Wednesday, July 19, 2006
The Process
"Antarctica?!?! But why? And how? Are you crazy?" These are the questions I've been asked repeatedly since I first started telling people about the whole thing. Hopefully I'll answer these questions for you. If you have more questions, feel free to post a comment!I found out about working in Antarctica when I returned from studying abroad in the Netherlands more than two years ago. I was searching the internet for some sort of program that would allow me to live abroad in a part of the world that would be different than Western Europe or the States. But I also needed to make enough money to pay my bills back home. I came across a website advertising work in Antarctica. I did some more research and found out that this work program was just what I was looking for. That first year, I emailed in my résumé hoping to hear back. Unfortunately I didn’t hear anything from them at all. I wasn’t ready to write it off, but I definitely wasn’t going to start telling people about this adventure either, mostly in fear that people would think I was crazy.
Fast forward to mid-March 2005 when I was telling my friend Alissa about my plan to apply to work in Antarctica again. It just so happened that she knew a co-worker from the bike tour company she worked for who had worked in Antarctica before. Luckily she had his email address so she put me in contact with him. I emailed Nick a ton of questions, but instead of replying to my email he gave his phone number telling me it would be easier to do that. Later that week, we talked for a half hour. He told me all kinds of information about the work program in Antarctica. Most importantly, he told me about the annual job fair held at Raytheon headquarters in Colorado. This was the way to get my foot in the door. Before we hung up the phone, he told me that I could get to Antarctica by going to South America and catching a tour from the southern tip of Argentina. I told him I wasn’t interested in just visiting… by this time I really wanted to LIVE in Antarctica and experience this crazy lifestyle. He agreed it was the way to go!
Unfortunately, it was too late for me to get to Colorado in time for the job fair that year. So I filed the information away in my noggin for the next year. Fast forward to March 2006. I had just returned home from South America and Europe, but I was already thinking about a new “escape route”! I did a search on Google and found out that the job fair was going to be the first Friday in April in Centennial, CO. I found a decent deal on airline tickets and an amazing deal on a car rental - called my friend Nikki in Breckenridge to confirm that I had a closet to sleep in (literally), and it was all set!
To prepare for the job fair, I bought my first business suit EVER. Thanks to my great friend Nora, I got a killer deal on the suit too! I spent a few days improving my résumé and printed out about 20 copies to hand out at the job fair. Eric lent me one of his black leather AIESEC portfolios, which I still have... thanks, bud!
My good friends (aka My Airport Shuttle Service/Car Storage) Leah and Jason took me to the airport extra early on Friday morning. I had a direct flight into Denver, and everything went smoothly with picking up my car rental. By 11am, I was sitting outside the headquarters getting a little nervous. This was it! I had talked about doing this for so long, and now I was actually there going the extra mile to get the job. As I was about to get out of the car, I noticed that the other people walking in for the job fair were dressed very casually. I quickly called Nikki in Breckenridge for a little moral support. After a couple of minutes on the phone with her, I was ready to go in.
When I first walked in the door, I had to fill out a slip asking my name, address, and what jobs I was applying for. They wanted this information to track the people coming to the job fair. The girls at the table directed me towards a hallway where I had to wait for a general info session. While the group of 30 of us waited, there was a video playing about life in Antarctica and different polar things were sitting on the table for us to grab (penguin crossing stickers and brochures and things). When the info session before me finished up, the group of us waiting in the halls rushed into the room and took a seat. The point of the info session was to answer lots of questions we would all likely have. Then they would send us into talk to the hiring managers, and we could just ask specific questions about the work.
I walked into the room full of hiring managers to find signs hung up all around the room labeling each table of people by what department they were hiring for. At first I walked around the room trying to get my bearings. I finally decided to hop in line for Supply. I was handed an info form that asked me questions about what kind of contract term I could work and my work history. I chatted with the woman handing out the forms, and by the time I got to the front of the line, she had taken someone else’s place at the interview table. Lucky enough, she was my reviewer, and she ended up giving me her boss’s phone number secretly so that I could call him to check up on the hiring process. She did warn me that they were only hiring Alternates.
