Christine, i'm office based too, Production Engineer. btw, never mentioned that you'd be at SLB the whole of your working life, just saying that you will get jaded working here.

SLB as a stepping stone is very good, although jumping to another Company after WG is a little tough. You're going to be doing what at WG? DP? Then your outlook is a little bleak though, although Jason has a presence here.

LOL! we'll see how it goes when you actually join! Look me up, I'm in Rohas as well, though at the towers most of the time.

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allenultra, I know that Christine isn't going to the field, but there are challenges to desk jobs as well! although kalau betul DP, biasa je kot.

Haha... yea... i know, seen those situation in Shell as well, exhaused, tired sick etc. I'll be working in the processing team, along with my 3 other coursemates. See u there when there's a chance. btw, what do u mean by ''your outlook is a little bleak''?

Thz for the advises..yeah i agree many ppl aren`t aware of geophysics yet..dats realy an advantage..hey, wat actually does a geophysics do? other than searching for resevoirs and data stuffs..do they get to work upstream? or just on land in office?

1 conclusion bout salaries..it usually depends on the candidates abilities and how good the company is right? theres no telling tat a person frm office job(a bit easy but dull) could earn higher than a person frm offshore(tiring n hard)..true? I still hope i could achieve 5k as freshie..tell me bout how u get a raise in pay?

Christine..
3) I dont think that u need to waste so much money in private college etc. If u could, gettin' into local university is really not bad either. Think twice, is it wise for u to waste more money just to earn the same amount of money as the local uni students? Also, some companies, for example exxon mobil takes degree holders from local students while for oversea students, they are pretty much prefer the master students. Im malaysia, experience is more important than education level. U know why? because not all the things u learn in uni is used in ur future job. Hence, u'll need to learn new things when join the company.
-->yeah agree! its mor advisable do local degrees if u wana work locally..unless u plan to work outside m`sia,lets say s`pore ,then its better to get a degree frm their univ...correct?
Christine u work in an office? tell me bout the life of geophysics in an office..i`m mor interested in working in an office environment rather than the offshore..

This post has been edited by pc123: May 22 2008, 06:33 PM

welcome~ Geophysics work is related to find anything under the ground. Besides looking for oil, we can work in the mining company as well, as long as to find any related things the company want. Besides, because what we study about is mostly on the seismic wave, we can involve in jobs that are related to earthquake, tsunami etc for other countries. We're mainly concentrating on inspecting the underground condition by using different geophysical method such as gravity, electromagnatic, seismic etc, which consume lower cost compare to engineering method such as boring. That is why geophysical method is so demanded. and Yea, geophysical's jod also ranges from technical to management stuff. They are either based in office, marine, or land operation. All these 3 options have their own advantages, depending on the demand of the individuals. geophysicist can be divided into 3kinds as well, data aquisition, processing and interpretation. Data aquisition is mainly on acquiring the data from the site, modelling the reservoir etc, processing is on QC the data, to increase its quality for better interpretation. Interpretation is on interpreting the precise location of oil, the quantity etc. Hence, we need to deal with the data by using software.

Salary. Yea, depending on the company and the capability of a person to upgrade hinself. Salary of office based is not much different from that of offshore-based in term of digit and number. The main different is that offshore-based salary is count in US dollar... while for home country office-based, the salary is in malaysia ringgit.... haha... now u know y.... But if u're based in other country's office, then ur salary will be very high also... Tell u sth.... it wont be very hard for geophysicist to work in offshore. Like what i said, we deal wt data. For example, for data-processing, all we need to do is to sit in the room and deal with data, but those hard work will usually be done by engineers. Hence, engineers are really tough and impressive.

Haha, even if u wan to work in other countries, u dun have to go to oversea's college as well. My senior is working in Dugeo. She's trained in Australia and i heard that she'll soon be based in australia as well. Ha ha... Many malaysian working in spore nowadays even though they are not graduates from spore.. I would say tat highly demanded geophysicist are those with vast experiences. With experience, u'll be valuable, and many companies will start to dig and look for you with attractive benefits and $$, as said by my great great senior who has been working in exxon mobil for 27years.

Office life... Not as dull as ppl say. y? Because u'll face a lot of challenges when dealing with the data. Small mistake might lead to big problems... Office environment is depending on the company as well. I havent start to work wt slb but i can share wt u some experience when in doing internship in shell. Office life is really depending on the ppl working there, the culture. In shell, teamwork is very important, hence, makes the relationship between every colleague very good. Communicating openly, making jokes when free, and some even bring food to share. Some of the data processing step will consume a lot of time which need u to leave the computer there to finish the job before proceeding to another step. That is the time when u begin to see ppl walking around, joking, having tea, some titbits, going back to fetch kids and come back again to do the final touch of the day. It can be tedious also sometimes when u couldnt get the good result and need to do the correction over and over again. Seems to be scary huh? But something important, i saw the joy on the face when they got good result, satisfaction on the things they do. I dunno where the energy come from but i saw a colleague who work day and night in the office, sleeping only 4hours a day to finish the job and dun even wan to waste a minute to rest even when the manager told her to take some break. Haha....Sometimes u need to attend meeting, presenting the result, going for courses in both local and oversea etc. Maybe it will be bored sometimes, busy sometimes, tiring sometimes but if to compare, what other jobs outside that can make u earn more money with little effort? haha... there is but not many... not matter what path are u going to take in the future, i wish u all da best...

