A “dream job” far away from men and close to penguins. The British base at Port Lockroy, Antarctica, recruits three people to run the post office, gift shop, small museum and penguin count.
(Map: Western France)
The British base at Port Lockroy on the Antarctic Peninsula – the northernmost part of the South Pole continent – is hiring three employees in the southern summer on a five-month contract from November 2022 to March 2023. Imagine the place: a hostile but beautiful land, with penguins everywhere! A new “dream job”? When it comes to temperatures, the average – in summer – is around 2°C. But above all it is the certainty of living a unique experience, far from the fury of the world and the problems of the human species …
Three vacancies
It is the non-governmental organization (NGO) UK Antarctic Heritage Trust tasked with maintaining the site of this British base that recruits. The three positions offered (head of the base, head of the shop and general assistant) consist in particular of running the post office, taking care of the souvenir shop and the small museum … The remoteness of the place does not mean there is nothing to do : Year-round, excluding the Covid pandemic, the base hosts around 18,000 people. And in 2012 more than 70,000 postcards were sent from Port Lockroy…
A bonus task!
Ah, and there’s one little extra task to complete: you’ll also need to count the penguins, as part of the organization’s environmental mission aimed at preserving the bird colony!
A penguin photographed near Port Lockroy. (Photo: UK Antarctic Heritage Trust)
To apply for any of the three positions by Monday 25 April you not only need to be in good physical condition and environmentally conscious, you also already need to be eligible to work on UK territory so you don’t need to apply for a visa… If you can don’t apply for the British, you can also contact the TAAF, French Southern and Antarctic Lands vacancies who also have vacancies every year!