Here are a bunch of my thoughts on prepping for Antarctica. This mostly pertains to my experience travelling to the South Pole in support of the 2017-2018 ARA commissioning and calibration activities. I was  at the South Pole for about a month, and accumulated about of week of time in MCM due to flight delays.

Attire and Clothing Distribution Center (CDC)

• When you go for clothing distribution, don’t take your long johns with you, but do take your thick wool socks. Try on your ECW boots with your thick wool socks on so you know they fit right.
• Trade the wind pants for Carhartts. Just ask. The people at the CDC are really nice, and they won’t give you as much trouble as it looks like they will. They really just want to help.
• Lots of people will tell you to trade the Bunny boots for Baffin’s (or another type of boot). Whether that’s a good idea depends on you and your work. The bunny boots are super warm—we did lots of outside work, and people with Baffin’s were always complaining of cold feet, while Bunny Boot folks never did. The Baffin’s are lighter, taller, and buckle up (no strings). I’m also told they are more “natural” for walking—the Bunny’s really suck for walking long distances.
• Get the fit of your clothing right while you’re at the CDC. It’s embarrassing sometimes to sit there and have to go back and forth repeatedly to get something to fit right (especially if you’re a bigger person). But your life depends on this stuff. Just keep at it, they really do have stuff for people of every size there.
• Bring a pair of good, waterproof hiking boots. I made the mistake of only having my ECW boots and tennis shoes (along with shower shoes and slippers). The thing is, if you want to go on a 5-10 minute walk somewhere—and you have to do that a lot at Pole and McMurdo—tennis shoes are too light and ECW boots are too heavy.
• Bring a good medium weight sweater/jacket, or keep the little red they give you. It’s really nice to have medium weight outer wear while you’re there.
• Bring a spare pair of backup eyeware. My primary eyeware is contact. I brought two pairs of backup glasses. This was a good idea. I scratched my “primary” backup glasses my first week at pole, and was glad to have a “backup” backup pair of glasses.

Packing

• Most people have four bags: (1) backpack, (2) suitcase/big personal duffle, (3) orange bag from CDC, (4) orange bag from CDC. My advice:
  • For CHC->MCM
    • The backpack as a carry on
    • One orange bag as boomerang bag
    • Other orange bag for excess ECW
    • Suitcase stays as suitcase
  • For MCM -> NPX and NPX -> MCM
    • The backpack as carry on
    • One orange bag as carry on
    • Other orange bag for excess ECW
    • Suitcase stays as suitcase
  • For MCM -> CHC
    • The backpack as carry on
    • One orange bag as carry on (stuff backpack inside this if they get fussy about having only one carry on)
    • Other orange bag for ECW
    • Suitcase stays suitcase
• For your trip from CHC to MCM, pack a boomerang bag with (at least) two changes of clothes. Some people will tell you to not pack a boomerang. I disagree. I’d say you should carry a backpack (with your laptop and stuff in it) and then also one of the orange bags with your change of clothes and stuff.
• Once they take your bag dragged bag, you might not see it for a week. We got stuck at NPX waiting for a flight, and I was without my checked luggage for 6 days.
• For your trip from NPX to MCM, pack a really heavy carry on. I packed three days change of clothes, but then got stuck in NPX (without my bag!) for six days. I was very thankful I had my heavy carry on, even though it was a pain.
• Bring a good, sealing water bottle. You can also buy one when you arrive in Antarctica.
• Always always always pack your tennis shoes in your carry on. You do not want to be stranded in MCM for days and days with only bunny boots as footwear.

