Anuncios para voluntariado y empleos

Voluntariado

Ofrecemos alimentación y alojamiento libre para voluntarios y todos los interesados deberán firmar un documento de "renuncia de responsabilidad" hacia la fundación y deberán tener su propio seguro de salud, en caso de accidentes y para buceo. Para los estudiantes universitarios chilenos, estos seguros estan ofrecidos en el programa de practicas de la universidad.

Por favor envíenos su solicitud completa y CV a huinayresearch@gmail.com.

Solicitud para plazas de voluntariado

Trabajo Remunerado

Technical Scientific Assistant - This position is not currently available, but becomes vacant every 1-2 years

We are a private Foundation that is operating a scientific field station in Chilean Patagonia. Huinay Scientific Field Station was inaugurated in 2001 and is situated 100 km south of Puerto Montt, in the fjord Comau; it is the only scientific station in a Chilean fjord. The surroundings are characterized by steep mountains and volcanoes. Almost 6000 mm annual precipitation gives rise to extremely lush vegetation characterized by extra-tropical rain forests.

The small village Huinay with its approx. 25 inhabitants can only be accessed by a 1-1.5 hour boat-trip (speed boat) from Hornopiren. Most infrastructure - except some small shops and a rural hospital in Hornopiren - is located in Puerto Montt, a 3 to 4 h drive or bus trip from Hornopiren.

Knowledge on organisms and ecological functioning of the fjord ecosystems is very poor in Chilean Patagonia especially in the marine environment. The goal of the station is-besides carrying out some own projects- to attract national and international projects which help to fill the existing gaps.

To accomplish this, the field station has basic infrastructure: a dry and a wet laboratory, diving and lodging facilities (8 rooms for up to 16 scientists/interns).
 
Projects involve all kinds of terrestrial and marine base-line research but main focus is on the marine environment and counseling for the establishment of a network of marine protected areas. In this context we are mainly promoting inventory studies of the fjord ecosystems and we generally organize one expedition to remote areas of the fjord region each year.
We recently finished a major project, a scientific field guide for marine benthic fauna of Chilean Patagonia (see www.PatagoniaMarina.info).

We have telephone and internet access via satellite (rarely good enough for voice or video skype) and power supply by a hydroelectric plant. The assistants are supervised and report to two biologists in charge of the scientific operation who are approximately a third of the time on the station, but can be contacted practically at any time. Besides these two scientists (the scientific director and a research coordinator) the permanent staff consists of the two scientific-technical assistants, an administrator, his wife (and assistant), a replacement of the administrator, two boat captains, 1-2 persons in charge for cooking and cleaning, and approx. 3 auxiliary administrative workers. We try to have 1-2 interns at any time at the station who help the scientific-technical assistants. Scientists can visit throughout the year, but mostly come between December and April (in the last years we had approx. 15 groups with a total of 40-50 scientists yearly)

We are looking for two technical-scientific assistants (couple applications are welcome) for approx. two years (can be longer, too), beginning around January 20, 2011. We are ideally looking for technicians with biological knowledge and interest with the following abilities.
Key abilities:

• fluent English
• profound diving skills (>200 dives) and experience with cold-water (dry suit) diving and diving under difficult conditions, ideally at least dive master or equivalent
• good Spanish knowledge (at least good conversation level for phone calls and email conversation)

We cannot consider any candidates without these key abilities!

In addition he/she should:

• be an open, communicative, easy-going and nature-loving person who has no problems or rather enjoys to live in an isolated and rainy place and be able to adapt to new situations
• be self motivating and able to deal with difficulties of living in a small remote place with few people
• be an organized and multi-tasking-able person (it is necessary to parallelly keep track of a lot of different tasks, of sampled specimens, the small library etc.)
• have a friendly but convincing way and be able to represent authority e.g. to enforce our rules towards scientific visitors, hold up in discussions against fishermen etc. (some intercultural experience and being above a certain age generally makes this easier)
• have technical understanding and basic skills to take care of laboratory (microscope, binoculars, aquaria,..) and diving equipment (compressor, tanks, regulators,..)*
• have a general scientific, biological (taxonomical) and ecological interest and understanding (ideally knowledge of or interest in invertebrates and their sampling and preservation). But please keep in mind: This is not a research position!*
• be flexible, patient and should be able to improvise (experience in developing countries or better in South America is of advantage)
• have basic computer skills (Windows XP/7, MSOffice, Internet). System administrative skills are of big advantage.
• Have a car driving license. Ideally have experience in driving small motor boats; A Chilean boat license officially is necessary for this but can also be made in Chile.

