Author Topic: EE jobs in Antarctica  (Read 11379 times)

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Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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EE jobs in Antarctica
« on: January 04, 2021, 11:41:58 pm »
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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Offline aargee

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2021, 06:54:25 am »
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.
Not easy, not hard, just need to be incentivised.
 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #2 on: January 05, 2021, 07:07:55 am »
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
 

Offline CJay

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2021, 07:14:26 am »
Damnit, Aussies only for the jobs I'm interested in
 

Offline knapik

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2021, 10:19:37 am »
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.
 

Offline tszaboo

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2021, 11:14:04 am »
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.
 

Offline Rerouter

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #6 on: January 05, 2021, 11:30:54 am »
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.
 

Offline RoGeorge

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #7 on: January 05, 2021, 11:56:06 am »


 :D

Offline S. Petrukhin

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #8 on: January 06, 2021, 12:14:16 am »
I wonder why a REFRIGERATION MECHANIC is needed in Antarctica?  :)
And sorry for my English.
 
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Offline CJay

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #9 on: January 06, 2021, 11:58:28 am »
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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Offline RoGeorge

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #10 on: January 06, 2021, 01:47:31 pm »
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.
Code: [Select]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA3YdJHv5AE&list=PLnNZYWyBGJ1H2IlDRx1v_CvpVJabDlGUG

See around minute 5:30 about heating the refrigerator  ;D

« Last Edit: January 06, 2021, 01:51:34 pm by RoGeorge »
 

Offline knapik

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #11 on: March 17, 2021, 12:25:12 pm »
Oh well, just got info that my application was rejected.
 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #12 on: March 17, 2021, 12:36:39 pm »
Oh well, just got info that my application was rejected.

Bummer  >:(
Did they say why?
 

Offline knapik

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #13 on: March 18, 2021, 02:16:16 am »
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.
 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #14 on: March 18, 2021, 02:30:31 am »
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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Offline knapik

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #15 on: March 18, 2021, 02:57:41 am »
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.
 

Offline floobydust

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #16 on: March 18, 2021, 09:18:14 pm »
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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Offline drdm

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #17 on: April 04, 2021, 09:07:32 am »
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.
 

Offline Harvs

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #18 on: April 08, 2021, 09:02:31 am »
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
« Last Edit: April 08, 2021, 09:05:53 am by Harvs »
 
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Offline exe

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #19 on: April 08, 2021, 01:02:09 pm »
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?
 

Offline Kjelt

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #20 on: April 08, 2021, 03:49:09 pm »
Only one reason to go to Antartica and that is to investigate the spaceship where the Thing landed in. For the rest  :--
 

Offline CJay

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #21 on: April 08, 2021, 05:18:10 pm »

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
 

Offline floobydust

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #22 on: April 08, 2021, 09:06:57 pm »
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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Offline joseph nicholas

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #23 on: April 09, 2021, 11:45:59 am »
Forget Antartica, agggg, get your ass to Mars.
 

Offline wizard69

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Re: EE jobs in Antarctica
« Reply #24 on: April 09, 2021, 07:32:13 pm »
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.
Quote
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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