Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
There aren't many astronomy jobs that pay very well – but the Chinese authorities are offering just that for the director of scientific operation for its new Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope.
At 500m (1,640ft) across, FAST became the world's largest filled-aperture radio telescope when construction finished last year.
While the initial building is complete and nearly 10,000 people have been moved away from the instrument to cut down on polluting it with electromagnetic signals, the telescope still needs to be calibrated and fine-tuned.
[...] Unfortunately, finding a director with the necessary skills to do the job of managing and running the instrument has proven problematic. So a foreigner is now being sought to bring their experience to bear on the project.
"The post is currently open to scientists working outside China only," a human resources official at the Chinese Academy of Sciences told the South China Morning Post. "Candidates can be of any nationality, any race."
[...] It's a tough job, managing a facility that complex and handling the competing claims for time on the 'scope from scientists. The Academy of Sciences is asking for a professor with at least 20 years' experience in radio astronomy, as well as management training.
"These requirements are very high. It puts most astronomers out of the race. I may be able to count those qualified with my fingers," said Wang Tinggui, professor of astrophysics at the University of Science and Technology of China. "It is not a job for a scientist. It's for a superhero."
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The Arecibo Observatory is a 309 meter wide radio telescope located in Puerto Rico. Not only can it be used for passive observing of radio frequencies, it has also been used as an active source — to bounce radar signals off planetary bodies — and then use its receiver to perform imaging studies.
Hurricane Maria caused tremendous damage across Puerto Rico — many people are still struggling to find food, water, and power. Though most of the potential damage was mitigated, the observatory did sustain millions of dollars in damages and it is possible that this may lead to its being closed:
China still having trouble staffing up its mega-telescope
China has built a staggeringly large radio telescope in a remote part of the country, and, although it is the largest and most advanced instrument of its kind in the world, the country continues to have a difficult time staffing up the observatory.
Not only has the 500-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST instrument, still failed to attract a chief scientist, according to the South China Morning Post the facility is also struggling to attract two dozen researchers to work onsite to maintain the instrument and analyze data collected there.
One problem is pay. According to the Post, astronomers interested in joining working there should speak fluent English and expect to work in the remote location on a long-term basis. (The telescope is located in southwest China's mountainous Guizhou Province.) Compensation for the job is meager, at least by Western standards—about 100,000 yuan, or $14,400 annually.
Previously: China Announces Petascale Supercomputer for FAST Radiotelescope
China Builds World's Largest Radiotelescope
China Begins Operating World's Largest Radio Telescope
China Can't Find Anyone Smart Enough to Run its Whizzbang $180M 500 Meter Radio Telescope
Related: Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory Saved From Uncertain Fate
(Score: 2) by pkrasimirov on Wednesday August 09 2017, @10:34AM
> "It is not a job for a scientist. It's for a superhero."
That's a standard requirement for sysadmin. What about the midnight wake-up calls?
(Score: 1) by AssCork on Wednesday August 09 2017, @11:54AM
I bet if the Chinese adopted a similar immigration program like the U.S. H1-B, they'd have qualified applicants practically swimming over there!
At least get the U.S. nail salons to start putting up posters "WANTED: Star Man".
Just popped-out of a tight spot. Came out mostly clean, too.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday August 09 2017, @12:01PM (5 children)
Some things really are cross cultural. They want a guy with experience on a telescope invented recently. Only those with two decades of experience with Chinese made five hundred meter telescopes need apply. So they're only going to get liars as applicants.
Then they offered pay of half a bag of rice per month as pay, when competitors are offering 1M Ren/yer for a large scale managing director position, and they act surprised no one applied, why we'll "have to" get a cheap immigrant to do the jobs Chinese won't do. Increase pay to market? Unthinkable!
So they put it up on job boards and in India nobody checks references, ed, or experience, so some supposed IIT grad (LOL right, probably grade school dropout like everyone who claims to be a IIT grad) with 30 years experience as a managing director of a 500M Chinese made radio telescope (actually he's only 25 and has never seen nor touched a telescope), with both the pope and mr trump as (unchecked) references will apply, say "yes" to everything asked because thats culturally Indian, the failure of the tech interview will be blamed on the interpreter, and get the job for a quarter bag of rice per month as pay, which makes him the wealthiest man in his village in India. "Who cares if he's only 1% as productive as a local, he costs 0.0001% as much" which leads to discussions about how 200+ women cannot cooperate to conceive and birth a full term baby in less than a day, but such logic is beyond the ability of bean counters to understand.
