My nephew will be graduating from college this May with an Industrial Engineering degree and he has been applying all over the place in hopes of finding the right job. He finally received his first offer and the offer is to work as a Field Engineer for Schlumberger. The job is not exactly in his field (I think the Field Engineering position is more inclined towards Petroleum Engineers than Industrial). He is willing to jump on the offer, but I am telling him to continue interviewing because I have heard conflicting things about the company. Moreover, I'm afraid that he is getting into something he doesn't know much about. Do any of you have knowledge on whether Schlumberger is a good company to work for? What are the advantages/disadvantages of working for Schlumberger and what are the advantages/disadvantages of working as a Field Engineer? Any and all help will be appreciated.
Well, I've worked as a contractor through Schlumberger for the last 3 years, for a client that they used to have the IT account for. I don't really have any complaints, but to be honest I rarely deal with anyone from Schlumberger. Also, I work in IT so I imagine my experiences would be totally different than what he is going for. I have a friend that is actually employed by Schlumberger, so I'll ask him what he thinks.
I've never worked for Schlumberger, but I have worked with them in the past. From what I've seen and heard, they are a good company to work for - good benefits, hands-on training. An entry-level field engineer will make a lot of money, and will work A LOT of hours. He'll start out with a pretty intensive training program for a few months. He should not worry about his degree in the slightest. At this point, having a petroleum degree instead of an industrial degree will only provide a bit of an advantage. By the time his training is over, he won't be at any disadvantage at all. In fact, an industrial degree actually benefit him since it is a lot of hands-on work, dealing with oilfield tools, and chemicals that are used in the completion/remediation/logging process. Is this an international or domestic position? Domestically, service companies like Schlumberger have offices in every podunk oilfield town in the western US. So odds are he will probably, at least once in the early part of his career, end up in some backwoods town that he absolutely hates. But that's OK, since he'll be working all the time anyways. This is a pretty general overview - I'm sure somebody else can give you something more specific. This is just what I've seen from an oil company's perspective. I interviewed with Schlumberger out of college, and even took a plant trip to Houston with them.
I worked for Schlumberger for four years. As a company, there are rock solid. They are one of the few companies that still give their employees pensions. As with any other job offer, if his boss and immediate co-workers are OK, then the job should be fine. Schlumberger is a large company and as such one will see the nature of that beast. The only really negative thing I saw at Schlumberger was that my boss sucked. I knew that going in, so it was my damn fault.
MY dad worked for Schlumberger; it is the top of the line oil company.... my dad is a petroleum engineer... and it is nothing like what fiel engineers do.... (your bro)his work is gonna involve harder non-office related work.... going to Rigs and stuff depending if its on-shore or off-shore work.... the thing is once your in ....your in.....once he makes some contacts he will be able to transfer into his own field...lots of people start of with field work and move one....its part of the experience... . the company is wicked and they give a lot of other perks and stuff.....SO TAKE THE JOB.
I worked for Schlumberger for a couple of years, but it was on the IT side. The oilfield side is pretty solid, but upper level mgmt made some stupid decisions the last 5 years that really screwed over IT - and the company as a whole. So I'm bitter, but I still think that if you are in oilfield, you'll be all right. Upside - solid oilfield services company. Downside - it was a little too French for me. If you work there long enough, you'll understand what I mean. The best way I can explain it is that the corporate culture at Schlumberger is not American, and I did not appreciate the ways in which it differed.
Here's the deal with them...they are a great company, especially if you are an engineer...BUT...the guys I know that started with them in the field thought it was a whole lot of work. You probably will have shift work and there's no telling where in the world you'll be. That said, the ones that stuck with it all have high paying manager jobs after a while, with stock, pensions, good medical coverage...the works. Heck...go try it for a year or two...if you don't like it, you'll have a top notch company on your resume'.
i work for slb. tell him to take the FE job and try to get into the wireline group. he will get all the training he needs and make really good money. it is hard work but you do it for 2-3 years and then move into an office somewhere. it is worth it. but i must stress, get into wireline!!
I worked as a Field Engineer for SLB in Wireline in Bakersfield for two years.. To sum it up in a few different ways: 1) For the rest of my life, I will never have to work as hard as I did for those two years. 2) Thanks to that experience I have been able to handle any sort of business application with confidence 3) If I owned my own company I would hire anyone who finished the training program for SLB for wireline. Some details... You will work your first 120 days, 7 days a week, 120 hour weeks. Sleep once every other day, manual labor, crazy stress, your in charge of millions of dollars in capital equipment, a crew of 2-3, etc. The turnover is crazy, you'll train for 8-10 months then your on your own. You make SLB there investment back in your first few weeks. Once you got the hang of it you'll start training someone. Then when you get burned out and quit they will take your place and the wheel keeps turning. Its actually very impressive how efficient the machine is. I used to know like 40 people in the field and now the number has dwinled down to 4. Make sure you know what your getting into. You have to have the resolve and endurance and have to be very SMART. Its no joke. When you go to Peptec in Kellyville, you take test that last over 12 hours and if you fail you'll be on a ticket hom the next day - fired and without a job. All that being said, it was the best time I never want to have again. I owe all of my business skills to SLB. If you have any questions feel free to email me. jk5566@hotmail.com I'd loved to talk about it.. i kinda miss those days!!!
Schlumberger was a client at my previous firm when I used to work in Houston. I heard nothing but good things from the engineers there. But then, there is no reason for them to complain to me.
there is a huge difference between the product center in sugarland and working in the field. huge. massive.
My wife works there. They have been nothing but great with her. She started as a temp, but after a couple of years she because Production Editor of their corporate magazine. When I was hired by Goldman in NYC, she could not transfer her job, However, they valued her as an employee enough to offer her a new gig in Investor Relations here in Manhattan. They have been training her for 6 months in this new gig and loves it, and recently she was promoted from trainee to IR specialist. She gets 4 weeks of vacation a year (ah the French) and great benefits. And tons of sick days if needed.
First of all, thank you to everyone for your input. It means a lot!! From what I understand from your posts, Schlumberger seems to be a good company, but the Field Engineering job seems to be a lesson in manual labor. Working 120 hours a week is ridiculous!! Is that an exception to the norm, or is that expected? Another question that I had was regarding the pay. They offered $4400 per month, which includes a $900 per month training bonus. After training is over, the $900 bonus goes away, but then you supposedly get job bonuses for every job you complete. How much do those job bonuses typically amount to? From a financial perspective, is it worth working 120 hours a week? I would hope that you are compensated royally for all of the work you are putting in. About how much do you end up making per month with the job bonuses? Once again, thanks to everyone for your input
it can be very worth it if he is international status. slb works everywhere especially the FE's. slb has salary multipliers if you work in dangerous countries. i would say if you friend wants to work abroad then slb is a great company to work for. i am not an FE but i believe that the bonuses (wireline only) are depending on the total value of the job. so if you go to a job and run 4 or 5 different 1 million dollar+ tools (like radiation, log while drilling, resistanc, perf) then the bonus will be very good. f the invoice is low then your bonus is low. they also have jobs that usually post on a board at the yard and you choose an extra job if you have downtime to get extra money. these are 'dirty' jobs. keep in mind that you typically stay in company apt. with your crew and all expenses are paid when your in the field. yes the field work is very hard, but this is why i said to get into wireline. it is not as physical as others. stay away from cementing, anadrill, well completions, coiled tubing. all these are much more difficult and the jobs themselves do not cost as much as wireline/tools. tools is where the money is. you can even get training in specialized tools if you try hard enough that cost millions of dollars. gotta play the politics for this one. stay away from sis, ipm, geoquest, and western geco subsids. unless you want to get layed off p.s. if you want to advance within the company, learn french! I work for slb in Houston and it is very very french. it's kind of sickening. GOODLUCK!
I like how any opportunity for an Office Space reset is taken full advantage of here in the BBS hangout....
I work for MCI and I work on the Schlumberger account team, as well as HP. Most of the people we have dealt with have been a pretty good group of guys, and I am actually friends with a Lady over there and she loves working there! Hope that helps....
