M-I Swaco Reviews

Former Employee – worked at M-I Swaco full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – M-I SWACO will give you all the training that you need to be successful in the field. There is always someone that you can call or email if something you encounter on the job stumps you (in the field OR in the office) and the atmosphere is generally very collegial and friendly. Compensation is fair for the work performed (some of the competition pays more, but with a MUCH heavier workload) and although within the company some of the opportunities for promotion in your current role are limited, there are plenty of opportunities to move into other roles within the company or to competitors if that is the way you need to go.

Cons – Some of the positions at M-I are going to have you away from home A LOT. Sometimes unpredictably so. Sometimes for a long time at a stretch. If you work in the field, you are GOING to get dirty. You may get sent to places that aren't so nice, and may have to survive in places that are going to challenge you. But if you are an Indiana Jones or MacGyver-type, that won't matter much to you. Office work can be pretty boring at times.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't let Schlumberger taint the culture at M-I SWACO. M-I always had good work-life balance, training that makes sense to workers, and a family feel to it. Schlumberger tends to have a lot of very competitive personalities, long (unrealistic) work hours for the types of work that they do (in the office, not the field) and can be overbearing. Don't let the Schlumberger tendencies to do work for work's sake impinge on the effectiveness, efficiency, or MORALE of your work force.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at M-I Swaco full-time for more than a year

Pros – The salary is fairly decent and this place is a good place to start in oil and gas if you are a recent grad with a bachelors. The work atmosphere is pretty friendly and everyone goes by first names.

Cons – Don't count on advancing in the company anytime soon. Management is pretty set on keeping people where they are. Employees aren't trained properly to fully understand why they are doing what they are doing in the workplace. Knowledge is power, which means that knowledge upsets management and urges the newly knowledged to seek a better salary from a competitor with a better focus on how to manage employees while keeping career advancement in mind for all employees. With this company, all of the ideas always come from the same people who have been there for at keast 20 years. New people aren't trained enough to have a good grasp on background information and stand a fair chance at being innovative. I also find that being here does not allow me to apply the knowledge from my bachelors in chemistry at all. Don't count on getting to go to mud school (that of m-i swaco is considered to be pretty darn excellent) anytime soon, where you can get a grasp on everything and incorporate your degree into your work.

Advice to Senior Management – Communicate more effectively, actually train employees, and just plain keep employees' interests in mind. Perhaps a management consulting firm should step in and provide team building and communication seminars? Also, management needs to work on being more proactive about having its employees' best interests by not getting stomped on by slb on pretty much everything. It should not be that m-i swaco employees are considered second-class employees in the face of slb.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at M-I Swaco

Pros – Good pay
Two weeks off every month
Good benefit package
Excellent pay

Cons – When on location not much back up
Company organization can be lacking at times.

Current Employee – been working at M-I Swaco

Pros – Good benefits compared to competitors and curently strong ties within manager employee relationship.

Cons – As company grows and combined with Sclumberger meger employee manager relationship is alienated along with bullying tactics on personal & work life from Schulmberger.

Advice to Senior Management – Overwhelming need to hire additional staff for customer, company, and operational needs. Staff reduction was done on the bottom end of the company that plays a key role in "day to day" customer support. Thus leaving current staff overwhelmed and basically operating company as an upside down pyramid.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at M-I Swaco

Pros – Our office has a great group of people who have all "been there" and gone through the hardships of solids control. Everyone seems to be on my side with performance resulting in getting the job done in a timely fashion.

Cons – If you do not want to be away from home this is not a job for you. The great thing about me working here is getting to appreciate my family more than I would if I was here all the time.

Advice to Senior Management – A posting of classes to take at corporate would be a great thing for techs/mechanics to be able to see.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at M-I Swaco

Pros – The management was very open door with lower level employees. You were able to know where you stood within the company. They allowed you opportunities for growth and training.

Cons – Certain areas were very political and therefore it did not always matter how much experience or skill you had but rather how much upper management liked you.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen better to employees and judge more based on skill and experience.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at M-I Swaco

Pros – It's a decent company, even a good one, overall. They are a market leader. People can move to different areas in the company. There are a lot of good people at the company.

Compensation is fair but not spectacular unless you are among a select few specialized operational departments. Benefits are decent and the company does a few family-oriented things. As the company is very distributed around the world, each site is smaller and despite the overall size, working there can have the feeling of a medium-size company. If you get in to the right place, it can be fun to work there. Headquarters employees that do good work and are willing to communicate and get involved in the breadth of their tasks will meet other people and could even get on a first name basis with executives; try that at an IBM or Chevron.

International travel opportunities are there for certain jobs.

Although there are some cons (see below) the top executives seem to manage the company shrewdly; with a few exceptions they are generally careful about their acquisitions, and the company's growth and global footprint lead to all kinds of interesting work.

Cons – It can be a good job, but not always a good career. Advancement seems to come primarily through operations and select groups in finance.

IT in particular has a limited strategic approach and tends to be reactive and subservient to finance. It could do considerably more to benefit the company but doesn't seem to have the vision and verve to get there.

The company runs non-ops divisions very lean and IT and accounting personnel can be put into poor work/life balance situations; recognition for extraordinary effort can be very inconsistent. The leanness and tendency of the company to expand without growing internal departments can mean more work over time with little advancement opportunity.

Family and friends of executives get jobs and sometimes also any available upward mobility. It's ok when the person is a decent worker, but that's not always the case. Managerial competence varies as it does in most companies, but some definitely play favorites.

Advice to Senior Management – Respect all divisions of the company, not just operations. If you're going make everyone go through LEAN just like you do with safety, then stick to it and let other departments engage improvements. Understand that high instances of turnover in certain departments IS an indicator that you are not competitive among your peers in retaining employees, and this is conduct unbecoming of a company that wants to stay a market leader. There is a knowledge cost from turnover that does affect the bottom line. That goes for acquisitions too; you may be careful in picking your purchases, but in being abrupt in the transition, are you losing key players from the acquired company that might have been beneficial?

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at M-I Swaco

Pros – Good business model, knowledgeable leadership
Family-like atmosphere/good internal relationsips

Cons – Disconnects between strategy and execution
Lack of career growth and development
Highly dependent on customer demand - poor job security

Advice to Senior Management – Move beyond words (plans, rhetoric) and show commitment to strategy via goals, objectives, growth.

Current Employee – been working at M-I Swaco

Pros – Excellent benefits, reasonable vacation time with pay, stability, 401k, well known, safe, certain positions get a truck with gas card!

Cons – Low pay for industry! Our location has the lowest pay scale and it sucks. Takes forever to get a raise but this could just be the local management. Headquarters is out of Texas and we are in California. Other than that you have to work ALOT of hours to get a descent pay check. ALOT=70-80 hrs a week. Family is somewhat sacrificed but it pays the bills

Advice to Senior Management – Hmmm maybe offer better hourly pay or incentive bonuses. I know this career doesn't take the smartest person but it attracks the idiots. If there was better pay it would make it more attractive to the right people and you would have a better crew of motivated individuals.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at M-I Swaco

Pros – It's a job that pays and it is stable with relatively little chance of downsizing. If you can get hired in as management it might be better.

Cons – The pay is not competitive, they will work you like a dog with no work life balance. There is no chance for advancement unless your direct supervisor happens to drop dead. The benefits are not competitive and the sick and vacation time leave alot to be desired

Advice to Senior Management – You don't own these people, you act like they are your personal property. Telling them how to park, when they can use their cell phones on their personal time, etc. My manager actually sent me an e-mail threatening to write me up for being on my cell phone at lunch on a public street, give me a break.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend