Summer Internship with Schlumberger – Stuti from IIT Delhi
Daily Winner for: – 17th August, 2011
Name of the intern: – Stuti
Institute: – IIT Delhi
Organization interned with: – Schlumberger limited
Schlumberger has a rigorous selection procedure (which becomes blatant when you realize that they selected four students out of almost all departments that applied from IIT D). They short listed resumes, conducted group discussions and finally had personal interviews that ran past midnight. It was early in the morning when we were told that we had made it!.
This was last September and the internship began only the next summer. Schlumberger provides oilfield services. They are into oil exploration, drilling wells, well services, extraction and other complex terminology and once the oil is pumped out of the ground it is passed onto other companies to be refined into products that are sold to the wider markets.
An oil well is a sensitive and tempestuous hole in the ground made by man to better populate the planet with machines. I was appointed in the Well Services Segment. According to the introduction in one fascinating manual the company owned – ‘Well Services consist mainly of pumping various types of fluids at a high pressure into a client’s well. The ultimate goal is to pump these fluids safely and efficiently’. Pretty Freudian if you ask me.
I was based in Mumbai. I would have loved to go via helicopter to an off shore rig but apparently we needed one year of intense training for that. Some of the other interns though were lucky enough to spend time on actual oil rigs on land (not much training there). My work centrered primarily around improving a certain process step by coding in Microsoft Excel and designing linked sheets to make a work-able interface.
Schlumberger stresses a lot on health and safety. We went through a couple of days of orientations in basic safety procedures and precautions. For a week or so we wore a helmet and overalls with steel-toed boots to work (we worked in the yard with cement equipment for a few days). Schlumberger cares for the safety of their employees to an extent where drivers are not allowed (by some fancy gadget) to exceed 55kmph and everyone sitting anywhere in the car or bus must be wearing a seat belt. They take excellent care of their employees (every 110,000 of them spread over 80 countries!)
The accommodation was close to perfection – a flat on the 24th story of a Hiranandani skyscraper – with free fast food, free fast net and an awesome swimming pool. My room overlooked green hills (right across the street, can it get any better?). There was a company bus that would pick us up and drop us off and the ride (while not trudging over the string of potholes that are the rain-flooded roads in Mumbai) was scenic. We crossed a river on the way to work and we could see the sea (and the Mumbai Sea Link) twice a day.
The seniors were friendly and extremely helpful. The coffee machines were great and we even got free mugs. The only drawback was that while working in Schlumberger one got so habituated to being completely safe and well protected all the time (not to mention well fed and pampered ) that when one returned to their IIT hostel room, one is left a little lost and disconcerted. All in all, had a wonderful experience!
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