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Hi, I recently stumbled across a posting for a Systems Administrator job at the South Pole so I applied for kicks. I have all the qualifications they are looking for a degree(but I have 7 years experience). After I applied I started doing more research on Antarctica which lead me here.
From my research, it seems like all jobs for this season should be filled at this point. Why was this one posted? Are they just collecting resumes? Is the competition for qualified IT jobs a lot less than other jobs in Antarctica?
Does anyone know what the day-to-day would be for a job like this? It seems that there wouldn’t be much in the way of regular work apart from swapping tapes and minor maintenance? Do you twiddle your thumbs until something goes wrong or do you work on other projects and stuff? Is there an on-call rotation or some kind of monitoring system(SCOM, Nagios, etc)?
The job I applied to is this one: https://ghg-online.ghg.com/public/jobdesc.jsp?jid=1325
Thanks for any info you guys can give!
Hi Snake6, welcome to the board!
I’ll take a stab at a few of your questions, although I am not currently working in the IT department…
@Snake6 wrote:
From my research, it seems like all jobs for this season should be filled at this point. Why was this one posted?
Just a guess, but someone probably bailed-out or, more likely, failed the PQ. The psych exam got tougher this year and a number of people failed at the last minute, so that may be related.
Are they just collecting resumes? Is the competition for qualified IT jobs a lot less than other jobs in Antarctica?
I doubt they’re just collecting resumes. They’re probably eager to hire someone immediately before the station closes for the winter. The competition is less, but then there are also fewer IT jobs.
Does anyone know what the day-to-day would be for a job like this? It seems that there wouldn’t be much in the way of regular work apart from swapping tapes and minor maintenance? Do you twiddle your thumbs until something goes wrong or do you work on other projects and stuff? Is there an on-call rotation or some kind of monitoring system(SCOM, Nagios, etc)?
There would be a variety of work, including help desk, user support, software installs, hardware fixes, network maintenance, etc, etc. Expect to be doing user support in some fashion most of the time. There’s always something to do. The summer months will be very busy. When winter starts you may have time to twiddle a few thumbs… just depends on the job, the season, and your co-workers’ capabilities.
If you are hired, expect a sudden flurry of activity and paperwork like you’ve never seen before. They’d have to get you PQ’d and deployed to the pole by, say, mid-January. It can be done, but it’ll be a very sudden amount of stress and commotion… leading to the trip of a lifetime.
Good luck!
I might add that IT security is pretty tight, so there are a lot of computers to be checked and upgraded. You have all the standard problems of programs that people need suddenly not working. You and or the techs will be responsible for keeping the IT infrastructure alive with parts you may or may not have in stock and no way to get replacement parts in quickly. Add in the cyber attacks which you should do a pretty good job at blocking, but damn somebody connected an unapproved device and it snuck past the firewall. All in a days work.
Just as an FYI it can be a tough nut to crack. I’m an Information Security Manager for a state agency with thousands of employees, a CISSP, CCNA, ITIL, etc… and I haven’t gotten a callback on an IT related job yet. I think I’ll get a callback eventually but you have to be patient!
Thanks for the info guys, I put in the application on Monday but still haven’t heard anything back how long does it normally take for them to get back to you?
I was in the Marines doing IT, so I know how government It security works, and I have my CISSP(IT security cert). It surprises me that they don’t use any type of NAC or 802.1x to prevent unauthorized devices from accessing the network though.
Is there anyone I could network with to help my chances? I am concerned that I am almost overqualified. My basic background is that I spent 4 years in the corps doing Desktop support/sysadmin work, 2 years doing desktop support working Win7,XP,OSX and doing patching for mac and windows, creating images etc. For the last 2 years I have been doming almost exclusively sysadmin type work mostly focusing in windows specifically in Active Directory and Exchange, but with some linux stuff including firewall(pfsense), email gateways, and webservers.
I think my chances are probably slim to none since I might be overqualified. Am I wasting my time?
@Snake6 wrote:
Am I wasting my time?
No. To me, you sound like an excellent applicant.
Not sure how long it takes to get a call. All very dependent on the manager, contractor, phase of the moon, and so on.
