Schlumberger Reviews

I have been working at Schlumberger

Pros – It's a pretty adventurous life, no routine. If you like that, it is perfect, but you must have the "profile"or it is a living hell. YOu have important responsabilities from the begining, which is motivating. YOu learn a lot and run the show. The opportunities are good, the personal department works with you.

Cons – Work/life balance is pretty much unexistent in the field. Forget about nice food and sleeping. You work 24 hours, and if the well is giving you a hard time hang in there. I believe fot this tyoe of job employees should have more time off instead 5 weeks working for 1 off.

Advice to Senior Management – to care more about personal side of the company. i believe the main reason good people leave is because they are over burden with work

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Schlumberger

Pros – Schlumberger is a great place to work if one is mobile, ie move from city to city or even country to country every 2-3 years. The international mobility is what attracted me to SLB and it paid off both in experience as well as money. Those not willing to move around have fewer opportunities. Also the "local" compensation packages are not competitive especially when one considers the level of responsibility even lower level employees have. It makes for a very challenging and interesting career but the compensation is not great.

Cons – Whether or not your SLB employment is enjoyable and rewarding will very much depend on your direct manager. Each department is rather independent with managers able to make decisions on their own. A good manager will fight on your behalf (the personnel department is appalling) and a bad one will simply ignore any issues. This means that your experience will never be consistent throughout your career, and even if you do not move around, your manager certainly will.

Advice to Senior Management – 1- Clean up the personnel function. It is TRULY appalling. It almost seems as though their bonuses are based upon how much they are able to withhold from other employees.
2- Increase the compensation packages. Too many good people leave because they can get more elsewhere.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Schlumberger

Pros – international career and cross functional training

Cons – networking becomes key as you grow, not just hard work

Advice to Senior Management – listen to employees

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Schlumberger

Pros – To make a lot of money right out of school. Usually left alone to do your job. Managers try to communicate with personnel as little as possible so you can do pretty much whatever you want as long as you get the job done. Type of people that usually hire on are mostly really friendly and easy to get along with. Since they work you really hard everyone has this need to party hard when they have time off. So slb parties can get pretty crazy. Also, because your life is totally out of sync with the normal world you more than likely will get into a relationship with someone you work with because they are the only ones that can understand. However, slb does very little to do anything for duel career couples.

Cons – Not working with very intelligent people.
Throwing your personal life away.
Constantly having to C.Y.A.
Getting dirty.
It seems that they actually punish you in this company for having an education. Engineers who have at least a 4 year degree make about 20 to 30% less than "speacialists" who do the exact same job and but usually have a two year degree from an online University in anything. They tell you that engineers have a higher salary than specialists but what they don't tell you is they are not only treated better when it comes to time off because they are more "family orientated" but they also get a higher job bonus which is where the money is really at.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't treat the employee's as assets that can be replaced at anytime.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Schlumberger

Pros – SLB provides great benefits that match other large companies.

Cons – They expect total dedication to the company while providing very little in return. There are no internal job postings so all job promotions rely on the good old boy network. SLB's culture extremely hostile to its IT division is always seeking cuts to the point that IT provides substandard support and lacks an innovational spirit.

Advice to Senior Management – Allow better balance for your employees and allow IT to become a leader in service to the company.

I have been working at Schlumberger

Pros – Schlumberger has pretty good pay and benefits. I would say the compensation is better than any other service company on the job market from speaking with employees from other service companies. They train their engineers pretty well. I appreciate the fact that they only allow previous field personnel within the company to move into management. The vacation of 3 weeks/year from the get go is not too bad if you can schedule it. They have a job bonus system when your in the field that is pretty good for the sacrifice in personal life for the field life. The perks are very good if you can make it more than 3 years with the company.

Cons – Management is only concerned about numbers and generating revenue. The employees are just treated like a number and not much care/concern is provided toward employees. Sometimes you may work 100 hours/week but your ONLY reward is compensation. No pat on the backs or good jobs from upper management. Also, the work environment and morale is very poor. The operators are very unhappy with the company and management. They are not afraid to let you go if they think your performance is not up to par!!!! Also, their needs to be a better link between the field and office.

Advice to Senior Management – Start treating your employees with more respect and maybe it will trickle its way down to the field level. Also, come up with ways to better support your field personnel instead of just compensation. We know this does not work or your attrition rate would not be so high every year.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Schlumberger

Pros – Getting my pay check to buy food on the table and support my family.

Cons – 1) Job role defined unclearly. Managment calls it as team work. But with no individual contribution recognized, how can anybody progress?

2) Performance review is meaningless. It is almost end of Q3 of 2008, no objective set yet.

3) Matrix organization structure making communication lost sometime. A bunch of people, no one really taking responsibility.

Advice to Senior Management – Thin the oversized supporting team, such as supply chain, quality, etc.

I worked at Schlumberger

Pros – I always wanted to work for Schlumberger, ever since I graduated from college. Finally, after many years in the industry I managed to secure a nice position in Texas. It is truly an international company, with lots of different fields of expertise, many challenges and good benefits. The training was distracting but I didn't mind (Schlumberger University). The Sugar Land campus is so beautiful, the bank is right there and the commute was fantastic. It was hard to leave after all those years in the same department... not.

Cons – Poor leadership and few opportunities for advancement. The best of the best are hired in and then immediately pigeon-holed into A, B and C employees (D employees are on their way out). On the leadership front, it went like this: someone comes in from another country to become section head or department head (typically these people were promoted outside of the US). These supposed "leaders" try to make their mark by suggesting a number of awful projects in order to continue to be promoted later on to new positions in foreign lands. Once their work visas run out, they move on to the next cushy expatriate job. In the meantime, the rest of us are left behind supporting poorly managed projects. I guess I got lost in the system having worked in a single department for years with no grade promotions and only meager salary increases-not even cost of living increases. Wait, here's the last drop. They decide to "trim" the workforce by laying off people with dozens of years of experience all over the campus. Most of those long-time contributors were asked to leave on the spot one fine day. Talk about morale enhancement. Needless to say, not wanting to be on the next casualty list, as soon as an opportunity came along I left.

Advice to Senior Management – Read the Peter Principle-we now know why and how you made it up there!

I have been working at Schlumberger

Pros – Opportunities for learning are tremendous. The highest level of information and development in the industry.

Cons – Schedule and work/life balance is lopsided. It is difficult to strike a balance and fit the Schlumberger culture, in spite of what management says.

Advice to Senior Management – Quite a few leave for a better work/life balance. THose that stay need to realize the "glory days" and "war stories" are fun to hear but not enriching in life.

I have been working at Schlumberger

Pros – Excellent training program. Will develop you both mentally and also physically. Great benefits.

Cons – Very demanding hours. Tough field conditions. Could be frustrated sometimes if you have to troubleshoot on location.

Advice to Senior Management – Great work, but need to be more relax sometimes..

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend