EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
General => Jobs => Topic started by: EEVblog on January 04, 2021, 11:41:58 pm
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https://jobs.antarctica.gov.au/jobs-in-antarctica/
Electronics Engineer, techs and other jobs in Antarctica!
I almost applied for one of these several decades ago. One of my regrets.
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Same here Dave, backaround 1990, Antarctica or get married... she is still with me.
One of the more difficult life choices I have had to make.
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Same here Dave, backaround 1990, Antarctica or get married... she is still with me.
One of the more difficult life choices I have had to make.
I was just lazy ;D
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Damnit, Aussies only for the jobs I'm interested in
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Woah! I currently do mainly calibration with some repair every now and then currently and have wanted to do more software. This really does sound like a great job, I'll have to seriously consider whether to apply.
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I've hear that the commute is terrible there, so much that you need to move closer to your workplace.
Also as far as I understand it is kinda cold there. And Digikey doesn't have a local office.
I wonder if you need to wear a mask, if you go to the local shopping center.
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That looks really tempting..... Being unreplaceable among good people at my current job is a bloody good chain on my leg. The amount of crap I have bodged, and years later its still running concerns me to no end.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA3YdJHv5AE&list=PLnNZYWyBGJ1H2IlDRx1v_CvpVJabDlGUG (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA3YdJHv5AE&list=PLnNZYWyBGJ1H2IlDRx1v_CvpVJabDlGUG)
:D
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I wonder why a REFRIGERATION MECHANIC is needed in Antarctica? :)
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I wonder why a REFRIGERATION MECHANIC is needed in Antarctica? :)
It's the Australian Antarctic bases, can't take any chances on the beers getting warm :)
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I wonder why a REFRIGERATION MECHANIC is needed in Antarctica? :)
To heat the refrigerators, not kidding.
The "video" above is in fact a playlist with a few short episodes of a documentary about how it is to live and work on an Antarctic base, but the forum render the link as a video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA3YdJHv5AE&list=PLnNZYWyBGJ1H2IlDRx1v_CvpVJabDlGUG
See around minute 5:30 about heating the refrigerator ;D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzlA9HDNwBs&t=332 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzlA9HDNwBs&t=332)
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Oh well, just got info that my application was rejected.
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Oh well, just got info that my application was rejected.
Bummer >:(
Did they say why?
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Oh well, just got info that my application was rejected.
Bummer >:(
Did they say why?
Not enough experience. To be fair, I did only graduate under 2 years ago, but in the same time they never mentioned how much they were looking for.
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Oh well, just got info that my application was rejected.
Bummer >:(
Did they say why?
Not enough experience. To be fair, I did only graduate under 2 years ago, but in the same time they never mentioned how much they were looking for.
That probably just means they found someone suitable wiht more experience. Young graduates usually haven't proven autonomy which would be a fairly important criteria.
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Oh well, just got info that my application was rejected.
Bummer >:(
Did they say why?
Not enough experience. To be fair, I did only graduate under 2 years ago, but in the same time they never mentioned how much they were looking for.
That probably just means they found someone suitable wiht more experience. Young graduates usually haven't proven autonomy which would be a fairly important criteria.
Yeah, I guess it makes sense thinking about it like that. I'm not too bummed out about it anyways.
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Working in isolated areas is very difficult, the luxury of trying to learn and figure something out - you don't really have. So I could see them preferring greater experienced people.
I remember needing a DB-9 connector and ended up using a paper clip for male pins, all I could come up with. In the cold, everything is difficult to work with. Most multimeters are useless- I mistakenly used an AN8008 at -25°C and it died within 2 minutes :-DD Buttons, test leads, LCD all froze up. It was checking a car's charging system and I don't bring out the good stuff then but I did laugh hard it died so fast.
One remote camp I worked at, a guy was complaining about the cook's food. He didn't like how she was cooking things. So the cook she stabbed him with a knife. It was par for the course because people get nutty when cooped up for months, and people willing to give up "city life" can be a bit borderline personality. Rougher, tougher types. No police out there. Got a new chef though.
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Does anybody know where to search for similar jobs in remote or difficult areas. For example I knew a guy long ago (and foolishly didn't kept in touch) who worked in Nigeria as an engineer and sad that the conditions were harsh, but the pay was good.
How do people find such jobs? I am in the EU by the way.
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Hi All,
@voltsandjolts pointed out this thread to me. I was very privileged to get the EE role for Davis Station as part of the Australian Antarctic Program for the 2017/18/19 summer-winter-summer rotation, which I believe is the role being discussed here (all the other expeditioner roles in the Australian program are trades.) Edit: that is the comms tech and sparkie roles. There's lots of other stuff non-electronics related...
I've been very lucky in my career to have some great fun and challenging roles, but this certainly takes the cake. In my opinion (and some will disagree) it's the best job in the Australian program; firstly it's wintering which few Antarctic jobs are, but it's also technically interesting with a significant amount of field work in both summer and winter.
Not sure what if anything anyone would like to know about it?
@knapik As it's a public service position, if you're interested in applying for future expeditions I'd recommend getting in touch with the contact and asking what you can do to be more competitive.
Here's a little time lapse I took from the top of the office (i.e. observatory) https://youtu.be/_G2ny19shs4
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One remote camp I worked at, a guy was complaining about the cook's food. He didn't like how she was cooking things. So the cook she stabbed him with a knife. It was par for the course because people get nutty when cooped up for months, and people willing to give up "city life" can be a bit borderline personality. Rougher, tougher types. No police out there. Got a new chef though.
I'm curious, was the guy killed, or it was just a warning? Like "say it again and I'll cut your dick off".
