SLB reviews

End of the month accounting and your boss's performance incentive bonus rules your life. You get promoted because they can earn more bonus by promoting someone. Likewise, you won't get promoted if it means their bonus will drop. Nothing matters but the reported profits and their bonus. The company is managed on a month to month basis with a long term outlook of about 3 months. They hire, fire, and transfer on a whim. I was transferred from Louisiana to Congo with 2 weeks notice, from Angola to UK with 1 weeks notice, etc, etc. Oh, and forget dual career, it only exists on paper. In reality, they use it to try to strong arm couples into taking horrible location assignments. "Oh you want to go dual career? Excellent, we can make that happen for you. We have a great position for you and your partner in Nigeria." -No thanks, I've been in Africa for a long time and would like to work elsewhere. "I see, well, we are transferring your partner to Nigeria anyway..."

There are long hours and early mornings regularly. Days off are iffy - depending on where you are and what the market is like you may not get any. Fifty hour stretches of non-stop work are not unheard of, and one hundred hour weeks can be expected. If you have researched working at Schlumberger even a little bit, you know that it is not a 9-5 job. Take that statement to heart. But there is a certain pride that comes from working the hours that are required, but this can be easily overlooked in the moment of exhaustion. The company is gigantic, and there are rules and checklists for every single step in a job. The job of Field Engineer means ensuring that these policies are fully followed. It can be a huge amount of work in a busy district that is short on people (most all of them). The US oilfield is significantly different than the rest of the world, but the company operates roughly the same everywhere. This has its benefits, but largely makes working in the US more cumbersome as the staffing levels in the US are much lower than everywhere else. An engineer fills in the gaps - sometimes working as a hand, a mechanic, an accountant, and a manager all in one day. If you are not mechanically minded, a job in the field will probably be largely baffling. Every job uses extremely complicated tools and machinery, and understanding the operation of all of it is necessary.