HR Personal Questions in Schlumberger Interview
First Stage Interview in Schlumberger Company
• What is the most important moment in your stay at IIT?
• What is the most challenging thing you have done in IIT?
• Why Schlumberger, what do you know about us, what did you think of the pre-placement talk?
• If you are on a plane with one parachute and Hitler (Answer to who is your political role model), what would you do to survive?
Few things to convince them that you will stick with the company
• You want to do a hands-on technology job
• You like adventure and hard work
• You like the idea of a mobile, glitzy well paid life
Second Stage Interview in Schlumberger Company
The second interview was shorter. For a few others, it was one pointed question. One fellow was asked what he would choose "A pen or a pencil?" - he picked the pencil, because if he made a mistake he could correct it. For me it was a series of questions, where they were trying to test consistency. They asked me if, after five years with the company, I would like to do a part time MBA or be a project leader in Angola – I said that I'd prefer to learn by dirtying my hands. They asked me where I would love to work – I told them that I love what I know of Europe and would like to work there – they questioned me on my knowledge of the languages on my resume and I told them that I wasn't in touch and couldn't possibly make conversation.
Tips for People Targeting in Oilfield Service Companies
For people targeting positions in Oilfield Service Companies:
_ Research the difference between Schlumberger, Transocean, Shell, BP, BG.
_ Try to understand the differences in upstream, downstream, services and integrated companies.
_ Try to understand the basic terms – a rig, onshore well, barrel rates of oil, crude.
_ Try and read up a bit on the oil industry and its (atleast recent) history.
_ Try to find out about life on the rig and career paths.
_ Typically, oil industries do not hire people with more than a year or two of experience – they expect fresh graduates to grow within the company.
_ In about 40-50 months you can expect to have a stable management job, with a more stable place of assignment.
_ You are expected to train in-house both technically as well as in your soft skills and management.
_ Remuneration and support are very lucrative – and you can save most of it. Pay scales are moderately higher when you work internationally.
Transocean is Oil & Gas (O&G further) Industry's premier driller, which statistically means that out of every three wells drilled offshore two are by Transocean. Now before we talk about Transocean further, I think this is the best time to clarify the various E&P sector functions. O&G industry can be divided largely into two parts; the Upstream Business and the Downstream Business
These are managed by 3 types of companies.
Schlumberger Oil Companies: They own the Oil Fields, produce O&G out of them, process it and finally market it. Eg. ONGC, Shell, BP, Reliance Energy etc.
Schlumberger Drilling Contractors: These companies plan and drill the wells for the Oil companies. Eg. Transocean, Global Santa Fe, Noble etc.
Schlumberger Service Companies: These provide specialized services in the drilling process. Eg. Schlumberger, Baker Hughes, Halliburton etc.
Schlumberger is an oilfield service provider, and as such, we help other companies in the oilfield sector in the various stages involved in E & P (Exploration and Production) starting from seismic exploration, to the actual drilling and well services. Given the wide range of activities, Schlumberger OFS (OilField Services) has a number of business segments dealing with the various aspects. Recruitment for all these segments happens simultaneously during campus placements. And you do NOT have the option of choosing which segment you go to once hired (at least we didn't). Once hired for Slb, you could end up in any of these.
Actual Work Schlumberger Company
Rather than concentrating on the actual work (that will simply take too long, most of you will have absolutely no clue what I'm talking about, and you will be given extremely detailed training if/when you get in) let me stress on a few other things that I consider more important for choosing to take up a job like this or not. Firstly, life on a ship is nothing like anything most of you have ever experienced. More so the fact that while on the ship there are no weekends or holidays. Everyday is a work day and you work a 12 hour shift. The schedule tends to get very repetitive as the work you do everyday is basically the same, i.e. troubleshooting, maintenance, overseeing a sequence of operations. But given that troubles come in many shapes and sizes, you never know what to expect.
The job itself involves a huge variety of tasks. Understanding and ability to
troubleshoot software, ditto for hardware, computer and otherwise, and also a lot of miscellaneous other things which primarily require a lot of hard work, patience and perseverance. Expect to travel a lot, but you won't get to see too much during the one day stays for crew-change. Still, if you want to, you can sample what each place has to offer. And be ready to face rather extreme weather! Get to meet and work closely with a lot of people from a lot of different nationalities. You get to have a family like you never could have imagined. All you've got to have is a love for adventure and the ability to appreciate an exceptional life that offers you truly amazing experiences
Schlumberger Interview
