”, to which QUINFOG belongs.
d) Select your areas of expertise
In order to apply for the right contracts, you have to mark areas of research that overlap with your education and interests. Below we have marked the ones that describe our interdisciplinary work. Please ensure that at least those ones are selected, as we will use them in the filtering process of the application
e) Certificates and degrees
You need to register the academic degrees, masters and other courses you have attended. In case you have completed one or more stages of your education outside of Spain, you need to provide certificates of equivalence, demonstrating that your degrees are compatible with similar ones in Spain. We explain it below.
In order to add some formal education, please click on the link below:
Then complete the requested information. As the form explains, if your certificates do not include average marks, they may need to be entered manually and you have to provide some proof of those marks.
Note the field “Homologation, acknowledgement or equalisation of foreign degrees” (yes, with typos). Here is where you either upload a certificate of equivalence of your degree, or a document stating that you have asked for that certificate.
The process to request equivalence or homologation is a bit involved:
- At the time of this writing, the instructions are in the Ministry of Science’s portal
- You need to apply online but you need to present some documentation in person, either at the Spanish Ministry, or any embassy or consulate.
- The in-person documentation that you need to provide includes
- A certified copy of documents stating your nationality,
- A certified copy of your original degree(s)
- A certified copy of the subjects that you took in those degrees, including marks and number of ECTS credits
- A certified copy of official translations to Spanish of all those documents
- Certification of bank payment of Fee (Tasa) 107 for the equivalence process
- You need to apply to obtain “Equivalencia a Grado de Ciencias” (equivalence to a degree in Sciences). Unfortunately, Spanish degrees involve 240 credits (~ 4 years), which leaves Bachelor degrees and Italian Laureates in a strange limbo. We have not been able to obtain any information on how to proceed in those cases.
Unfortunately, the equivalence process is completely devoid of any guarantee of any kind. We at QUINFOG find that it is an unreasonable demand, specially for students from the European Higher Education Space, but if you have any questions, we may try to help you with it. However, we discourage you to initate this process unless you have some certainty because if we hire you with just the application and it is denied, the contract will be ruled invalid and you may be forced to return the money.
f) Documentation
Here is where you upload all certificates and documentation required to validate each merit in your application. Any merit that is not properly certified will be ignored and your application will be discarded.
The documentation includes:
- A compulsory CV
- A photocopy of the identification you used in the first page
- Certificates for any further education you listed (e.g. specialization courses, language courses, etc).
- “Working life” is an official document listing the number of years you have worked in other places or institutions. It only makes sense for Spanish citizens.
Only the CV is compulsory, but make sure you upload also the ID, just to be sure.
g) Finalise
Once your application to the job market is submitted, by clicking “Finalise”. This will upload all the information to the database. Unfortunately, since 2020, a new step has been introduced by which the applicant must confirm their identity.
For that, you have to find the button “Definitive application”, which produces a PDF with the identity of this petition, your name, date, etc. This document must be signed and submitted to CSIC in one of two possible ways:
- You can sign digitally the document using a digital certificate, and send it by email to registro@csic.es
- You can print and sign the document by hand and submit it to “Bolsa de Trabajo del CSIC” at Calle Serrano 117, 28006 Madrid. This can also be done by post, or in person at the registry of any research institute in CSIC.
g) After this…
After this long process, your application will be processed by an external commission, which will assign a mark based on these merits. Profiles that are approved appear regularly, on a bi-weekly basis in a dedicated page.
Please report to us once you have been approved. We need this information to make sure there are enough candidates to actually open the position.
When this happens, we will immediate open a contract, allowing you to select that position as one you are interested in. The contracts typically remain open for one to two weeks. They appear in a dedicate page and you will most likely get no warning, so take care.