hey kslee, i'm an m/lwd too...just got transferred to qatar too but with slb.

anyway christine85, service companies like hal, slb, bhi are known to offer very intense training but very specific to their own proprietary technologies.

But for operators like shell, petronas, you'll get to see the bigger picture. so there are pros and cons to it. also, you're more likely to have a normal kinda life with operators.

as for dylan, you're kinda right with the career progression with slb which they call the fixed-step engineer program which lasts about 3-4 years. But there are also ways to branch out to other segments. I've personally seen some guys who managed to jump straight to a very technical role within 2 years (i.e. same paygrade as management). It all depends on your luck, determination and attitude.

as for dylan, my interview after a group exercise was very simple, just 10mins & kautim. they only wanna see if you can be independent & will be able to tahan the field. Only if they tell you that you'll be recruited into Tech & Field program for SLB, then you'll need to prepare some technical notes. check out http://www.oilcareers.com/content/community/ for the interview tips.

they take a while. just be patient. they might offer you HCM at first, but could probably switch to IM depending on business needs. If you're IM, you could be sent to any country which has oil/gas, but for the training school, it'll be in Houston or Abu Dhabi, depending on the location you're sent to, whichever is nearer.

Just got my confirmation to join Big Red as a MWD/LWD Engineer today, going to be based in kl/miri. 

Still considering it tho, since the basic salary is way lower than what I'd expected. For a fresh grad/new entrants, the basic pay is slightly lower than that of a fresh grad PETRONAS engineer.

I always assumed that service companies give more basic salary than that of operators, but guess I'm mistaken this time. Their HR assured me that the total monthly pay (basic + offshore allowance) will be much more than that, but I dunno. Can someone give me advice on this?

Decisions, decisions. Chances like this don't come often, I know. But somehow the basic pay issue doesn't sit well with me. 

hi dylan, give it 6 months - 1 year to be safe. january's a busy time for HR, I think they have yet to decide hiring targets yet.

Dylan, that's right. I have applied to SLB before as well & I was called for interview for 4 times before they failed me on the final one. My experience was, they may take few months to response to your application. So, be patience.

Transocean's a drilling contractor, own alot of rigs and drill for operators. Just merged with GSF. Long time ago, they merged with Sedco-Forex (used to be owned by SLB).

It's hard to compare since they are essentially different jobs from what BHI & SLB offer (if you exclude SLB's IPM), but a driller job (internationoal) pays really well in transocean, but I would say it's more of a hands-on work. But you get regular rotations, if irregular you get overtime.

Typically the training program (from what I heard) involves a rotation of all the work on the rig where you have to work your way up, from a roustabout to roughneck/derrickman to driller, then toolpusher and eventually an OIM/rig manager.

and powdersnow, DCS does more interpretation work (geoscientists, petrophysicists, etc) while SIS does more of the IT stuff SLB has. WesternGeco's our seismic side (exploring seas, deserts for oil/gas).

U can try working there.. good place to start. but mentally must be strong becoz from my experience they only offer a low salary especially to the freshie, and u must cover other position also even u just a freshie. and just prepare to urself to travelling. but u can learn from there for 1~2 Year and then jumping to other company. Quite easy to get a job at dialog becoz they have a lot of problem to recruit a staff, no one wanna work with low pay izzit?? gud luck to you.