Schlumberger Reviews in Denver, CO Area

Pros

Great people, intelligent, great environment

Cons

Large company with big bureacracys

Advice to Senior Management

enable employees to do their jobs without non-value added ruls.

Pros

working for schlumberger makes more aware of technology. has very good tools for directional drilling and logging. after recent merges with major bit company Smith and mud logging company Geoservices Schlumberger become more powerful.

Cons

If you are a drilling engineer you will be looking forward to be involved more in drilling operations. Service DEs are more expected to well planning which is not really drilling engineering.

Advice to Senior Management

may be company should hire more advanced drilling engineers and really challenge them and get a real drilling company image.

Pros

learning oportunities are immense, opportunities to grow into a good leader, great challenges

Cons

work/life balance, salaries are not that great in comparaison to other competitor

Advice to Senior Management

how can we work on the Work/life balance

Pros

Schlumberger does actually try very hard to take care of its employees and official policies give employees many opportunities that would be very difficult to find in other companies. Schlumberger has not only has plans in place to help employees move to locations around the world, but encourages this type of movement within the company. The health care, dental, retirement and stock purchase plan actually seem to do a very effective job at helping all employees get the most out of their pay. There are career development plans that are reviewed yearly and personal goals and objectives set to help employees actually grow as people as well as grow within the company. From what I have seen, this is taken very seriously by everyone and is not just empty words and promises, but actual commitment to keeping employees happy. Overall, Schlumberger is a good place to start a career.

Cons

There is a culture in Schlumberger to continually improve processes and limit mistakes by keeping track of mishaps and hazards no matter how small. While this is a good thing on the surface, this generally leads to policies and standard procedures to be changed without enough thought on how the changes will effect other areas. This tends to lead to continual modification of polices that counter each policies' effectiveness. One oddity that this has led to is a company wide requirement that all employees back their cars into parking spaces when parking. No joke, there was a problem with people backing out when leaving and not paying enough attention so they force people to back in, or at least pull forward when leaving. In addition to having parking policies, everyone in Schlumberger is required to pass a 'Commentary Drive' driving test that requires employees drive a car around with a trainer and tell them what they are doing the entire time ( like: "Im looking in my rearview mirror, there is a car behind me that may be following to close" ). This would make sense if it were require of individuals where driving on company time, however, it applies to everyone that has a drivers license.

Advice to Senior Management

Schlumberger is run pretty well from the top down, and would work flawlessly if it where not for the misunderstanding of some middle managers.

Pros

The exposure to different places, cultures, people. Schlumberger has a truly multicultural environment, with people from all over the world at any location or office. The training is the best in the industry. The advancement opportunities are plenty, especially for those who perform well. There always is a possibility to change during the career and do something new or do the same in a different place, with different people.

Cons

Personal life has to be sacrificed at the beginning of the career, but eventually it is possible to find that balance.
Compensation is generally very good, except in the USA and Europe.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay closer attention to people's needs

Pros

There are many reasons to work at Schlumberger because it's really up to the employee. Great pay, travel opportunities, career growth. Your development will be based on how hard you work on projects. Bonuses vary from project to project thus far I know. As for traveling, if you graduated from the states then you will be working within the states or gulf of mexico. You can petition for international assignment usually after three years in the company.

Cons

Obliviously, what I wrote sounds great but everything has a price. One of the biggest downfall is lack of free time. And when free time is available you can be randomly called for your services because of a problem at a client's site.

Advice to Senior Management

I believe they need to create a leadership development program that gives hands experience for all incoming engineers and not segregate it to one service.

Pros

Good company, fair pay, good opportunity for advancement, opportunity to see and or live in many areas of the world.

Cons

The long hours are the toughest part.

Advice to Senior Management

Better practical focus on work/life balance

Pros

Schlumberger allows you to travel alot, experience things you wouldn't normally experience on a regular basis. The pay is decent

Cons

The main one would probably be the time spent away from home. I'm a single person and its a disadvantage to me as well. Other companies have set schedules where their hands work two weeks on and one off and Schlumberger seems as if they can't incorporate that into their company. I think if we worked a set schedule whether it be a month or two weeks and knew at the end of that time period we could go home it would be better.

Advice to Senior Management

Try to create a set schedule for persons working. I understand that we work in a 24hr 7days a week 365 days a year job but there are ways to have a set schedule to have people replace others who may have been on the job for a long time. It gives everyone a chance to recuperate from previous jobs and get ready for any upcoming jobs. I think a well rested hand is a lot better than a tired disgruntled employee.

Pros

It's a good way to enter the industry. Unlike many employers they are (or were before the current crash in oil prices?) willing to hire younger employees and invest substantially in their training. They offer many travel opportunities -- one even hears rare stories of travel to Paris (as opposed to the more common location in -- take your pick -- ND, OK, TX, etc.). Most of my fellow employees are intelligent and friendly, although it's such a large organization it's impossible to know if this is uniformly the case. And hey -- the company stock has lost roughly half its value in the past three months and they haven't fired anyone yet, so it certainly could be a lot worse.

Cons

The organization is very, very large. It's important to emphasize that -- as a relatively junior employee, it's easy to get lost. The place can be quite bureaucratic and is full of rules, regulations etc. -- keeping up with all the paperwork can be draining, especially when you're still expected to keep up with an ample workload. And about that workload -- it can be intense, especially for field personnel. The pay really isn't sufficient to cover the hours I put in, although there are many jobs within the organization which are better paid than mine. And finally, as a critique of the industry more than a problem with Schlumberger per se, at the end of the day you're little more than a technician. There are only so many iterations of the same problems, a pretty constant set of solutions and devices which Schlumberger sells to solve them, and once you've seen them all (or even just most of them) it gets pretty boring and pretty routine. Creative thinkers would be better served somewhere else.

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to tone down the bureaucracy and red tape. Sure, most of it is well intentioned or in the name of safety, but the fundamental fact is that they ask their employees to put in extremely long hours in dangerous and dirty situations for what is (in my case at least) the bare minimum of pay. When I get home, I don't want to jump through hoops, and I don't want to fight to find an HR representative to work out the most basic of issues. That's just plain frustrating.

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.