Schlumberger Junior Field Engineer Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Resume Shortlist
Tips: Project that you are an all-rounder

Round: Group Discussion
Tips: Talk and Talk sense
Duration: 30 minutes

Round: HR Interview
Tips: Be thorough with who you are and what you want to do in life

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Tips: It is a stress round and once you identify this please do not get stressed

College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: In all honesty, I was slightly shocked, when I found out I was shortlisted. Most of the companies that came before this looked for people with high CG. I feel that they look for a well rounded resume. If you have good PoR's, play sports and have other extra curricular activities, you can expect a shortlist even if you have have a low CG. Also it helps if you have an industrial internship in your post 2nd year summer.
Tips: The importance of making an aesthetically pleasing resume cannot be stressed enough. Don't forget to highlight sports, dance and martial arts. Pitch your PoR's and extra curricular achievements well. Prepare your resume well in advance. Get it reviewed from as many seniors as you can. Try to make a unique resume for schlumberger.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: They conducted interviews via video conferencing. There was only one panelist. The interview was very short and resume based. They shortlisted 15 people. Everyone's interview was very similar. I was easily able to direct the conversation in whichever direction I wanted to. I spoke about my PoR's, internship, sports, literary activities, everything other than academics. I had a clear idea about why I wanted the internship. The panelist seemed to like my answer. He specifically asked me about what a Hostel Literary Secretary does. We briefly spoke about what I wanted to do in my life. Overall the interview was a breeze.
Tips: Be confident. If you are communication skills are good, the interview should be a piece of cake. Overall the final selection matters mostly on your resume. People who are good at sports have an advantage.That being said my sports section was just above average, so that is not the only thing that matters.
My suggestion would be to play some sport, an inter IIT medal always helps. Apart from that make a good resume, be thoroughly prepared to answer all questions based on your resume. Also have a clear idea about what an inter

Skills:
Duration: 2
College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: The first round of shortlisting was a resume shortlist in which 24 people were shortlisted.
Tips: Show that you are a unique candidate and that you are both physically and mentally capable of working in harsh conditions.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: We were given about half an hour to prepare for these questions after the initial shortlist was released and we had to present our answers to these three questions to the panel of judges. We had a strict time limit of three minutes and we were stopped if we reached this limit.
Tips: Be confident
Present yourself as a good fit for the company, and give proof for the same

Round: HR Interview
Experience: After the first round of HR interviews, we were again shortlisted and about 10 people were remaining. This round was another HR interview in which different people were asked different types of questions. The majority of questions were as follows:

General ice breakers, questions related to our first round answers
Situational questions. (What would you do if you were in the middle of nowhere and your car broke down? etc.)
Resume related questions (About hands-on projects and internships we have done)
Why Schlumberger?
Why should Schlumberger take you?
etc.

Then there were a set of mandatory questions that everyone was asked:
Are any of your family members in the oil and gas industry?
Are you afraid of the water?
Tips: Again, be confident with your answers. They are looking for thought process more than final answers in the situational questions.
Be thorough with your resume.
Prove that you can adapt to any work conditions.

Skills: Physical Strength, Adaptability, Dynamic Personality, Confidence
College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Good, I like the fact that it was not pure academics based and took extra curricular and PORs into account.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Good. Company based questions were well drafted and common through out.
The 3 minute statement procedure wherein we had to describe ourself, about out expectations from the internship and why we fit their profile was innovative and time saving.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: I am considering the last interview as technical interview where in I had to explain my previous internship.
I liked the overall format and how it was just contained to my experience in work field and not just in the academics.


General Tips: Be confident
Have prior interest in their profile, since it is unique.
Be thorough with what you have to present.
Skills: Innovating, Grasping Power, Positions Of Responsibility POR, Speaking Skills, Speaking Skills, Leadership Skills, Teamwork, Team Player, Able To Speak With Perception
Duration: 1.5
College Name: IIT Madras
Motivation: training intrinsic profile
Oil and gas industry
Technological province of the comlNy in upstream oil and gas industry
Excellent environment for learning in the company:
Funny Moments: The situation based questions were fun and eye opening. One of these being "are you afraid of water", being asked of I can swim or not. I replied" sir, I can swim in a swimming pool. But if you drop me in Ocean, I would surely die!". To which the interviewer replied "so would I kid!".

