Schlumberger Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

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