I applied through my university. The process took a total of 3 months.
I went to the info session at my university in early September and gave the recruiter my resume, although I was informed all interview spots were filled. Late that night, I received a call from the recruiter saying a spot had opened up for an interview, and it was mine if I wanted it. Naturally, I accepted.
The first interview was wonderful. I had had the worst interview of my life two days prior with halliburton. I'm a female petroleum engineer and halliburton interviewed me with a male electrical engineer. The difference in Schlumberger was incredible. I was interviewed by a female petroleum engineer, and I honestly felt like I was sitting down for coffee with a friend. We laughed, we told stories--standard interview questions were asked, but it barely felt like an interview.
About three weeks later, I received an invitation for a second interview in Midland, TX, which I scheduled to take place at the end of November. Less than a week before the interview, I received an email with a petroleum topic and a list of my group members and their contact information for a presentation on that topic. They flew me out and put me up in a hotel room (unfortunately, I had a roommate, but some people didn't). There were about 20 of us there, and the first night was a little rough.
We began with introductions, ice breakers, and so on, before finally breaking for dinner at 8 PM (I had only eaten a small bag of airline pretzels, and all the restaurants in Texas are closed on Sunday). After dinner, we continued presentations until 10, when we were about halfway through, and broke again for a team building exercise. We were asked to build a device using pencils, plastic cutlery, duct tape, and rubber bands that would get a ping pong ball in a plastic cup 5 feet above the ground.
After the group building excercise, we finished presentations a little after midnight (there was coffee in the room, so be sure you drink a lot if you're not a night owl).
The next morning was early; we were expected to be on the bus in full PPE by 8 AM. The site we were visiting was only a half hour from the hotel, but we got turned around several times, so it took 2 hours to get there. If you get car sick easily, bring some dramamine. I don't ever get car sick, but these were dirt roads with huge ruts that made the bus vibrate and shake non stop until I was sick.
After visiting this site, we got lunch at a little chinese buffet and then headed over to a wireline facility in town to tour. At about 3, we headed back to the hotel and went straight back to the conference room where they asked us to reintroduce ourselves, say if we still wanted to work for Schlumberger, and if so, which area of Schlumberger.
This part was tricky. The recruiters asked technical questions about the sections each person chose, and many people had trouble answering them. Be sure you actually know what's involved in the section you're choosing, because the recruiters are going to ask some tough questions.
At about 5, we broke for individual interviews, ranging from 5:30 -7:30. Mine just consisted of the recruiter asking what I wanted to do and where and why. It was only a quick 10 minute interview.
At 8, we left for dinner and ate at a nice steakhouse. Schlumberger invited people we'd met at the sites that day and we all ate and drank and got to ask the other employees questions. It was wonderful. We stayed at the restaurant until about 11, and when we returned to the hotel, the recruiters told us that they looked forward to seeing some of us in the company, but that not all of us would be hired. My flight back home the next morning was at 5:30 and my shuttle left at 4:30, so I got about an hour of sleep that night.
8 days after I left Texas, I received a job offer in my first choice of area and location.