Hot Diggety! unix_fan was rumored to have written: > In a large diverse company, there may be other such hard to fill jobs, > like freezing your butt off at a research station in Antarctica or > acceptance tests in the bowels of the Amazon.
Hey, I'd like to know who I'd have to bribe (or sleep with) to get a posting to Antarctica or Arctic countries during the local winter? ;-) All kidding aside (though I'd honestly *love* to be posted there!), a very nicely considered reply. Thanks! > 5. Travel, part 3 - danger bonus: If work involves travel to a State > Department declared combat zone, there are typically significant > bonuses applied. Hint: the list is small - don't assume that car > bombs, armed conflict, or anti-American demonstrations every Friday > mean the location is on the State Department list. Indeed. Reminds me of this incredible clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEN_mwn_NaM (Though the video caption is exaggerating; it's perhaps a 15 or 20 degree bend in the road. Still tough, though, for other reasons.) Last year, I just happened (by pure chance) to talk with someone who had been on one of these planes flying off that exact road in the Congo. He explained what it was about: the only paved road between two major destinations; the mining companies in the area had to use it (because it was the best runway-type surface for a good distance around) to ferry mining supplies. Extremely lucrative business but dangerous and a tough place to work in. Net equation? Worth it to pay someone a lot to take the risks. That was a very unforgiving takeoff for several reasons: 1. Sometimes the local police forgot to block off the other end of the road from local traffic. 2. The planes often had drums of flammable fuel in the back and very little excess performance capabilities due to cargo weight. 3. The hired pilot, on one flight, told him that if they didn't clear the treetops, they'd be in a fireball -- ditto for any unfortunate souls underneath, on the ground. 4. He witnessed some other Russian pilots (also under contract) downing a few shots of liquid courage before trying it. 5. That road (as you can briefly see) is littered with the carcasses of older planes that didn't make it; some decades old. 6. The best of them all? Some of the treetops nearby were laced with explosives. *NO* hitting trees whatsoever. No real performance margin to speak of. You either made it or you didn't. Needlessly to say, these brave pilots get paid extremely well and in cash. > Bottom line: It's a supply and demand world. Salaries go as high as > they need to when the pool of qualified candidates is low. Yep. I've been on the same special jet with Alaskan oil workers heading to the main oilfield deep in the Arctic near New Year's Day; they were starting a 2 week shift. About, uh, 45 burly men, mostly late 40s or in their 50s. (Oddly enough, very few in their 30s.) One of the things I found out was that the job paid a heck of a *LOT* of money but it was extremely dangerous and demanding. Still, not too many people wanted to work in up to -60 F weather, in 24h of no direct sunlight in late December with a biting wind. (Confirmed: biting!) On top of all that; the oil drilling and pipeline work involves billions of dollars of product; any serious mistake would have very expensive consequences. So they really only want people with proven experience for that kind of assignment. As a result, BP/Alyeska/ConocoPhillips Alaska/etc (the pipeline operators) had to pay these folks a significant premium. (For the operators, winter is the best time because of a snow/ice-covered tundra; easiest time to get environmental permits to do heavy work. So they had to do whatever it took to get workers out there and then.) It was to the point where some people were working for perhaps 6 months a year and squirreling away the savings so they could fund their children's college education or retirement savings. A similar story with the plain *crazy* (and ballsy!) Bering Sea fishing crews like you see on Discovery TV's Deadly Catch. Some guys, according to a female Alaskan friend who's been a deckhand, works about 3 months a year if the catch's been good and takes 9 months off to be a part of their children's lives while they're growing up. Pays all bills year-round. Good money to be made in some of the least desirable and toughest jobs. No different with UNIX SA or IT jobs -- concurred. -Dan P.S. If anyone's got an IT job opening in the Arctic or Antarctic, let me know! _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lopsa.org http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
