Hope you're getting a commission from this...
It's enough we get recruiters hassling/spamming via email even when told to sod off. Now they've managed to get a toe-hold into TheReg too. :(
For some people, landing a job in IT means going to the ends of the Earth. In this case, quite literally. Scientists in Antarctica hope to hire two tip-top techies to fill system administrator roles – one at the McMurdo research station and the other in a similar base at the South Pole. You must be a US citizen (for security …
I wouldn't mind doing that job in Antarctica, and I've already done a job in Hawaii...I don't want to do that again because waking up at 4am to get to the airport at 5am to fly to a different island by 6am to drive to the top of the volcano by 8am was not fun.
I suspect it would have been even funnier if you managed to find the name of the other station. Since I'm not the one posting the ad, I can't be sure, but when I walk through the offices here at my job I frequently see the two of them listed next to each other.
See icon for a hint.
Here's a documentary by Werner Herzog entitled "Encounters At The End Of The Earth". Here's what IMDB says: Film-maker Werner Herzog travels to the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, looking to capture the continent's beauty and investigate the characters living there. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1093824/)
This incredibly tedious movie does an outstanding job of illustrating the greatest hazard faced by sojourners in the Antarctic: tedium. Herzog captures "tedium" like its never been captured before; he makes it a living, breathing, stifling experience that will let you grasp the true meaning of "tedium" before you even have time to say "cirrhosis of the liver". It lets you get the full experience of mind-numbing tedium without the need for heavy clothing and seal blubber, and without the expense and inconvenience of travelling many thousands of miles to the "ends of the earth".
SPOILER ALERT: The IMDB blurb says "Herzog travels to Antarctica, to investigate the characters living there". Sadly, he doesn't find any that are actually worth "investigating". Happily, he doesn't let that stop him! Whether that should stop you from sitting through this movie is, of course, a different matter.
"You should be able to lift 25 pounds..."
Like the weight of a flame thrower.
"...have good written and communication skills..."
Like telling people to keep an eye on Blair.
"...be comfortable working in close quarters under extreme conditions.."
Self explanatory.
"experience in search and rescue, mountaineering..."
Finding your way around if locked out if you're suspected of being contaminated.
"...firefighting, or emergency medical response."
Putting out flamethrower fires, autopsies on alien creatures.
I used to work at Himatangi Radio Station New Zealand back in "77 last century.
The Station was full of HF transmitters from 100KW down to a meager 5KW for ship to shore comms.
The RCA used for Scott base for 50KW and seemed to get through for SSB and Telex quite well.
Anyhow us Radio Techs could and would if selected go to the base for winter overs usually 6 moths to a year if you were still sane by then. As for the booze, no beer as the plane to there was not pressurised in the cargo hold.
This is the order that hooch was consumed; Spirits, Top Shelf (Liquors), then 150 drivers lastly (medical alcohol and orange mix).
Returnees usually required quite a long drying out time upon return =)
After all you are surrounded by rather smart people (scientists) who are really doing their job because they like it. Working conditions probably aren't to bad, as most of those stations are evacuated and closed down during the winter.
This is the home page of one of those stations:
http://www.antarcticstation.org/
And here's a German language podcast interviewing one of those scientists on her working conditions:
http://www.wrint.de/2012/01/26/wr040-holger-ruft-an-in-der-antarktis/
She even noted that during the Antarctic summer you can even sleep outside in a tent, which she was actually encouraged to do.
My wife works for NERC (BAS is part of NERC) and, when I was looking for jobs 11 years ago, sent me the link for a techie job on their exploration ship.
I pointed out the "6-month tours of duty" phrase. It somewhat damped her enthusiasm for me getting the job..
""experience in search and rescue, mountaineering, small boat operations, firefighting, or emergency medical response."
You know, basic sysadmin stuff."
Actually, I was a emergency services paramedic, ski patroller and firefighter before I went back to school and got a sys admin degree....We're out there. But that whole polar climate thing, un uh. I'm quite happy living on the beach in sunny South Florida!