Thz thz alot for sharing..vry valuable info..i never noe geophysics is so interesting..lol vry good elaboration..thz thz again..

Wat bout mechanical or petrol as well as chem engineers get involved into office jobs lik geophysics does? any ideas or experience?

This post has been edited by pc123: May 22 2008, 09:43 PM

Chem Engineer, office job = Process Department
Mechanical Engineer, office job = Mechanical, Mechanical/Piping, Pipelines Department
This for job scope in oil n gas consultant firm.

Petroleum Engineering no idea, don't meet a lot people from this discipline.
Met a UTM Petro Eng grad, she was working Pipeline Integrity Management, now in Pipelines department (consultant firm).

UTP Petro Eng is more to geoscience, well design, drilling. Just check the subjects offer will provide u a clearer picture.

hey can you tell me what you do as a production engineer, do you work on site or office? Can you work offshore? What major did you do( mechanical, chemical , etc?). I have heard abt drilling and reservoir engineers so far, thinking about going into production. And is it true for petroleum engineering grads that most of them branch out in reservoir? Coz my senior told me that drilling will go to mechanical/mining engineers, and production to chemical engineers. Thanks.

This post has been edited by december88: May 23 2008, 06:45 AM

Anyone in Kemaman? I got an offer fr SLB, FET based in Kemaman.. Status is home country mobile . . what does that mean ?

This post has been edited by pinkdalmation: May 23 2008, 09:47 AM

Lets see, background is from Uniten, degree Electronics / Electrical Engineering. got the conditional offer before i sat for my final sem final exams, so enjoy a bit last few months at Uni. Luckily passed all my subjects!

Anyway, SLBs initial offer was for me to join Wireline, but I didn't want to become a field engineer, plus Wireline is the most challenging segment (albeit the most rewarding in terms of renumeration. Imagine getting a percentage of your service ticket, when your service ticket is a couple of million LOL!) So anyway I requested for an office based position.

Went through interviews, bla bla bla and joined in initially under Information Management (production). Reshuffling of teams resulted me in Joining Production beginning last year.

Anyway, a little job description lah. I do a lot of work with clients, mainly setting up their production data management systems. in other words, we setup systems that allows offshore / field data to be stored onshore, hence "Production Data Management". We have different applications depending on frequency of data (seconds / minutes etc) or if the client only needs daily data its a different app. Thats the data management side of it.

The actual Production side comes in monitoring the production itself, trying to optimize from a well to field level in order to determine the best rate of production. A lot of factors lah, its not just opening the choke on a well as large as possible in order to generate the most liquid from the well, but you need to take into consideration the reservoir pressures, voidage replacement, gaslifting, water sweeping etc.

Production engineers at clients / PSCs are usually office based, with short stints at the field during lifting / commissioning but they are now playing a more important role than before, especially now that oil is at $130. Its trying to maximize the existing production with the existing equipment / facilities with the most efficiency.

Frankly speaking if you're with Schlumberger, your degree specialization isn't important, as long as it is an Engineering degree. Reason being is that training is ALWAYS provided, and you will always have someone to refer to, unless its a routine job. We have support networks worldwide with a database of known problems with solutions, plus bulletin boards where people ask questions and get replies from all over the world. In fact, a Masters degree isn't that important at Schlumberger either (a PhD lainlah) as everyone starts at the same step. The important thing is that you are willing to learn and do jobs that you may not like, and may not be in your job description. That is why they pay us what they do.

We are always looking for people, but its so hard to hire. It may be language skills, attitude, not the right characteristics etc. In fact, I went through 5 interviews in order to get the job, and IIANM that is the norm.

Job satisfaction is always there, especially since the clients look up to us to provide the best service out there. Ask any PSC out there, and when you mention Schlumberger, first thing they'll think is EXPENSIVE! Next thought that comes next, "Yes, expensive, but they do it right the first time." It is part of our culture, with excellent HSE Standards.

How good is Schlumberger? Mention it to someone who knows the company and they will always mention that their brother / friend / wife's mother's cousin's grandson works / worked there! LOL!

Hahahhahha! Panjangnya! Macam takde kerja! Anyway, hope that answers your question!


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Christine

Outlook bleak as in migration path from WG is not so apparent, maybe because I'm from a different background. I know a lot of people in WG though, and things aren't as bright and shiny as they seem! LOL!

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Added on May 23, 2008, 10:28 amFET = Field Engineer Trainee

Home Country Mobile is the package for those working in your own home country, but not working at your point of hire.

