Based on the comments I receive, I sometimes wonder if people who read this blog think that I don't like my job.
I don't love my job, but I also feel that that is a word people often use far too casually. Maybe if you had the same surname as I (as do half my readers) you would give it as much thought as I do. However, I do like my job, and I like it a great deal some days. Other days aren't so great and those sort of balance out the really good ones and leave me with a general liking.
In my current capacity and with my various responsibilities, I enjoy a nice mix of office and field time. I don't call my office time, desk time, since I spend a great deal of any day in the office on my feet or otherwise not at my desk. I don't get to pick and choose (for the most part) office versus field on any given day. After all, we're a service company on call 24/7 and we're at the operators' beck and call. If I'm needed in the field, then I need to be in the field. I don't accept from myself and I hate having to accept from others some days, the attitude of phoning it in and saying that you don't want to go to work for whatever reason. Sick, 'hurt', various family issues, drunk, or whatever excuse it may be. Some days, when I get that call, I really don't want to go to the field at first. The thing is, by the time I get to the yard and get ready and drive out to location, I'm usually in a good work mood. That's because, the preparation for a job is the hard part. If all the ducks are in a row before you start, then one we're actually performing the job, it runs so smoothly. Plus, being outside, regardless of what time it is or how hot or cold it is, feels good.
As for how hard I work, this is how I feel: if you're not willing to push yourself and find your limits then this really isn't the place for you. Quit the whining and go find another job. I have always felt that the recruiting process was very honest. The pitch was that being a Schlumberger field engineer would be hard and unpredictable and probably test a lot of your character. What I took from it was that every district was different and everyone's experience was different and that the best way to prepare myself was to let go of any expectations and preconceived notions I may have had. I haven't been astoundingly surprised by anything I've seen here, because I sort of expected that anything might happen or be normal, even if it was abnormal for me.
I have seen what is now several other field engineers quit (or get fired). In particular, the ones who stayed less than a year were all ill-suited for this job. You, and by you I mean me, just knew they weren't going to work out. With some of them, I couldn't help but wonder if they weren't listening to the recruiters or if we had a breakdown in the recruiting process. (Maybe there's one recruiter who sells them rainbows and sunshine instead of reality. I hope that's not the case, but if it is, I want to believe that there are tracking mechanisms in place and any recruiter who has an unusually high number of their recruits quit gets flagged and talked to.) The overwhelming characteristic of all the people I've seen not cut it here is that they were not prepared or not interested in working hard. If that's you, and you've stumbled upon this looking for information, then this really isn't the place for you.
2 comments:
Good evaluation of your current good job. You will know you have a great job when you really want to use the 'love' word almost all the time.
Does Schlumberger have in-house recruiters? An outside recruiter can be overzealous about getting people hired to gain commission$. Most companies have set up a system to track the recruiters’ progresses and turnovers to ensure the right people are hired. To have an employee trained and left in less than a year is very expensive, especially in a highly specialized field.
Most companies require the prospective employee to meet others within the organization. Some of them have several interviews with at least 5-6 people, such as the supervisor, manager, other engineers, even the clerks or secretary to make sure this particular person is likable or even has the personality that he can work within the organization. During this interview process, the supervisor, manager, engineers, all need to inform this person what kind of operation he is getting himself into, and it has to be realistic.
It is not 100% fool-proof that this potential employee is going to stay, and everything will work out, but at least some gut feeling may tell you something about this person if you meet him face to face instead having some recruiter send the guy over and start working!
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