Logistics

• Do laundry in CHC. You’ll have been travelling for two days, and then you have two days to sit and wait in CHC. Don’t go to pole with four days of dirty laundry in tow. Do laundry in CHC.
• You will be given an opportunity to store bags of personal belonging at the CDC on the day of your clothing issue. So, if you want to camp in a tent around NZ when you get back from the ice, you can store that at the CDC.
• In MCM, do bag drag in two trips. Don’t try to haul all your luggage to 140 (the transport building) in one go, you’ll be miserable.
• They will squawk a lot about “one bag carry-on limits” in the paperwork and on the screens. Ignore them, >50% of folks bring two carry-ons, and no one will bat an eye.
• Before you leave for transport or for bag drag, check the computer monitors outside the galley in Building 155. Check this monitor (or the TV in your room) frequently for updates. You can also check the McMurdo intranet.
• They will make a big deal about the computer screening. Pay attention and do what they ask—it’s good for your computer. That said, if your computer fails the screening, they don’t check when you want to connect to the internet, so it doesn’t really matter.
• The military flights are really loud, and they will give you ear plugs to help. Some people have some success with ear plugs + noise cancelling headphones. In any case, you should bring something to read (like a kindle or book) because talking is totally out of the option, and music might be also. Some people watch a movie with subtitles on, but that’s personal taste I think.

Living and Working at Pole

• The NPX and MCM don't really have wifi. So if you have a mac, you really want to make sure not to forget your ethernet -> USB/thunderbolt adapter.
• You’ll be working at the ICL a lot, which is about a 2km walk (part of the return trip is uphill) from the South Pole Station. So be prepared to do some walking, as you’ll probably walk this twice a day (because you usually walk back to station for lunch). If you don’t want to walk that much, you might consider bringing lunch with you to the ICL everyday.
• The ICL has an outhouse and not a bathroom. No running water either. So pack water and be prepared.
• MCM sells tissues, but there aren’t many lying around. Pole as lots of tissues lying around everywhere.
• Pole has hand warmers available everywhere in great quantities—don’t buy or pack them. MCM has them in the “outdoor supply” closet in 155.
• Antarctica, and pole specifically, is really really dry. Assume you’ll go through ~1 chap stick once every week or two.
• The pole store (Pole Mart) is really well outfitted with basic necessities. You can buy cold meds, pain relievers, q-tips, eye glass repair kits, etc. I was surprised how much I could buy there. Don’t count on them having your favorite moisturizer or soap though—they only stock one kind of deodorizer per gender, for example.
• I highly recommend taking the Diamox they will offer you. At worst, it doesn’t help. Some people get the dry mouth side effect really bad, if so, talk to the physicians.
• Expect to wear your ECW every time you go outside. MCM is ~25-30F, and pole is hardly ever warmer than -15 or -10 F. The windchills frequently push down to -40F or -50F, even in condition 3. Folks that had been to MCM and were first time at pole didn’t realize that to go outside for any extended period of time, you really do have to be dressed fully (wool socks, carharts, balaclava, goggles, big red).
• Working at pole is really tough (considerably harder than in MCM). You are at >10,200 ft elevation, and you have no time whatsoever to acclimatize. The atmosphere is just thinner—there is just less oxygen, and you have to deal with it. Expect climbing stairs, lifting heavy boxes, etc. to wind you faster and to be more tired even after you’ve caught your breath. When you walk outside you’re wearing all your ECW, remember that you’re essentially mountain climbing with a 30 lb extra weight at 10,000ft elevation. It’s just harder. Take your first two or three days easy—that’s going to be frustrating. Invariably your flight will have been delayed and you will be behind schedule. But you will regret hurting yourself otherwise.

Food

• In MCM, some of the hot food is available 24/7, namely pizza and waffles. You can also always make a deli sandwich, get cereal, chips, and ice-cream along with juices.
• In NPX, hot food is only available during meal times, but definitely use the left-over fridge and microwave if you need food during an off-time. Also, in the bar area in the galley, there is usually chips (like goldfish, pretzels, and lays) in addition to a breadbox and peanut-butter jelly supplies.

Last Words

• Especially at pole, just sit down and say hi and start talking. Pole is extremely communal. People will think it’s weird if you don’t say hi in the hallway. People generally welcome a new conversation or new friend, so don’t be shy in this regard.
• Lots of people around you might be on their 10^th trip to pole. They are fountains of wisdom. Much of the lifesaving advice I got (like packing tennis shoes in my carry on) I only got because I had chatted with more experienced travelers. So don't be shy. It's everyone's first time to Antarctica at some point, and the "veterans" are usually thrilled to be talking to a new person.