Then when it crashes and burns the real candidate who was probably pre-selected all along because he's the CEO's nephew can swoop in and bypass all the HR crap because its an emergency and a special situation, and take the job for 5M ren/yr. Of which he will spend $740K/yr buying empty condos in silicon valley for investment that no one lives in, and the other $8K/yr he buys the half bag of rice per month as previously discussed.
(Score: 2) by sgleysti on Wednesday August 09 2017, @01:50PM
From your post:
"They want a guy with experience on a telescope invented recently. Only those with two decades of experience with Chinese made five hundred meter telescopes need apply."
From the article:
"The Academy of Sciences is asking for a professor with at least 20 years' experience in radio astronomy, as well as management training."
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 09 2017, @01:54PM (2 children)
Can we have a mod "Imagination run wild" please?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 09 2017, @03:18PM
But...but...but...now the Chinese are stealing our jerbs!
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday August 09 2017, @09:01PM
Its based on IT projects I've observed from a close-ish distance, there's no obvious reason why this management job would turn out different than IT management jobs I've seen crash and burn. I've managed to avoid being caught inside the fireball but after a couple of decades you can really see some crazy stuff out there.
(Score: 2) by Nobuddy on Thursday August 10 2017, @07:16PM
The pain is real. I had my company put out an ad fro a Java programmer. HR threw their standard "5 years' experience" on the ad. This was 1995.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 09 2017, @12:06PM (4 children)
Plenty of people can do a job without meeting the qualifications. But if you aren't qualified you get to die in the gutter instead.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday August 09 2017, @01:26PM (3 children)
Being able to "do the job" without being qualified is how you get such "minor" oversights as occurred in my last apartment, where the handyman who installed the shower didn't put a trap in the drain (which means sewer gas constantly venting into the bathroom, and no chance of recovering dropped jewelry).
Most jobs are relatively easy to do - doing them *right* is dramatically more challenging. I'm sure every programmer here has a laundry list of horror stories where they worked on a piece of software that some idiot got working "properly", in the ugliest possible way, with no regard for best practices or the sanity of future maintainers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 09 2017, @02:04PM (2 children)
> didn't put a trap in the drain
Ugggh! Didn't know that this was even possible, do you live where there are no plumbing/building inspectors? Anyway, it sounds like you've already left that apartment...
If you were still there, I'd suggest making an "inserted trap" which would be a simple 3D printer project, O-ring around the outside to seal to the drain. Could be very short vertically and still seal against light pressure from the sewer (relies on a good vent to control the internal pressure).
Might even be a useful part for plumbers, since sometimes there is very little vertical space available under a retrofit shower. I installed a shower once over a concrete floor, had to raise the pre-made shower base up on a layer of bricks to make room for the trap.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 09 2017, @08:10PM
In many cities in the U.S., if no one pulls permits, no one complains, or construction isn't visible from the street, there are no inspections. That is why I always check homes I and my family buy for what is referred to as a "pick up permit" on the assessor's website. What that means is that some unpermitted renovation or addition was noticed at that time.
An interesting story about how I learned about them is my friend worked for the assessors office and his job was to go to all the open houses for sale and look for such work. He only lasted 3 years in that job because despite the cover story and effort to minimize repeat contact, the real estate agents figured out who he was and why he was there and started to actively interfere with him because pickup permits can cause lots of problems for the parties involved with the transaction.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday August 10 2017, @01:34PM
Once I pointed out the problem the landlord had their new handyman install one, but that involved cutting through the tile floor to get to it. Major work to fix one forgotten piece.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday August 09 2017, @03:48PM (3 children)
Did you think "500 meter radio telescope" didn't sound cool enough?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by sgleysti on Wednesday August 09 2017, @03:54PM
Agreed. I'll bet whoever wrote that never read the book "Contact" or even watched the movie.
Still one of my all-time favorites.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday August 09 2017, @06:23PM (1 child)
It displaced an American as the biggest in the world, so it shall be treated accordingly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 09 2017, @07:55PM
All we have to do is turn Trump's hair into an antenna and we've gained the lead back.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 09 2017, @04:05PM
They are asking for a "prestigious" degree, "prestigious" teaching background, experience managing radio scopes, and proven technical aptitude. The better managers tend not to hang around universities too long, and there are not that many radio telescope compounds in the world.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 09 2017, @06:00PM
Send them some spinners to practice with.