There are mainly a few packages created by SLB and they contain, but not limited to:

Home Country Resident
Home Country Mobile
Geomobile
International Mobile

and a few country specific ones such as EU Commuter, US Land etc. etc.

For HCM, package is slightly better than HCR, where you get a housing allowances etc. etc. although of course, you're not staying at home lah.

Which segment in Kemaman?

This post has been edited by mikhail: May 23 2008, 10:28 AM

Well testing services (DST/TCP) ... im not sure what that means cos whn i went to talk to the manager, he said the technical speciality (or something like that) will depend on company need later in the future.. and that status and location can change at any time

what do you mean by not working at point of hire? point of hire being in kl? slb in malaysia only in srwk and kemaman right?

DST = Drill Stem Testing
TCP = Tubing Conveyed Perforation

Well testing is a pretty good segment, Grade advancement is fastest throughout all the segments but its rough work. You'll be dealing with a lot of radioactive materials, MPFMs (Multi-Phase Flow Meters) etc.

point of hire should be KL, SLB has a head office in KL, there is also SLB-EMC in Cyberjaya, although they take care of the Schlumberger Network (SiNet) worldwide, and bases in Kemaman, Labuan. There are also offices in Miri, but not sure whether that is just SIS or other segments as well.

What your manager said is true, SLB tries to fit employees to the job at hand, so rather than just spending time working at the base on tools and stuff, you're also becoming an all-rounder. Also if there is a shortage of skilled labour abroad, then there are possibilities to do STAs (Short term assignments) abroad.

Your package should be better than Christine's though! LOL!

Side note: Another reason why I didn't take the field job is because of the attrition rate for FEs in SLB. 70% of FEs and FSs quit / fired within the first 3 years. Needed something a little more stable, although turning your back on 4.8k USD a month was pretty tough! Plus, rotation at the time was 8-2, 8 weeks on, 2 weeks off. Working 56 days in a row, 18 hour days is not something that I want to do! LOL! Now of course, its much easier, last I heard was 6-3 or 6-4, not so sure.

Thanks for your info!

luckily housing and transport is provided (cannot imagine looking for a place to stay in kemaman) .. but from what i gather you work like a dog lor ..
shell goes on 2-2 rotataion, max 6 weeks on, but understandably pay is less.

i also heard alot of FE's dont make it through the first 5 years or jump over to shell (easier life?) but my friend said once you get through the training it gets easier.. and you have higher value, very easy to move if you want to.

do you know anything about production? shell offered me a place as operations engineer in the production team, but hasnt gone into specifics as to what its really about..

Sorry, Just curious, if I'm interested into becoming a ROV operator, which company should i venture to?

wow, that was a good summary . ok thx alot man. probably i will venture out in drilling or reservoir now.

5k USD man ....... but the working hours are crazy 18 hours perday ....... and 8-2 man that sucks, i prefer 4-4.
Anyway thx man for the industry insight really appreciate your time and effort in this. Cheers man.

I am really curious about the above bold sentence. Why is the rate so high (70%)? Is it the company standard too high? The job too tough? Too dangerous? Or simply the job's expectation of result is too high? Because i also a FE, but in inspection. Yes, for my FE's job, it is crazy and i am consider the boss at site, in-charge or everything but no one under me and only me =_=! Or can say, 1 leg kick ALL, from mob until demob.

can u guys share with me how's the working hours at offshore ? And what's the longest and shortest duration u've been at offshore before getting ur holiday or whatever u call it (a break maybe?). Hope u guys understand what im asking

i've zero experience in oil n gas industry.. but somehow wish to work in this industry... hehe..wonder if there is a company willing to take risks to hire zero-exp in O&G like me..silly me!

a friend told me that it is best for me to go for consultant company first..for a start.. just to get exposure in this field.. it it true???
but then again.. tough luck for u to get hired..

i am now working in telco industry.. definitely not even related to Oil n gas.. hehe..

longest for me only 30 days, after that go back to base for 4-5 days, do deliverables, then back offshore again for another 25 days, and it goes on...so far, i think it's about 3 months until i get vacations or get to go on training courses.

dario81, you don't try you won't know. i think service companies offer pretty good training if you wanna earn some pretty decent money, and they like ppl w/o much experience & still pretty young as field engineers.

iDk, attrition rate is high because this job is not for everyone. When you work this hard & most of the time sacrificing time with close ones, sometimes you'll think is the money worth it? worse still, if you're based somewhere remote, with not even internet connection/phonecalls so expensive to call home or too dangerous to even go out on your off-days, you'll start thinking again is it worth it? Also, it's not an office job - it's a test of both brains & brawns. Some ppl get exhausted, demotivated, performance goes down, so they either quit or wait to be fired.

I'm attending for FE's First/Group Interview at Rohas Perkasa tomorrow morning. Any tips that can be shared? I've been longing for the job since way before I graduated. I'm all nervy about the interview and having low self esteem. Help please.

just be confident and tell them why u want the job so much. also, during the group interview/exercise, speak up more but don't go overboard, at least give your suggestions. don't be just a silent contributor.