PS did the new chef cook any better?
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Only one reason to go to Antartica and that is to investigate the spaceship where the Thing landed in. For the rest :--
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Here's a little time lapse I took from the top of the office (i.e. observatory) https://youtu.be/_G2ny19shs4
Oh that's wonderful, bucket list item to see the Aurora Borealis, seeing the Aurora Australis too would be incredible
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I'm curious, was the guy killed, or it was just a warning?
PS did the new chef cook any better?
It was a long time ago, what kind of knife, fork or utensil was used, I just left ASAP. They guy was just hurt in the arm and it ended as a who went after who kind of story. The female chef was a pretty tough character and they replaced her. Plenty of chefs go psycho.
I find some people choosing to work remote areas have reasons, such as a bit borderline personality where they can't get along well with people and prefer quiet, isolated places. My experience is not with government research (mostly educated types?) but large construction projects which have lots of trades, and support staff with history - either criminal or psychological, that makes them want to work largely alone. The camps are all "dry" that is to say no alcohol or drugs, because that just causes utter mayhem.
People go nutty because all you have is video and sketchy Internet comms. In your spare time, it doesn't take long to explore the place and see the sights then back to your quarters or the gym. I couldn't take it for months. I like Starbucks and Digi-Key and Mouser lol.
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Forget Antartica, agggg, get your ass to Mars.
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I've hear that the commute is terrible there, so much that you need to move closer to your workplace.
Also as far as I understand it is kinda cold there. And Digikey doesn't have a local office.
Well that does it. No DigiKey would be like living in the 1700's.
In all seriousness if you needed a 2n2222 transistor really bad in the middle of winter, just imagine how much the delivery cost would be.
I wonder if you need to wear a mask, if you go to the local shopping center.
A mask under all those layers??
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In all seriousness if you needed a 2n2222 transistor really bad in the middle of winter, just imagine how much the delivery cost would be.
Well, sending 2n2222 alone might be a bit pricey. But there is a workaround: send it along with other goods. The waiting time is a bit longer, but it's much cheaper. This also facilitates careful designing and upfront planning (like ordering 2n2907 along with 2n2222).
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Forget Antartica, agggg, get your ass to Mars.
I honestly believe that mankind will have to eventually move off this planet but I have to admit the survival rate for the first few people on Mars will not be good. Musk has good intentions but I'm not sure he is taking the human factors issues into account. In any event there is a huge need to have a base set up (robotically most likely) before people arrive. I just don't think the tech is there yet.
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I would have to imagine that every tech, every engineer, every cook or whatever would have to be really good at inventory control. Make the wrong decisions about what is needed and you would be hurting for a long time. If the cook doesn't order enough food you could be dining on Penguin for a very long time.
It is funny but a younger me would have dream about such a job change but would have sobered up once awake and realized that I didn't need a push to go nuts. Younger me would often take week long hikes in the back country devoid of other humans (never more than a week though) The older me would rather dream about warm beaches in the Philippines or Carribbean.
In all seriousness if you needed a 2n2222 transistor really bad in the middle of winter, just imagine how much the delivery cost would be.
Well, sending 2n2222 alone might be a bit pricey. But there is a workaround: send it along with other goods. The waiting time is a bit longer, but it's much cheaper. This also facilitates careful designing and upfront planning (like ordering 2n2907 along with 2n2222).
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In all seriousness if you needed a 2n2222 transistor really bad in the middle of winter, just imagine how much the delivery cost would be.
Well, sending 2n2222 alone might be a bit pricey. But there is a workaround: send it along with other goods. The waiting time is a bit longer, but it's much cheaper. This also facilitates careful designing and upfront planning (like ordering 2n2907 along with 2n2222).
Every station is different (and the peninsular is a lot more accessible), but for the most part the only way to get something in during winter is airdrop. Which for the Australian's has only been done as a proof of concept (requires a C-17, tanked half way). Effectively no way in or out once the sea ice starts to freeze
Pretty much you just work with what you have (which to be fair, is quite a lot) until the next resupply.
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If the cook doesn't order enough food you could be dining on Penguin for a very long time.
This is the logic I followed when ordering parts from US. I tried to foresee my demand and order extra parts which I might not immediately need, but it would be prohibitively expensive to order them alone. Now I have five boxes with hundreds of parts, many of them in single quantities. Don't know what to do with them :/ (*). Is there an equivalent of TEA, but for parts?
(*) Actually, I do. I need to accept that I don't need them and throw away everything that I didn't use last couple of years.
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I applied for an EE job with British Antarctic survey a few times, never got it though. Maybe next year I'll have another go
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I really like this part of the forum. It is always interesting to be here and read the thoughts of colleagues. In turn, I want to express my opinion. Antarctica? Brrrrr, no, this is not for me. I hate the cold, but I need to work somewhere, and so for me, the ideal option was a vacancy! remote qa tester jobs (https://zizu.io/remote-jobs/qa-en/). Sitting in the apartment under my grandmother's wool blanket with a cup of good coffee, working on Internet access, isn't that a blessing? :) Those who work on Antarctica itself are heroes. This is not a job for everyone, and, as I wrote above, I am an example of this. The only thing you can regret is the contact with the penguins, but I will look at them in the zoo :).
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Knapik: don't feel bad, on job mill you need persistence. That and thick skin. And a sense of humour,...always with a sense of humor.
(Yes I know I switched spellings, lol).
I've described background, before, as "Worked at major San Francisco Dispensary " (medical POT).
(Didn't get job offer.)
"Organization BUSTED ! by US DEA agency, during Early Sunday morning action..."
(Still no JOB offers. Maybe a different cover letter / bow tie...hmmm.)