1. Don't use adverbs. Quantify!
2. Refer to a figure or table before discussing it -- not after. 
3. The first sentence of a paragraph should summarize the whole paragraph. 
4. Know the difference between "that" and "which".
5. Be careful. Are you using "I", "we", or no identifier? Be consistent. Is it personal or objective? 
6. Be careful with past and present tense. Be consistent!
7. Avoid extreme words such as optimal, best, always, never, perfect.  A sentence containing such an extreme word is almost "always" inaccurate, and only invites the reader to argue with exceptions.
8. Brevity.  If you can say the same thing with fewer words, do it.  It will be more powerful.
9. Don't forget acknowlegements!  Funding agencies, or sources of funding, people who provided valuable advice.
10. Learn when to use hyphens
11. Define an acronym the very first time you use it (in the main text, not in the abstract), and then only use the acronym from then on.
12. Use Fig., Tab. and Eq. with the same abbreviation and capitalization consistently throughout. 
13. Every paragraph should have more than one sentence, and see #3.

Amy's advice

Remember that they are not always looking for the "best" person on some absolute scale, it's about "fitting into a slot"  (that's what my advisor told me once anyway)

Be able to say a few sentences on what you do, why it is interesting from a "bird's eye level."

What is your 5 year plan

What is your 30 year plan

Which grants will you apply for (one of them should be one of the prestigious awards like CAREER)

What will your grant proposal be about

Who will you work with here (distinguish yourself from others  -they never want two people doing exactly the same things - but find synergies too)

What lab space will you need (square footage)

What classses will you want to teach (don't say everything)

Have you taught before

Examples of projects for students -undergrads and grads, if applicable

Other jobs you are applying for

In your talk, give lots of general info.  One of the purposes of it is to see what your teaching would be like.  If you can introduce your research in a little different way that motivates it better, that's good.

Highlight what you did without going into so much detail that you lose people.

If you have a two-body situation, go in with a strategy for how you are going to bring it up, with who, and when.

What are you going to do if your experiments fail or are not funded

Jordan's Advice and Whittier colloquium 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uiobzv2d3o16s2r/Colloquium.pdf?dl=0

That is a link to the colloquium I gave recently at a successful job interview at Whittier College in Los Angeles.  Here is a link to a teaching example on electronic filters that they asked me to prepare:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wnkl9p4k5ebouxb/simple.pdf?dl=0

I spoke with Amy, Steve Barwick, and Scott Gaudi to prepare for this interview.  Scott Gaudi is an astronomy professor at OSU, and I was required to meet with him as part of my CCAPP fellowship.  All three individuals provided great advice.  Main takeaways, the stuff that stuck out for me:

1) Why here? Why this place? Why us? Be able to explain why you want this job, not just a job.

2) Do not for any reason reveal that you don't have a plan.  Be deliberate, be a professional.  For example, if they ask you to give a lecture, do not go over time.  Do make it as interesting as possible, for as many as possible.  Be able to explain every detail, but don't expect to be required to do it.

3) Absolutely be yourself, and put yourself in the right state of mind.  Have faith in yourself.  If you can't add the type of value for which they are searching, then it won't be a good fit anyways.  Make sure you ask questions about how life is like there, and how you can fit into their community.  A university is more than an office building, it's a scholarly community.  Good luck!

Carl's Advice (other than that already listed above)

1. For a colloquium presentation, try to make your slides general. You are an expert in your field but in all likelihood, no one else in the audience will be. Don't concentrate too much on details unless they are asked for.

2. It also helps to make a colloquium a little fun/inspiring. Don't make the presentation too goofy or else it might not be taken seriously enough but it helps to include elements that are relatable to a larger audience.

3. Questions to have an answer for:

        How many people will you look to have in your lab? How many undergraduate students and how many graduate students? How many post-docs?

        If the department you are applying to is mixed (physics and astronomy, natural sciences, etc.), how will you try to connect your work with the broader department atmosphere?

        Do you have experience in and plans for outreach? (not a critical component but it helps to indicate that you are interested in the broader community)

This is a checklist we should all complete when giving talks.

Note that the source .tex code is in the .tar.gz file.