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: GD was conducted for shortlisted candidates and candidates were divided into groups of 6 people.There were 3 topics and each topic was discussed for 2 minutes.No specific rules,like each person needs to speak,are to be followed during the GD.Anyone can initiate,intervene,etc. Finally we were asked to link all three topics and this discussion went on for another 2 minutes.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Only a single round lasting about 40-45 minutes.There were only 4 people in the panel and technical as well as HR questions were asked. First I was asked to go through my own resume, “Introduce/Tell us about yourself?".  E.g: “Where have you shown leadership qualities? Have you led a team? Size of team? What new initiatives did you take?” Core questions starting form basics like “How does an airplane fly?” to specific questions about the different types of engines used in airplanes,their specifications, etc. were asked. HR questions were put up like"What was the most difficult decision in your life?" and grilled on my internship for 15-20 minutes which I did in Transocean. (Another oil field services company).

General Tips: You need to be very good in the basics of your core courses and if you have done an internship in the oil industry, you will definitely be grilled on that.Questions will be asked in quick succession.
Skill Tips: Highlight any intern in Oil industry or anything related to that in your resume.Any POR or any sport activity which shows your leadership qualities should me mentioned in your resume.
Skills: Leadership qualities, Athletic, Quick thinking, presence of mind
College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Resume Shortlist
Tips: Emphasize more on your projects and internships. Be thorough with them.If you have any sports achievements, please add it to the resume.

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: 3 topics of group discussion. While the students discuss a topic they are asked to pause and shift to another topic.
Tips: Be confident and keep your points through. A concept brush through material emphasizing the important concepts in each of the corecourses would be shared by the branch councillor. .

Round: Group Activity
Experience: Students will be given topics to speak about.
Tips: Dont Panic

College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Talking with respect to Schlumberger, i was confident of making it to the shortlist (but this year’s Schlumberger resume shortlist remains a mystery, many of the expected people didn’t make it)But it is evident that they look for people with a lot of extracurricular activities and PoRs.Inter IIT sports representation plays a great role for the shortlist.In my case, my resume was perfect for Schlumberger and by the time Schlumberger resume upload deadline was up, I can assert that I had a pretty good resume. I did take a lot of feedback from seniors especially for Schlum. You need to rearrange your sessions.My PoRs and extracurricular had to be shifted above the internships or other academic achievements.
Tips: When it comes to resume, its the most important part of the placement process. You have a bad resume; you just don’t invite an interview no matter whatever great things you have done in institute.
As i just mentioned, for Mckinsey and other top consult companies, resume shortlist is the toughest stage to get through, hence it is very important to prepare your resumes from the starting of the August. The first resumes will always be very bad. Its very essential to get it reviewed by at least 10-15 people. Its equally important to go through at least 10 best resumes of your seniors. These are some of the things which I did not do initially until the Mckinsey and BCG shortlists came out. Please note the following for resumes 
● Choose the right template for your resume.For example, if you have a lot of PoRs choose a box template
● Words don't matter, numbers and percentages matter
● Do attend the Mckinsey resume workshop if they conduct one

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: I knew well how to crack a GD, this time without even making a single point about ‘innovation’. Each group consisted of 7 members, but in my group 2 people were absent. So we, group of 5 started the discussion about ‘innovation’. 
As I knew it is a plus point to start off the GD, I went on to break the silence. I was speaking more like a moderator involving everyone in the discussion, as I believed that was the key to get through the GD. I started off, gave space for people to speak, to make their point. I interrupted in the middle couple of times, only to gather all the points together and drive the GD in a particular direction or give it a sense with respect to the Schlumberger. In ourgroup, all got through except one and till the interviews.
Tips: Topics can be as random as ‘beer and milk’, ‘spinach’, ‘charlie24’. 
Finally what they look for are people who can communicate well in a group, those who can give direction to the discussion, those who can start, conclude or give it a different dimension etc. 
If you don't have any points to make, take the role of a moderator. 
Out of all GDs, a total of 24 students were selected to GA
Duration: 5-10 minutes

