What it takes to get to Antarctica...

I've mentioned in a previous post how found this job in Antarctica, but getting the job is just the first step. I think I've done more paperwork and had more medical/dental/lab checkups for this job than for any other in my life-including the Navy! All in all, the whole process took approximately two months.

After they offer you the position, and you accept it, you aren't really hired yet. Before you are "officially" hired, you have to take a bunch of tests and fill out a bunch of paperwork. Once you've passed everything, and completed all the paperwork, then you are officially hired and you start all the new hire paperwork.

I had to do background check paperwork and a background check. I had to do a drug test. I had to do a dental exam. I had to do a physical exam. I had to do a ton of blood work. The dental and physical exams were down in Denver, so a couple of trips for that. The Boulder lab didn't do drug tests, so I had to go to Broomfield to get the drug test and blood work done. Then the lab forgot to do some tests so that I could be part of the "walking blood bank" while down there, so I got to visit the Boulder lab after all. Once this is all done, you fill out an extensive medical history and send it, and the results of all your exams/tests, to the University of Texas Medical Branch, Office of Polar Medicine (UTMB), where they decide if you're physically qualified to work in Antarctica. The doctors and nurses at UTMB asked me a bunch of follow up questions about my medical history, sent me back to the the lab for the missing "blood bank" tests, and then qualified me to work in Antarctica for this winter and next summer. After a year, you have to go through it all again.

Once you've been physically qualified to go down there, then you get to do what we all know as new hire paper work-HR stuff, pay stuff, tax stuff, 401K stuff, healthcare stuff, etc. etc. I had been forewarned to scan *everything* I filled out in case something got lost, so there was that too, and for both the initial paperwork and the new hire paperwork.

They also send you pages and pages of reading material to prepare you for your trip. Antarctic history, science on the continent, traveling to/from via New Zealand or Chile, extreme cold weather gear, proper and acceptable behavior, etc. etc.

So once you're really going, it's just a matter of talking with people who have been there before, doing research, and getting ready to go. Luckily I have met quite a few people, primarily through friends, that have been to Antarctica, and Palmer Station specifically. They've all been super friendly and super helpful in answering all my questions. The person that has been most helpful, and I want to give a shout out to, is my manager down there. She has been so helpful guiding me through the process, keeping me informed of status, and answering all my questions. As she told me, "the first test you have to pass to get to Antarctica is navigating the bureaucracy." So it seems I've passed the first test.

On to what's next...

Palmer Station






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