*: The work responsibilities can also be divided between the two assistants so that one assistant is more technically and one more scientifically oriented.

The assistants are in charge of and keep track of the day to day scientific activity at this field station and represent the scientific staff towards visiting scientists, tourists who come by etc. during the absence of the staff biologists. They are in charge of database work, keep track on ongoing projects, train and supervise interns etc. They can and should work quite independent, but follow the guidelines given by the scientific director/managing scientist and ask for feed-back when major decisions have to be taken.

The work includes:

• assisting the scientific director/managing scientist and visiting scientists in miscellaneous tasks whenever required but also be able to “see” and resolve problems and work independently.
• supervising interns/trainee students
• taking care of laboratory and diving equipment (daily care and evening check when visitors are present, general maintenance, minor and simple repairs)
• being the main contact person for visiting scientists (e.g. answering general questions by e-mail ahead of the visits, requesting and administrating required forms; explaining logistics and infrastructure at the station, explaining lab rules; organizing the boat trips for scientists and helping that lab work and daily life goes smoothly) and redirect questions and requests when work fields or competences of other staff members are addressed.
• present the scientific infrastructure and work to visitors and explaining ongoing projects (also non-scientific: in summer regular tourist visits)
• entering information in databases or supervise interns to do so (literature, biological, oceanographic data and special observations on the fjord Comau)
• preserving, logging and shipping of samples (e.g. specimens); possibly also taking pictures of collected specimens
• administration of information about visiting scientists (boat trips, rented equipment, time of stay, questionnaires, pictures …); regularly sending updated information to the persons in charge of the website,…
• accompanying visiting scientists on dive trips (of course not all visitors dive): showing and explaining dive sites and taking care that diving and sampling rules are respected (but no dive guiding)
• operating and maintaining the compressor
• help in the acquisition and maintenance of equipment (search for distributors, ask for prices quotes, tracking orders, organize repairs, emitting complaints when necessary etc.…

We offer:

• 480.000 CLP/ month (1000 US$) for the first 6 months and 580.000 CLP/month (1200 US$) from month 7 onward -10% tax -7% health insurance -3% retirement ensurance, the latter one can partially be reimbursed for foreigners when leaving the country (remark: general health insurance is pretty good in Chile and there is an additional health insurance for work related accidents and diseases)
• reimbursement of expenses for an additional dive accident insurance like DAN or equivalent (this insurance is mandatory for anyone diving at Huinay Scientific Field Station and must be contracted by the diver prior to dive activities at the station)
• Free lodging and food on the station and free transport from and to Hornopiren on regular boat trips (there arise no expenses during the stay on the station). You can also take the ferry that runs twice a week for approx. 3 US$
• trip/flight back to the place of origin (if outside of Chile) after termination of the work contract
• 4 days off for every 11 days of work (flexible handling is possible and necessary; but days off cannot be accumulated for more than 1 month) and 15 days of vacation days (Monday through Friday) each year
• flexible handling of daily work hours, but there are core hours when at least one assistant should be available

You can find more information on the website http://www.huinay.cl

We are looking forward to your applications consisting of the filled out form, a cover letter explaining your personal incentive to apply at Huinay Scientific Field Station, and why you think you are qualified for the job, and a CV (not longer than 4 pages). Applications that do not include the asked documents cannot be considered. You can ask for the form (as Word, Excel or pdf document) at v.haussermann(ad)gmail.com. Please already list 3-5 possible references, which will be necessary for applicants on the short list (these referees should know you personally and mainly describe your abilities to deal with difficult and unknown situations, rather than pure professional abilities); please do not send them now! Please send the application to v.haussermann(ad)gmail.com – replace (ad) with @ in the e-mail addresses!