Round: Group Activity
Experience: They will give us a mechanics box with all nuts, bolts and dismantled pieces which could be built to a car/rig etc. This time it was a rig.
So they gave us the mechanic’s box. We were given roughly one minute to discuss within the group how are we going to do it and then 5 minutes to build the rig. 
I and one of my friends took a lead in explaining the entire procedure to group to coordinate in a better way. We divided the process of making the rig as base and topside. 
Out of 8 people in our group, 4 people were working on the base and 4 people on building the top. I was coordinating both the activities and keeping track of time. 
Once the structure is ready (it surely will look weird, as rarely people build some structure which looks sensible), we need to sell our product to some other group. Each of the group members have to speak about a special feature of the structure. 
Later, once everyone is done with the features, the opposite team members can ask questions to chosen members of some other group. From GA comes the final shortlist for interview.
There were 12 people who made it to personal interviews
Tips: Again as the name suggests, it’s all about how you behave in a group, how much you can contribute to the progress of the group activity, how much you involve the group members.

Round: Interview
Experience: Schlumberger interviews are purely HR. In short I could say they want people who are team players, who loves challenges, who are mentally tough, who loves to travel, who can adapt to different environments etc..
I had prepared well for the HR interview mainly questions like tell me about yourself, give instances from your life where you showed team player skills, why Schlumberger etc..
The interview panel consisted of 4 officials.
I was sixth in the list for interview calls.
The first question to me was ‘what is Mithun?’ 
I was slightly confused by the questions thinking whether he is asking for the meaning of the word Mithun or something else? But it was very important that I answer promptly. So i replied ‘ Mithun is my name sir’ in a baffled way with a smile expecting him to clarify the question. 

Immediately he rephrased it as ‘ What encompasses Mithun?’ 
Now it was clear, it was another way of asking ‘tell me about yourself’. As this was a familiar question, I went onto speak some 3-4 minutes continuously about me, touching all the important qualities of interest for Schlumberger which I possess and they were listening quite well. 

After my long reply for their question, I voluntarily paused to enquire whether they have any question for me. Then they wanted to ask more about instances from life where I displayed those qualities. Sports can play a major role as it speak a lot about a person (passion, team player skills, challenge loving).As I mentioned before, they wanted
people who are team players and who love challenges, I quoted examples of my sports achievements as an athlete and sports secretary where I displayed those.
I had a cultural exchange to Japan for 10 days which I could talk about to explain my
adaptability which added another dimension to my experience.

Further there were questions like ‘Which one do you love more, teams sports or individual sports?’ 
for that my answer was first team sports and then individual sports.
Being part of both team sports and individual sports, I justified my point explaining, the joy of sharing happiness with team mates is much more than the joy of winning a medal for yourself. I added that, team sports is like working for a bigger cause/goal.

Later there were questions like ‘why Schlumberger?’ ‘If not Schlumberger, then what?’ 
I was able to tackle those questions as well. Towards the end, I could feel that the panel was positive about my interview. The panel asked if there were any questions from my side. 
I asked questions like ‘How do you keep yourself motivated even after 8-10 years in the company?’ and ‘What is the kind of work which you do being completed 10 years in the industry?’
Tips: I was very confident after my interview, but was a little speculative too as we heard they were taking less number of people this year. And as expected they took only 2 from B.Tech and 1 from petroleum engineering.
But the key points here are, first thing to ensure you fit the Schlumberger profile well (means you should be a team player, hand on jobs, challenges, tough etc..) and rest is to go well prepared for all three stages.

