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Originally Posted by HockeyPuck
No, the position is working with their economics software and going to client sites and setting up and customizing the software... I guess there's quite a bit of travel involved with it...
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I did a job exactly like that (but not with Schlumberger). It can be very stressful on the customer sites beacuse your totally on your own (especially when you're in Europe as you're eight hours ahead and no one is working when you're working). If you run into a problem and need help, it can be pretty difficult to get a hold of anyone.
Also, some customers can be real dicks sometimes. You'll get there then they'll contsantly be changing their minds about the stuff you're customizing for them, and telling you to re-do it. And they'll expect you to finish in a very short amount of time, which means tonnes of overtime. I was working 18 hrs/day, 7 days a week in some cases to meet totally absurd deadliens.
That said, some customers can also be awesome. I was in Italy for a trip and people were inviting me over to have dinner with their families, and one guy even suggested we take a day off and tour the city (Rome). Plus they were showering me with also sorts of free stuff to take home -- wine, espresso, etc.
My advice if you take that kind of job, is to be really sure that everything is well planned out up front, and make the customers sign off on it. That includes schedules. Get them to sign off on how many hours they expect you to work (days doesn't work because some people consider 8 hours to be one day, some consider much much more). Get them to sign off on all the customization you will be doing, or they'll try to coax you into throwing a bunch of stuff in for "free". Good planning and orginzation is key, so my advice would be to try and get an idea of how much of that is done during your interview. If there's none the job can be hell, if there's lots it can be an awesome job.
Hope this helps.