Marta Garcia Sanchez: Not the plan, but the path

CERN Alumna: Marta Garcia Sanchez

At CERN: From 2019 - 2020, Administrative student

Now: International Taxation Analyst, Ministerio de Hacienda

In 2019, Marta Garcia Sanchez boarded a plane from Spain to Switzerland with a suitcase, a lot of doubts, and a job offer from CERN. Fresh out of university with a double degree in Law and Business Management, Marta wasn’t sure what was coming next. “I didn’t know what to do,” she remembers. “Everyone around me seemed to have it figured out: join the public sector, work for the Big Four. Neither option appealed to me.”

But then a friend suggested she apply for an administrative student position at CERN.
“I thought it was a joke, I imagined someone laughing at my application. But I did it anyway.” She was rejected at first. Then the application cycle reopened. She applied again, and this time, she was successful.

An Unexpected Start

At CERN, Marta joined the Talent Acquisition team in HR. The setting was entirely new: she had no technical background, and administrative student positions were practically unknown in Spain. “At my graduation, nobody even knew what CERN was,” she recalls.

Working in the Cards Office, Marta supported procedures related to international organisations, which offered her a glimpse into international administrative law and helped her realise that her path didn’t need to be traditional.

The Leap

After her studentship ended in early 2020, Marta found herself back in Spain—exactly when the pandemic hit. She made the bold decision to pursue a public-sector career, aiming to pass the notoriously difficult civil service exams to work for the Spanish tax autority “I studied every day, sometimes up to eight hours,” she says. “It was one of the riskiest decisions I’ve ever made.”

The exams tested candidates on everything from constitutional law and economics to accounting and tax law. Failing one stage meant starting again. But Marta persisted for three years. She didn’t work during that time, supported by her family, and surrounded by peers who seemed to be moving on with their lives. It wasn’t easy. “You’re seeing people live their lives, and you are in the same place.”

But then, on her birthday, she received the news: she had passed.

A New Chapter

After finishing a preparatory course in Madrid, Marta began working in her preferred department: international taxation. There, she specialises in mutual agreement procedures between countries, helping resolve cases where a taxpayer is charged twice.

“I never expected to like it this much,” she says. “I discovered a side of myself I didn’t know existed.” In this role, she works across borders and ensures fairness in complicated international scenarios.

CERN's Influence

Looking back, Marta says CERN was a turning point. One memory stands out: early in her placement, she was helping a renowned professor with a tax-related form. “I told him I was new and didn’t know what to do,” she recalls. He replied,  ‘You will be an expert one day.’”

She never forgot it. That single sentence followed her through years of study and doubt, and into the office she now works in. “It marked me the most,” she says. “It’s like he taught me a lesson, outside of the classroom.”

Marta also credits a fellow CERN administrative student with pushing her to take a leap of faith towards public service. “I didn’t want to tell her, but after I passed the exam, I said it was thanks to her.”

CERN Alumni Network

Though her job isn't directly linked to CERN's scientific world, Marta remains connected to the CERN Alumni Network. She’s attended events in Madrid, including one at the Swiss Embassy. “I’m not there to network in the business sense,” she says, “but to meet interesting people, to stay curious.”