Video | If working at the North or South Pole is your dream job, France is looking for candidates
Carpenters, bakers, pastry chefs, scientists – polar institute has launched a public appeal to recruit around 40 French-speaking people for a variety of jobs, which will last for up to 14 months, at its six bases in the Arctic and Antarctica
Fancy a job at the North or South Pole? A French research institute is looking for you.
The Paul-Émile Victor Polar Institute in northwest France has launched a public appeal to recruit around 40 French-speaking people for a wide variety of jobs at its six bases in the Arctic and Antarctica.
From chemists and carpenters to bakers and pastry chefs, the institute is stepping up its efforts to reach potential candidates for 12- to 14-month stints at its bases with endless summer days and winter nights.
“We get lots of interest from the biology fields but not enough mechanics or tool operators, because these people don’t know about us,” says Laurence Andre Le Marec, hiring director at the institute named after a French polar explorer and pioneer.
It operates at the Spitzberg base in the Arctic and the Dumont d’Urville and Concordia bases in Antarctica, as well as three bases on France’s sub-Antarctic islands of Amsterdam, Crozet and Kerguelen.
Women in particular are being sought in this year’s recruitment drive, which includes six testimonial videos from female alumni.
At the Dumont d’Urville station there are just six women compared to 24 men. “I haven’t been able to get balance” between the sexes, Andre Le Marec admits.
