I want to go to Antartica.

January 29, 2016 1:18 AM

I would like to go work in Antartica for a while. How do I make it happen?

I'm have bachelor's in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from a fancy university and several years of research experience. I'll soon be a journeyman carpenter (I'm on my way to wrapping up my union carpentry apprenticeship) with a master's in Construction Management from another fancy university. I'm a single (divorced) 32-year-old female with European Union and U.S. passports. I speak English and a couple of other less relevant languages. I have significant mountaineering skills and experience and I'm an alpinism skills instructor (including glacier travel and wilderness navigation). I'm good at what I choose to do, but I'm not particularly distinguished in any of these areas. I get along with everyone. How should I approach this?

posted by halogen to Work & Money (19 answers total)

If you were in the UK, you’d probably apply for a research job with the British Antarctic Survey. The US has a similar institution: The United States Antarctic Program.
posted by pharm at 1:30 AM on January 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

(If you really wanted to go, you might apply for a non-research support role with one of these organisations.)
posted by pharm at 1:31 AM on January 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

Trawl the job boards and pray. There are a lot more hopefuls than positions. Your skill-set will work in your favor, though. Apply for everything you can!
posted by ananci at 1:33 AM on January 29, 2016

Could you apply for a research grant or assistant positions on a geological/geochemical expedition? Or even a crew member on a documentary filmmaking trip?

If you're flexible about the length of the trip and location, it would help. You could set up an alert on twitter/linkedin/craigslist/mandy that emails you whenever an opening with the word 'antartica' comes up. Also, get the word out.
posted by kinoeye at 2:02 AM on January 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

A girlfriend of mine worked doing manual labor. It was quite an adventure. She was in her early 20s tho. If no one here replies I'd be happy to put you in touch.
posted by k8t at 2:15 AM on January 29, 2016

Try bugging various cruise companies that head down there - most of their guides are scientists of some description and having a broad skill set is useful. I've got a friend who has a degree in astrophysics and art history with a bit of boating experience who is currently working as a guide.
posted by cholly at 3:20 AM on January 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The majority of US Antarctic jobs are filled through Lockheed Martin and an assortment of partner companies. From a brief glance at their job categories, it looks like they need both carpenters and lab techs, in addition to a variety of other things.

I've known quite a few people who've gone to Antarctica to work, both for research and as support staff. It's completely doable. Good luck!
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 4:28 AM on January 29, 2016 [3 favorites]

The one person I know that worked in Antartica worked for the National Science Foundation.
posted by COD at 4:43 AM on January 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Contact the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust about jobs at the museum and post office at Port Lockroy, if you don't mind not having a scientific job. The place is staffed by a small team, I think November to March, and some people go back for a second season. Anecdotally I hear that having different languages, being handy at physical and maintenance tasks and having experience living away from home all count for a lot in the selection. Nationality doesn't seem to be important. I think last time about 800 people applied for 4 or 5 full-season positions. It's a stunning spot with lots of resident penguins, but you'll have to be happy to deal with scores of tourists most days.
posted by FavourableChicken at 5:36 AM on January 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

I have a friend (German citizen) who is a trained nurse. She works with the German fishing fleet and is deployed to Antarctica half the year (their summer). At one point I remember that she managed to stay longer because one of the land-based research stations had a cook fall ill and he needed to leave, so she volunteered to stay on as their cook for that season. Note that she is not a trained cook in any way. Apparently no one starved though : ) The point is that sometimes they literally need a warm body, and because she volunteered she got the job.
posted by vignettist at 7:35 AM on January 29, 2016

Best answer: Your skill set sounds awesome. But in any correspondence, be sure to include the C in the middle of Antarctica.
posted by ShooBoo at 8:30 AM on January 29, 2016 [8 favorites]

My company does some contracting for (IIRC) weather observers and/or in support of a weather observation station down there. There are a lot of random things that you can do if you find the right area or governmental agency. I think most of the people we hire work out of McMurdo Station on a seasonal basis. MeMail me if you want more info.
posted by This Guy at 9:20 AM on January 29, 2016

I used to live in the Falkland Islands so knew quite a few people who lived in Antarctica one way or another - the options I remember were:

* British Antarctic Survey, as mentioned above - mostly marine biology, climate science etc., but they do also employ outdoors guides to keep their scientists safe on trips out of the base. I had a friend who was the postmistress at Port Lockroy for a while, having previously been the doctor for the BAS base at King Edward Point on South Georgia. I thought she was working for BAS at Port Lockroy but might be wrong. They also used to have an artists' and writers' programme but I can't see anything very recent on their website about that so maybe it's no longer running.
* Working for South Georgia Museum for a season, though it looks like most of their current staff are based off-island. Friend that did this used to have to take a plank of wood with a nail in the end with him to work in the mornings to see off the fur seals between his house and the museum.
* Building contractors - a lot of governments with a presence in Antarctica have teams who go down there each summer, either to build/maintain their bases, or to remove old buildings/rubbish. They're mostly people who are handy with a digger, your construction management skills plus mountain skills might make you interesting to them. The ones used by the UK/FI certainly used to be Morrison Construction.
* Cruise ship staff (random cruise ship company staff list to give you an idea of the kind of posts). The main roles were things like mountain guides, lecturers with specialisms in Antarctic wildlife etc., zodiac drivers, and I guess cooks/housekeepers who probably barely see the light of day. You're obviously dipping in and out of Antarctica rather than resident. The zodiac drivers always seemed to have fun. They used to secretly nip into the abandoned reclus huts along the peninsula to clean them out of ancient-but-freeze-dried cigarettes.
* Fisheries observers for the Falkland Islands fishery. Not many people's idea of fun - you probably wouldn't get landfall outside of the Falkland Islands and have to spend weeks on board squid jiggers/longliners/trawlers inspecting fish. But I think the Falklands fisheries probably also patrol South Georgian waters so you might get into Antarctic waters if that appealed.
* Shackleton Scholarships - primarily aimed at projects relating to the Falkland Islands, but I see their list of previous recipients includes a study into the genetic make up of South Georgia reindeer, so you might get some mileage out of them if you can dream up a suitable research project. (More fun, but off-topic: I see people they've paid to go and enrich the cultural life of the Falklands include: Accordion player; horse tamer; line dance instructor; a group of Colombian musicians).

I'll no doubt hit 'post' and think of more, but that'll do for now...

In theory, (though the cruise ship visits make you wonder), the basic principle behind all things Antarctic is to keep people and things that don't belong there out as much as possible (see also: the Great South Georgia reindeer cull), so jobs there are far and few between for good reason. But everyone I knew who went loved it.
posted by penguin pie at 9:43 AM on January 29, 2016 [4 favorites]

Keep an eye out for jobs that aren't in Antarctic but require travel there.

I saw a poster on a bulletin board in a small New Mexico town -- not really a place you would think to look if you wanted to go to Antarctica -- for a job that required travel to both the Arctic and Antarctica. I'm guessing from the poster being up that they were having trouble finding someone who wanted to both live in the small town and was willing to travel as much as the job required. I think the job involved maintaining research equipment for a company that made or otherwise provided the equipment.

You've got a good range of skills. Sometimes that's more important than being a rockstar in any one skill. Think outside of the box and look where everyone else who wants to go isn't looking.
posted by yohko at 11:06 AM on January 29, 2016

I remembered the name of the company whose poster I saw! (I'm assuming it was them, although it's possible there's another company in the same town doing polar research.)

PMing to the OP. Looks like they only have one opening right now for someone with a Mechanical Engineering degree, but maybe something will open up later.
posted by yohko at 11:15 AM on January 29, 2016

As I understand it, there is a bit of a party culture there - at least among younger people. Lots of drinking, cuz there is nothing else to do. This may have changed if the Internet connectivity got better.
posted by k8t at 12:20 PM on January 29, 2016

Best answer: Find a job in Antarctica gives plenty of advice about the sort of jobs available and where to find them.
posted by AnnaRat at 1:35 PM on January 29, 2016

The Australian Antarctic Division has a handy list of all the expeditioner positions they recruit for, along with a list of the qualities they look for, and quizzes you can do to self-assess. From memory they open applications in May for the coming (southern) summer season - the link above lets you register to be notified.

A good friend of mine did two seasons at Casey Station with the AAD, and had an absolute blast. Plus, according to him, it gives him great examples to use in job interviews: "can you tell us about a time when things went wrong and what you did to fix it? Well, there was the time the zodiac capsized and I had three minutes to rescue people before they froze to death...."
posted by girlgenius at 7:13 PM on January 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

Ask eotvos who was active here a few days ago.
posted by adamvasco at 7:08 AM on January 30, 2016