It is necessary that the successful applicants apply for their work visas prior to arrival at the station. Successful applicants will be sent copies of the work contract which need to be signed and returned for confirmation by a legal representative in order for you to apply for a work visa. This process can take up to 8 weeks.

About Huinay:

The San Ignacio del Huinay Foundation is a private entity operating a biological field station in Chilean Patagonia. The Huinay Scientific Field Station (HSFS) was inaugurated in 2001 and is situated 100 km south of Puerto Montt, Chile, in the Comau fjord; it is the only biological station in any Chilean fjord. The surroundings are characterized by steep mountains and volcanoes. The almost 6000 mm of annual precipitation gives rise to an extra-tropical rain forest with extremely lush vegetation. The small village of Huinay with its approximate 30 inhabitants can only be accessed by a 1 hour boat-trip (speed boat) from Hornopiren. Most infrastructure - except some small shops and a rural hospital in Hornopiren - is located in Puerto Montt, a 3 to 4 h drive or bus trip from Hornopiren.
Although the fjords of Chile maintain ecosystems with a very high biodiversity and biomass, beautiful examples of deep water emergence, and a long list of new species, knowledge on organisms and ecological functioning is very poor. The goal of the station is to carry out both our own projects and attract national and international projects to help fill these existing gaps. To accomplish this, the station has a dry and a wet laboratory, diving infrastructure and lodging facilities. We have telephone and internet access through satellite and power supplied by hydroelectric plant. In charge of the scientific operation are the Scientific Director, Verena Haussermann and Scientific Manager, Gunter Forsterra, who are at the station half of the time. Permanent station staff consists of two scientific-technical assistants (this position), an administrator, his wife (and assistant), a boat captain, a yard worker/carpenter and at least one person in charge of cooking and cleaning. Scientists are visiting throughout the year but most come between December and April.
Projects involve all kinds of terrestrial and marine basic research. Currently our main focus is with the marine environment, especially inventory and ecosystem studies of the fjords. As of January 2009 we will be distributing our newly completed Chile Marine Benthic Field Guide and already a second edition is in the works. Another immediate goal is to establish a local marine protected area, of which there are minimal in Chile and non in the fjords. The summer season of 2007-2008 marked our busiest season to date and growth is not expected to stop.

About the Technical-Scientific Research Positions:

This position may be one of the best entry level biology positions out there in that it gives perfect perspective on the unwritten requirements needed to succeed as a field biologist. The successful candidates will understand that flexibility is among the highest attributes for a field station, especially located in such a remote setting and operating in a Latin culture. The recorded hours of work are not always the true reflection of the day but other benefits may outweigh any extra efforts.
A remote four season paradise comes with trade offs and trials. Busy times pass very quickly but slow times balance the equation and make personal initiative and self motivation priceless. In every small community the smooth and reliable operation of the team is the only option for success but stress and confined space are bound to bring up conflicts. Resolution of problems and patience with others will promote longevity.
The technical-scientific assistant is the “go-to” person for the station regarding science on a daily level and is responsible for the maintenance and well being of all scientific activities. In this position you are both the boss and the employee, who needs to be able to follow instructions exactly while leading and motivate others at the same time. Harder moments of the job include: being assertive and diplomatic in the face of cultural, language, age, education and political differences; managing many tasks and people at one time; self organising to remain busy during the “off season” (don’t mistake this for there ever being a lack of work); adapting to delays and surprises in projects; and all the time keeping personal health and well being in high priority. Days off may be accumulated when necessary due to the science schedule which allows for longer trips from the station. Around the station there are many things to occupy free time as well, such as: camping, hiking, fishing, bird watching, kayaking, mountaineering and use of our tiny gym.
The scientific team in Huinay is operating well, therefore the selections for these positions will weigh heavily on personality as well as ability. Our team needs people with a desire to be here and will to perceiver. This is a “stepping-stone” job not an intermediate position en route to better things. What we offer in return is a learning experience and participation in important baseline studies which add to and change the view of fjord regions throughout the world, all the while in possibly the most beautiful setting you’ll ever see. And most importantly a lot of good clean fun!