Work in Antarctica?

[BigToque]

I've done some reading about working in antarctica. It seems like you can look for jobs for the United States Antarctic Program.

I'm curious to know if these positions are open to Canadians.

If not, do you guys know of any opportunities for a Canadian to do some work (not research) down there?

Does Canada even have a base down there?

***Edit***

After reading through the Raytheon website, they only hire US citizens (and permanent residents). Man that really makes me mad!

The Canadian Polar commission has almost nothing on their website about jobs (you can find a little on some message forum burried deep inside the site, but there's nothing about antarctica.

This means I need to either become a full fledged researcher or pay a ton of money to go as a tourist.

:|

Is there any quick way to get enough of a status to work with Raytheon without having to become a citizen or permanent resident without actually having to live in the states for 5 years (or live there for 3 and marry someone)? I'm thinking of something like a work visa.

 

[giantpinkbunnyhead]

I applied to work down there a couple years back when RPSC had some openings. They were actively recruiting people from Alaska because we're generally more used to the extreme cold. I didn't make the cut though... it was disappointing. But anyway, if USAP doesn't work out, check out RPSC. (raytheon Polar Services Corporation). They may have something.

 

[scorp00]

My company employs people there. We only employ air traffic controllers, meterologists, and some tech's. It's a contract to support the national science foundation. You could see if they have any openings.

 

[SagaLore]

I'd be interested, except I hate the cold.

 

[Feldenak]

My wife said it wasn't as cold as she expected...then again she went during the summer and spent most of her time on a research vessel around Antarctica.

 

[theknight571]

There was an interesting (at least I thought it was ) series of articles on MSNBC about working / visiting Antarctica.

MSNBC Article(s)

I linked to page 9, since it's the first chronologically with page 1 being the most recent, so you'll just have to work backwards.

 

[James Bond]

How much is the pay for something like that? Just curious.

 

[theknight571]

Originally posted by: Tizyler
How much is the pay for something like that? Just curious.

According to the articles... not much... but almost everything is included, including housing and meals.

 

[Coquito]

I would absolutely love a chance to go out there experience everything firsthand. I have no qualifications whatsoever in those fields, but as long as I'm relatively safe, I wouldn't mind doing the grunt work & going out at -30 to adust a couple radio dishes a couple degrees.

 

[BigToque]

Originally posted by: Coquito
I would absolutely love a chance to go out there experience everything firsthand. I have no qualifications whatsoever in those fields, but as long as I'm relatively safe, I wouldn't mind doing the grunt work & going out at -30 to adust a couple radio dishes a couple degrees.

As one article I read says "You may only be a janitor, but you're a janitor in Antarctica"... That would be really cool

 

[Kaervak]

Originally posted by: Coquito
I would absolutely love a chance to go out there experience everything firsthand. I have no qualifications whatsoever in those fields, but as long as I'm relatively safe, I wouldn't mind doing the grunt work & going out at -30 to adust a couple radio dishes a couple degrees.

Same here. I wouldn't care if I ended up as a garbage man, I'd get to brag about being in Antarctica. How many people can say that?

 

[blazerazor]

Images of John C.'s 'the Thing' keeps running through my head.

 

[BigToque]

After reading through the Raytheon website, they only hire US citizens (and permanent residents). Man that really makes me mad!

The Canadian Polar commission has almost nothing on their website about jobs (you can find a little on some message forum burried deep inside the site, but there's nothing about antarctica.

This means I need to either become a full fledged researcher or pay a ton of money to go as a tourist.

:|

Is there any quick way to get enough of a status to be a citizen or permanent resident without actually having to live in the states for 5 years (or live there for 3 and marry someone)?

 

[chrisms]

Originally posted by: BigToque
Is there any quick way to get enough of a status to be a citizen or permanent resident without actually having to live in the states for 5 years (or live there for 3 and marry someone)?

You made me laugh. Sure you can go pick up your US passport at WalMart for $3.99.

 

[BigToque]

Originally posted by: chrisms

Originally posted by: BigToque
Is there any quick way to get enough of a status to be a citizen or permanent resident without actually having to live in the states for 5 years (or live there for 3 and marry someone)?

You made me laugh. Sure you can go pick up your US passport at WalMart for $3.99.

/walks across unguarded Canada/US border :evil:

I'm just curious to know if you thought it's possible to get a work visa so that I could work for Raytheon, as opposed to becomming a citizen.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: BigToque

Originally posted by: chrisms

Originally posted by: BigToque
Is there any quick way to get enough of a status to be a citizen or permanent resident without actually having to live in the states for 5 years (or live there for 3 and marry someone)?

You made me laugh. Sure you can go pick up your US passport at WalMart for $3.99.

/walks across unguarded Canada/US border :evil:

I'm just curious to know if you thought it's possible to get a work visa so that I could work for Raytheon, as opposed to becomming a citizen.

Find some disatisifed American that wants to move to Canada - exchange identities - everyone wins

 

[Turin39789]

I checked the raytheon site and didn't see any open jobs in antartica

 

[BigToque]

Originally posted by: Turin39789
I checked the raytheon site and didn't see any open jobs in antartica

Even though all the positions are listed as " CO - Centennial", if you read the job descriptions they almost all mention deployment to antarctica.