dude, start here: http://www.slb.com/content/careers/index.asp?

SLB has alot of different segments in the operational role i.e your job is out there on the oil rigs & platforms: Wireline, D&M, Well Services, Completions, Artificial Lift, Testing.

FET = Field Engineer Trainee

not much responsibilities except to do well for 1st school (assuming you pass the entrance exam) & don't get yourself killed in the field during pre-school period (unfortunately this year we've got about 16 injuries already in my current location from all segments, most of them from trainees).

After 1st school (2 - 2.5 months) & assuming you passed, you're expected to know the basics of what you're doing & be comfortable working alone as a second/night engineer and start working towards your promotion, so you can earn offshore bonus.

Depending on location, sometimes you get alot of support or none at all. When I was a trainee in a small location in Latin America, right after school and about 1 week working with a lead engineer, there were no engineers available in town & I was forced to become the lead engineer after that in charge of a US$400K job for about a month, with another trainee as my second engineer. That was the steepest learning curve in my life but luckily, I didn't screw up that badly.

So, that's old-school SLB for you, they like to drop you in the deep end and see if you'll drown or swim. We're trying to change that, but still, anything happening on the rig will be your responsibility.

It's fun for a while until shit happens, when failure investigations starts going on & they'll try to identify where the failure originates. If it's human error (what we call Group 7 error), it's like a black mark on your work history & if repeated again, could end up in termination.

But all in all, the toughest thing for an SLB field engineer, is to deal with the work/life balance. Since oilfield operations are dealing with a 24/7 schedule & any screw-ups will cause delays, there cannot be guarantees for your vacations/days off. Worst still is the fact that sometimes you're working in a totally remote location, and you may have difficulty calling your loved ones...and I'm not talking about a matter of days but weeks. As a result, broken marriages & relationships are pretty common.

Well, so think carefully on that offer if you do get one. Money's pretty good, but I would say alot of your experience, good or bad will depend on your location assigned.

Well, the truth is there's a discord between OFS (Oilfield Services), guys who make decisions based on the big picture & the respective departments (D&M, wireline, completions, artificial lift, dowell, etc).

Basically OFS are the ones who recruit ppl and will pay their salaries until they prove to be competent to do the job (i.e. break out), so for the respective departments, they are considered free labour. That's why the respective departments are so quick to fire those with not so good performance (maybe now also targetting those who just meet expectations), and yet OFS are still recruiting.

As for the paper tower thing, as long as you remember that triangles are the best form of support, 50 sheets is plenty of paper. I think my group's tower was more than 2m, but not everyone in my group was hired. And they just want to make sure you are the type who can work with others you barely know and can string a word or two explaining your design in understandable English.

Anyway, in the end you have to remember they are looking for management trainees - so you're expected to make presentations, bring out the best in your team, etc.

you have the link?

sorry mate, my googling skills are not as good as yours, mind giving me the keyword and which search result it is?

maybe it's an old article, but as far as i know, recruiting won't start again until 2nd half of the year. And there's gonna be a review done internally in may/june with regards to the retrenchment thing.

well, honestly i have no complete picture...but looking at current situation when there's hardly any locations in the world looking for new people, and not to mention the transfer of engineers currently overseas back to their home country, it'll take a while.

so you can't blame the HR ppl as well since they are just following orders from Dubai and these guys from Dubai are waiting for general orders from HQ in Houston. So basically everyone's waiting like you until the situation gets better.

Also, it's been announced there won't be any cutbacks in R&D, so if you've got an offer in that area, you should be quite safe.

And officially, you're not hired until you've been to OFS1 since your seniority date usually starts on the 1st day of your OFS1.

I hope at least you got some answers here, but don't take everything i say as the absolute truth since there's always exceptions.

no need to request, just go ahead & do it. when they call you back, then only explain.

did you get an offer letter from SLB? Did you sign any paper? Which dept & country are you offered?

Also i don't think your chances are hampered, SLB's always on the lookout for female engineers due to the high turnover and directive from top management to line managers to retain & recruit female engineers!

When a person quits from SLB, the 1st thing they do is disable email & intranet access, so it's not fair to blame her. Naming someone in public is not the right way to do it either.

From my dealings with her (although it has already been a couple of years), she has always been very professional & efficient.

dude, ur question's too general, it all depends on the segments themselves.

drilling & measurements side in slb just changed their bonus scheme recently, but in general, the field side gets bonuses based on how often they are in the field & level of service provided. management/office roles get a performance based bonus, based on how many objectives they managed to achieve.

also, there's profit sharing as well for the international employees, but you've gotta be more than 3 yrs in the company to qualify, otherwise, the money'll be forfeited.