I have to say job hunting is one of the hardest and most
discouraging things I have ever done. It always seemed like someone else was
always getting the positions I had applied for. Every semester, UF has a
huge career fair. Basically several hundred employers show up and you
wait 30 mins in line to talk to a recruiter for 30 seconds, and more than half
the time get told to apply online. This is really annoying because at the end
of the day talking to the recruiter does nothing. Thankfully,
Schlumberger did both online pre-selects and collected resumes for on-campus
interviews. During career fair, a lot of companies do information session and
basically they are a hour long show and tell about the company with free food.
No non-class related event happens without free food. Unfortunately, I
had class at the same time as Schlumberger's information session but I didn't
really need to learn about the company and what they did since I had done my
research well before career fair.
The on-campus interview was not nearly as
nerve racking as I thought it was going to be. It was some basic
interview questions on myself and my leadership in team situations. As
much as every engineering student hates those group projects, those same group
projects are a great way to show leadership and teamwork. The most memorable
question was about the most difficult team situation I had ever been in. I
After about a month of waiting, I got a
call for a second interview. The second interview was a week long camp
Schlumberger calls Focus in Engineering, Leadership, and Development Camp or
FIELD Camp for short. This was a week long interview/info session on
Schlumberger and the different divisions of Schlumberger.
As mentioned previously, FIELD camp is a week long program about
Schlumberger combined with a interview. For this program, I was flown out
to Houston, Texas along with 25 other college students from around the United
States and Canada. I was flowing from Gainesville, Florida to Houston Texas.
There was a slight mishap at the airport and we had to wait an hour for
pick-up. This was caused by a hour flight delay in Atlanta. I was
lucky that I wasn't they only UF person going to this camp flying out of
Gainesville. There was one other a third UF student attending but he was
flying out of south Florida.
Once at the hotel in Sugar Land, Texas, we
meet the other participants from many different colleges. The first night of
FIELD camp was the traditional get to know people games. I was lucky to
get my own room. Everyday was a 6:00 am wake-up and at the earliest 12:00
am end. Every day was a tour of one or two different division
of Schlumberger.
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| All the FIELD camp participants and the three recruiters with us on a boat ride though San Antonio. |
It seemed like the entire week was
designed to try and scare us away from working for Schlumberger. They
didn't sugar coat the aspects of what a Field Engineer does for Schlumberger.
They stressed the hard work and long hours. They made it clear the
while Schlumberger pays well they make you earn every penny and working for
them isn't something one should take lightly.
We got to tour Schlumberger's
companies of Smith Bits and M-I SWACO. We also got to meet field engineers who
worked in wireline logging, drilling and measuring (D&M) and Pathfinder,
cementing, fracking, and several other Schlumberger divisions. We got to
then visit two actual working drill rigs. One site was doing D&M
while the other was fracking and wireline logging. I was really interested in
wireline logging and D&M.
Overall, the long hours, working hard, and
remote locations didn't scare me. This was my ideal job, not stuck in a office
and the chance to live in remote location far from huge cities.
After my week in Houston was over, I knew I wanted to work for
Schlumberger in either D&M and wireline logging when I graduated. My preferred
location from highest to lowest was Alaska, International (you don't get to
choose, just get to say international), or Southwest United States.
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