I should explain what an Alternate is. Raytheon hires two people for every position in Antarctica. They hire a Primary who will start the hiring process including the PQ (physical qualifying), and then an Alternate who will start the hiring process if the Primary either a) fails the PQ b) decides to back out of the program or c) falls off the face of the earth. I heard at one point that Alternates have a 40% chance of going to the Ice. I should also explain at this point that everyone who work in Antarctica refers to it as “the Ice”.
After talking to Supply I was feeling pretty confident, so I stepped in line for Cargo. I talked to someone about the positions they were hiring for. The one position they were recruiting for was the Air Transportation Specialists, which I took to mean cargo plane unloader. I told the guy about my forklift driving experience, and he seemed mildly impressed.
The next line I hopped in was for the Housing Department. The almost two-hour wait flew by as I chatted with different people in line. There was a couple in line behind me who had spent 4 or 5 summers in Antarctica, and they told us a lot about their experiences. The wife had stayed in the States last season so now she had to go the job fair and start over trying to find work down there again. By the time I got to the front of the line, the hiring manager looked so burnt out. We chatted for 15 minutes or so, and he asked me about the questionnaire I had filled out for him. The last question was “Tell me something unique about yourself that will help me to remember you two weeks from now.” I knew it had to be something really unique, so I played the farm kid card and mentioned our old cash crop which I usually don’t like to mention to spare myself from the lectures.
Just before I left, I stopped to talk to one of the two people wearing chefs’ outfits. Nick, the guy who had told me about the job fair and his work experiences in Antarctica, had been a Dining Attendant so I figured it couldn’t hurt to name-drop a little bit. I did an interview with a woman named Sally, and we talked for the better part of a half hour. She was very interested in my management experience and wanted me to apply online (which I had to do for every job even though I applied at the job fair).
After almost 4 hours of being there, I left the job fair pumped about the possibility of really going to the Ice. I drove straight up to Breckenridge (about an hour and a half from Denver), and met Nikki at her office. She had about an hour left so I wandered the streets of the little ski town, and then we went out that night to celebrate!
I flew back to Minneapolis/St. Paul and started applying online to every job I had interviewed for at the job fair. First I had to upload a résumé, and then I had apply to each job individually. I applied for all of the jobs I was qualified for and even some I wasn’t.
From what I can make of it, there are two different types of jobs in Antarctica. Skilled and unskilled. Carpenters, painters, and engineers (to list a few) are skilled jobs. Dining attendants and janitors would fall in the unskilled jobs category. Unskilled jobs are highly competitive because anyone can apply for them.
Two weeks went by before I heard from someone at Raytheon. I set up a time for a phone interview the next week, and within a few days I had another phone interview lined up. My first phone interview was with a supervisor in the Housing Department looking to hire janitors. After I answered all of her janitor interview questions, she asked me questions as if she were interested in me as a lead janitor. I took that to be a good sign. My second interview was for a position as a Dining Attendant.
Within another week and a half, I heard back from the Housing Department and they offered me a Primary position as a janitor. She told me that they had gone with two other people as lead janitors but that if they weren’t able to PQ (physically qualify), I would be called up. FOUR days later, she called to tell me they both had backed out, and she offered me the job!
Now onto the PQ process. In order to actually go to Antarctica, you must Physically Qualify (PQ). I have never gone through so much work (or money) for a job before! First I was sent a kit for a drug screen. I took it into the clinic back home and had to explain why I was bringing in my own urine kit. That got shipped to Texas for the actual test. Then I was sent another packet with another urine screen and vials for my blood. I had to print off a bunch of documents from the internet including letters to my doctor and dentist explaining why they had to fill out extra paperwork for me. I spent 2 hours at the doctor and saw four different people. I had the regular physical. My blood was collected and packed up in the kit and shipped out. Forms were signed. I had to be checked to see if I could touch my toes (I can) and if not, how many inches I was from touching them. And I even had to have an EKG done to make sure I have a good heart! My dentist visit was the day after the doctor. He found six little cavities (from sipping soda), and I had to set up an appointment to have them fixed before he could sign the paperwork saying I was cleared to go. Two weeks later, I went in and had them all filled at once.
I found out 3 weeks ago that I passed everything and will be heading to the Ice in August. I fly to Denver on the 13th of August for two and a half days of training. Then we fly to Christchurch, New Zealand where we’ll stay for 2 days or so. If everything goes as planned, which it never does, I’ll be in Antarctica by the 21st of August!!