What it does: Global technology company driving energy innovation for a balanced planet.
Staff stats: 82,000 globally
The good bits: International opportunities, fast-tracked career progression, world class training
The not so good bits: Working in remote locations.
Hiring grads with degrees in: Engineering, Maths, IT & Sciences
In 1926 brothers Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger launched the Société de prospection électrique [Electrical Prospecting Company]. It didn’t take long for the business to expand its geographical footprint, with SLB's first activity in New Zealand in 1942 and in 1951 in Australia, and its range of services it offered to resource companies.
These days it is a Fortune Global 500 company and has operations in 120 countries, employs staff from over 170 nations.
With staff from almost every country, SLB is “one of the most culturally diverse companies in the world”.
One of the company’s core principles is, “Meritocracy drives our actions, decisions and employee advancement.” It aims to “continually increase the percentage of women we recruit worldwide, ensure proper career development for high-performing women, and increase our organizational flexibility to accommodate a wider range of personal situations”.
In Australia, SLB has a Reconciliation Action Plan—our roadmap to building stronger relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and reducing Aboriginal inequalities in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
SLB has a “long-standing culture of global social and environmental stewardship”. Throughout its history, the company has developed technologies that allow clients, such as oil and gas companies, to “increase production and recovery from non-renewable resources – efficiently and with lower environmental impact”.
The workplace culture at SLB will vary depending on your role and location. As a general rule, you should be prepared in a field position to put in long hours and spend periods, sometimes long periods, working away from family and friends. On the plus side, you’ll be doing engaging work, have plenty of support to reach your career goals, be paid well, and have the opportunity to spend time in a range of countries. For those in an office-based role, you can enjoy hybrid working with their blue-flex program, accessible locations, and the chance to work with a global team.
SLB is looking for graduates to begin dynamic careers in the following domains:
SLB is committed to develop our people. Trainees initially follow a fixed-step training program for approximately three years. No matter your background, you receive the right training to develop quickly and advance. The program blends technical, safety, personal development, business and managerial courses, and on-the-job validated training.
SLB Global network of Learning Centers helps us to deliver on our commitment to career-long, high-quality learning and training. Courses range from a few days to 12 weeks and equip you with the skills and knowledge to succeed. Our training offers a partnership to develop your skills and maximize your potential. Every year throughout your career with us, you agree to a training and development plan with your managers for the next 12 months.
SLB a meritocracy, and progression is performance-based, so no two career paths are the same. After completing the fixed-step program, career opportunities and assignments are designed to stimulate personal growth and support business needs. Moving between functions or locations, or both enables advancement at a pace you never thought possible."
Rather than having a conventional grad program with a set starting and finishing date, the company recruits constantly. It expects those who are interested in a grad role to keep an eye on the careers page on the company website and apply when a suitable position is advertised.
Applicants are expected to have a degree that has prepared them to work in one of the following domains:
The recruitment process may vary. It will probably involve interviews, an all-day visit to an assessment center (expect to take part in individual and group exercises and give a presentation) and a range of technical, numerical and abstract reasoning tests. Schlumberger’s demanding recruitment process is designed to assess the following:
SLB seeks to hire staff who are adaptable, creative, energetic, enterprising, intelligent, reliable, trustworthy and self-motivated. You should also be a good listener and team player.
SLB aims to recruit the cream of the crop then get the most out of them by providing ongoing, high-quality training. The company maintains a global network of learning centres where staff can spend up to three months at a time “acquiring specific technical competencies”. All staff are expected to prepare an annual training and development plan. One that keeps their skills up to date and allows them to develop their talents to their full potential.
The company promises grads they will get “exciting challenges, exposure to different environments and countries, early responsibilities and ample opportunities for development and growth”. The company has a “borderless careers policy”. This means it will “support your career progression in whichever [geographical] direction your talents and ambition take you."
For most of the technical positions in SLB, field engineer, geologist, or others, the training is broadly similar, and the program will last around three years.
You spend approximately 9 months as a trainee. You receive a range of training during this time, including personal development, basic technical training—specific to your role, and this is supplemented with on the job training practice where you get to perform some duties, with supervision.
Subject to performance, you will be promoted, the next series of training will introduce more intermediate level courses to develop your technical and managerial abilities, and also you may begin to supervise other team members.
After another promotion, you’re considered ‘senior’ and able to perform your role with no supervision, in fact at this stage you will be responsible for mentoring and leading new trainees yourself!
The courses you take at this level are advanced. You will receive people management training, which includes; how to coach, how to motivate, and how to manage performance reviews. Technically, you are now an expert in your role, and will be learning very complex-level operations.
To graduate from the training program, there is a project, similar to your final year project for your degree, which is intended to deliver some benefit to the company. This is reviewed by a panel of managers, and following an interview, you will be promoted again.
Most people spend a further 2-3 years working in the field or in their technical area. …..but after this you have the opportunity to move into any part of the business that interests you and that you may have shown an aptitude towards during your training.
They make sure that they set you ambitious goals but always give you the support the reach them. They’ll give you a lot of real responsibility early on so you can make an impact on our business.
The options open to you after your first few years are based solely on performance, and include technical management, personnel, marketing and sales or operations management. There are very few companies that offer this rapid progression.