If you really want to go there are several other positions such as Conputer Technician you should apply to as well. I’d agree you sound like a pretty good candidate!
@TheORKINMan wrote:
If you really want to go there are several other positions such as Conputer Technician you should apply to as well. I’d agree you sound like a pretty good candidate!
I saw those jobs at McMurdo, but they seem to be desktop support type jobs which would be a step backward in my career direction, and probably not very challenging. Is it worth applying anyways just to get your resume out there more?
A couple of more questions that I thought of. How strenuous are the degree requirements on the job postings? I have seen places in the past that just throw out your resume if you don’t have a degree no matter what your level of experience is, which leads to funny stories of people who get hired just because they have a compsci degree but who are totally clueless about the job they are supposed to be doing.
What is involved in the PQ process? What would disqualify you? I am pretty sure that I would need to get my wisdom teeth out, should I get that done now or after I get the job? My only other concern about the PQ would be that I lost most of the vision in my left eye while in the corps, so I don’t have depth perception anymore. Would that disqualify me outright?
Also can one of the mods give me permission to reply to PM’s?
Thanks for all the info guys!
I can’t answer about the IT job fine points, but I can talk a little about the PQ process.
It’s been called something akin to an astronaut physical. For most people, it will just be a routine physical. You won’t notice much else. It will be all the normal things a your doctor will check for in any physical. Anything out of the ordinary, though, gets flagged.
Behind the scene, the blood exam tests for everything (some things that don’t normally get checked in a yearly physical) and if one of the tests is off just a little, you get flagged for follow up. At various times, my calcium, glucose, creatinine, cholesterol, etc have all been out of bounds a little and got me a recheckup. All ended up being nothing, but it did add a lot of time to the PQ process to have to wait for another appointment.
Other things like the abnormal EKG that I have have resulted in rather expensive follow ups with a cardiologist every two years. Normal stuff for most people and nothing that was of concern to the cardiologist or anyone, but just the fact that it is not the norm got me regularly flagged.
Because of the amount of time involved getting appointments for retests, it behooves one to get the physical out of the way as early as possible. If they are asking you to take a non emergency catscan, sometimes it can take 6 weeks just to get the appointment. Even longer for the radiologist to read the results and even longer for them to get back to your doctor. Then you have to send it to the program and pray they don’t want more follow ups.
It is also the norm that people wait to the last minute and when they caught not completing the PQ in time, it leaves the door wide open for an alternate, who took the exam seriously.
As time is running out at the start of the season, it’s not uncommon for someone to be hired at the last minute, get his PQ done and passed right away and be down on the ice while the primary is still waiting for followup appointments.
@Snake6 wrote:
… probably not very challenging. Is it worth applying anyways just to get your resume out there more?
That depends on how interested (or desperate) you are to get to the Ice. Many people take menial jobs just to get a foot in the door. They can then try for something better the next season, which often works. Just don’t apply for a job you know you won’t accept — declining an offer may affect your chances for any job in the same department.
How strenuous are the degree requirements on the job postings?
In my job, very strenuous. For IT jobs… not sure: It’s a different contractor and work environment. My best guess is that they may be willing to hire a warm body to fill the position, even without the degree, if they really need someone.
What is involved in the PQ process? What would disqualify you?
To add to what Mike said… The PQ process is mostly an exercise in paperwork, waiting, and making appointments. Anything condition that would cause you to be medevac’d could be a disqualification (NPQ). Common NPQ causes are bad teeth (!), gallstones (for winter-overs), substance abuse, and, recently, failing the winter-over psych test. IMO, I’d wait until you accept an offer before removing the wisdom teeth– unless they’re already a problem. Not sure about the vision thing; since you wouldn’t be an equipment operator, I doubt it would be a problem. We have people here who are 3/4 deaf, for example.
Also can one of the mods give me permission to reply to PM’s?
I’m just a moderator, not an admin, but I mucked around with your permissions — hopefully that clears things up. I’ve also had to approve each post, which is unusual. I think our anti-spam efforts are making things difficult. Thanks for being patient.
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