American Citizen - check
Lift 25lbs - Check
Networks - Check
VMWare - Check
Windows - Check
OSX - Check
RH-GNE - oops
Emergency Med Response - Check
Search and Rescue - maybe not, I always find things in the LAST place I look
Mountaineering - check minus
Small boat operations - How small? - Check
Firefighting - I can point a hose
Plenty of Booze - CHECK Plus!
Been there, done that (I was at the South Pole for about a month many moons ago). Unfortunately the living is a bit strange. You would wander into where the computers were (a pair of HP 2100's, no disk!). and piddle around trying to make then easier to do their job (weather monitoring). In addition I worked on a weather station that sent out broadcasts once a minute to a satellite that might be overhead (you need a polar orbit to see the South Pole). It had two power supplies one being a propane thermoelectric generator. In an attempt to start the flame I used a propane torch to heat another propane torch to light the flame. At the temperatures there, propane was liquid at atmospheric pressure.
It was lots of fun, and over half a life ago an adventure not to be missed. As for today, I don't think my wife would let me go (*SIGH*).
At the BAS base at Rothera they have photos of the various dog teams and some letters about what happened to the last set when they went back (I think to Canada) to live out their lives. Most did not live long, probably due to a lack of immunity to diseases on the mainland, but at least they were treated well. Still fondly remembered by the older hands.
" Still fondly remembered by the older hands."
1) Huskies don't get jealous
2) Huskies don't gossip
3) Huskies don't worry about size
4) Huskies are easy to satisfy
5) Huskies are cheap to take out - a can of of dog food and they're yours for the night
6) After you've worn out one Husky theres another seven left
7) Huskies don't ask daft questions like "do you love me"
8) Huskies won't steal your beer
9) If a Husky says "no" you know she means it
10) You can't get a Husky pregnant
11) You don't have to bribe a Husky
12) Huskies don't worry about how much you earn
13) Huskies let you have friends
14) Huskies won't complain about you drinking
15) Huskies won't complain about your driving
16) Huskies keep you warm in bed. They don't have cold feet
Do you have to pay tax there?
Do you have to pay rent?
I imagine, not being able to spend your money on anything would make for a decent saving-rate.
That said, I just can't imagine they'll be able to match my Swiss sysadmin salary...
I do wonder how HR filters out all the crazy-crazy applicants. You need to be somewhat crazy to apply for such a job - sane people wouldn't do that.
Also to keep in mind: during the winter there, there's no way to evacuate in case of a (medical) crisis.
Either it can be fixed there, fixed later or you face the consequences.
During the summer months Sept - March the weather isn't too bad
can be a bit disorientating, if your far enough south for the sun not to set, but you can always shut the blinds and turn the lights off.
IT Admin will be a tough role as scientists really do come up with some strange requests. Sometimes leading to heated disagreements, usually about what is not physically possible with the available resources.
Plenty of 'VERY' cheap beer & ciggys knocking around, and a good supply of herbal smokes if thats your thing.
I'm sure some of the scientists were smoking way to much of it when I was working down there.
"There was a fear that those pesky Canines could affect the native flora and fauna"
strange......dogs don't like eating penguins(too many feathers, too greasy and fishy) and theres little chance of a Husky catching a whale. Theres no flowering plants - just a few lichens and they're unlikely to be much affected.
must be another reason.....perhaps they really are worried about aliens?
I spent 2005-7 at British Antarctic Survey's Rothera station as "Communications Manager", a rather grand title for what was basically sysadmin, radio operator and jobbing electronic engineer.
High points: building a massive radio antenna; talking to field parties of scientists on the HF radio; helping scientists to fix their equipment; writing a Perl script that screen-scraped and assembled a popular Sunday newspaper's "digital edition" website to obtain PDFs of each page and printed them out double-sided on A3, just like a "proper" newspaper
Low points: walking to the biology lab to change a toner cartridge in 20 knots of wind and blowing snow; running out of beer part way through the winter; wweeping sticky wet snow off the satellite radome several times a week in the wetter part of the season (ice buildup caused a loss of signal).
Lots of fun. Would do it again.