General Tips: First thing to ensure you fit the Schlumberger profile well (means you should be a team player, hand on jobs, challenges, tough etc..) and rest is to go well prepared for all three stages.
College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: 8 people gd—topic was “AWE” which was later changed to Aweful. They wanted to just see if people were able to think on their feet and how well they react to others points etc.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: 1 round of interview. Pure HR. Don’t know what they particularly wanted to test,but mostly confidence, quick thinking, etc… no knowledge or quant questions.They want to see your attitude probably.

Round: Group Activity
Experience: No case studies.There was a GA round where they asked us to make a “Stable mobile structure” from a standard mechanix set… and then sell it to other team.The whole process is very HR oriented.

General Tips: This was the first company for me.I actually was not serious about placements and hadn’t prepared.Yes preparing early always helps.Third years must make sure they make best use of their interns.Most of my friends spent a lot of their interview times speaking about their interns so if your intern is good it would be better.Second year just mug and put PORs insti team fight and all that.
Skill Tips: Criteria for getting shortlisted No CG cutoff I think. PORs might have mattered.It is very weird the shortlist and the GD and interview, but you just have to confident and clear headed throughout.
Skills: Confidence, Quick thinking, Attitude
College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Resume based shortlisting

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: "Change the topic" was the topic of the GD. All the GD topics were random like this one. Another topic I can remember is "Hakuna Matata".About 8 members were part of the GD.Speak something sensible about the topic and you'll clear the GD. I think for Schlum it is more an elimination round than a selection round. Most of them cleared GD in my group.
Tips: Only one guy who was silent was left out. So, use the opportunity and speak!
Duration: 10-15 minutes

Round: Group Activity
Experience: We were divided into groups of 4 and were given a few building blocks to build something stable and that can move (4 groups per each group activity round). They then exchange the group models and ask them to sell it to the other groups, as in, you try to sell another group's model. Other groups can ask you two questions each.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Interview started on points outside my resume. They tried to make it a stress interview initially. Then moved on to questions on my institute life and what I would have done differently, if given another chance. A few questions were also based on my resume.
Tips: Interviews are not orthodox. Expect some weird questions and maintain your cool while answering. Prepare a good answer for convincing them that you're not going to do an MBA anytime soon. They are looking for people who'll stay in the company for more than 2 years at least. So, make your answers sound like that . Didn't specifically prepare for this. Know your resume well and more importantly know yourself well.

General Tips: Yes. I started preparing for fin companies after getting shortlisted for DB and Credit Suisse.Read the business parts in the news paper and Economic Times, went through some basics in fin and economics from the books available on lan , did some puzzles, CAT prep to some extent. It might have been the right way of going but it wasn't enough. It didn't work out
well in the end.Brushed up all my internship project works. Being thorough with them is very important.Went through the basics of few related courses. Take good care on what courses you put on resume, because you need to be thorough with them.
Skill Tips: I was confident and my answers were to the point. Knew my resume well. Was able to justify all the questions based on my resume and personality.Started working on my resume earlier though (September may be). Yes, starting earlier would have helped.Resume, courses, project works, little prep for CAT, interview prep - HR answers towards the end. Group prep helps (Wing GDs, mock interviews)
Skills: Puzzels, Team playing, Leadership skills.
College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Initial shortlist based on resume.
Tips: Work on your resume, get it checked and be prepared to answer questions about it.Be prepared on the courses and project works that you will mention in your resume.

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: Random topics like Diet, Hakuna Matata, Change the topic are given to groups
of five. It is an elimination process rather than a Selection Procedure.

Round: Group Activity
Experience: Selected students are grouped and given a LEGO kit and are asked to make
anything movable which they later have to sell to the other teams.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: A HR interview for about 30 minutes. The interview will solely be based on your resume
and your life in the institute and will include typical HR questions.
Tips: For the interview preparation be ready with answers for the HR questions beforehand.

General Tips: Preparation for CAT will be very helpful for the entire placement preparation.
College Name: IIT Madras