One of the worst decisions I have ever made - Field Engineer SLB Employee Review

1.0
Apr 2, 2012
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

The only good thing about working here is compensation. Even though your base salary will be around 60 K you receive bonuses for each day spent on a rig, so you can potentially end up making twice as much. The job is extremely easy, besides a few days when you're running around trying to troubleshoot or rig up/down. I am not exaggerating when I say the job requires minimal brain power. You're pretty much being compensated for the lifestyle, because you're really out here in an executive assistant/ operator capacity and no engineering goes into this what so ever. So if you're ok with not seeing your family and friends, having no personal life or development, and flushing your engineering degree down the toilet this could be a great career for you.

Cons

They literally run your life 344 days of the year. You don't get weekends or holidays, the only actual time off (defined as time you can travel or do whatever you want) will be the 21 days of vacation which you accrue throughout the year. Don't get me wrong you will have time off between rigs, but during that time, you have to remain in close proximity to your location, because at any moment you can receive a call telling you to go out to the job. So technically speaking you're on call on your time off and therefore you're not really on time off. If you're an engineer you're basically flushing your degree down the toilet, you will not be working out here in an engineering capacity. Turns out they hire high school graduates to do your job, but pay them less; so I'm not sure why they hire engineers. Your co-workers most of the time will be completely unprofessional, and if they are having a bad day, guess what you will be the recipient of some of the most vulgar language known to man. I can go on and on but this should give a pretty good idea of what you can look forward too if you come work for Schlumberger

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5.0
Apr 28, 2026
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

benefits, vacation, 401k, I love working for SLB

Cons

I wish they had a better way of promoting.

1.0
Jun 17, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Good people at the local level. The work is engaging and challenging.

Cons

Too many to count. Career advancements are extremely limited. Pay raises are minimal and don't get close to keeping up with inflation even for top performers. At the corporate level they are using acquisitions to hide massive layoffs. They return billions in profit to investors consistently, but there is still a constant threat of layoffs and multiyear freezes on pay raises even with inflation and solid corporate profit.

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