How I got a great job by luck

by Duane Ausherman

I heard about working in Antarctica from a Ham radio conversation I had one afternoon.   I was speaking on the air with a man that ran the Ozone Hole research project at McMurdo Station in Antarctica.  He explained the process and helped me through several stages.  I got the application papers from the contracting office in Colorado.  I applied by filling out a large mess of paperwork.  I had to submit my history, health, and more.

I sent it in, and a couple of weeks later noticed that I failed to send all of the pages.  Since they were important,  I copied everything all over and re-sent the package.

Later I learned that the former Heavy Shop supervisor had just been promoted to Manager.  This left a vacancy.  My second submission just happened to be opened up just as this vacancy appeared.  Had I not made that mistake, it was a small chance that they would have found my previous incomplete submission among the 12,000 to 15,000 applications.

That huge number of applications was for about 200 positions.  Of those, only three were for supervisors.  Of those three, two were for small departments.  The last was for the best department, known as the Heavy Shop.  That is the one that I got.  It was a wonderful department.

Once again, I got lucky because of a mistake.  Skill is good, but luck is better.  Most of my successes have been due to luck.

Updated 15 Nov. 2019