I feel that it was an interesting and character-building experience, but I am glad I did not stick around for long haul.
Pros
As they are a large global company, salary, benefits, and job training are all excellent. For the field engineer position, you must attend a 3 month training school (all expensed paid) just to learn the workflow of the job and related equipment. Spending this time with other trainees from all over the world made this a very unique and memorable experience. There is a high concern for health, safety, and environment, probably one of the best in the industry. There is an enormous variety of possible career paths and progressions, and they are mapped out quite clearly. The steps required for advancements and promotions are well defined.
Cons
Given the nature of the industry and the size of the company, they continually face a very high rate of turnover. There is a very clear "seduction phase" during the early stages of being hired (i.e. orientation week and training), where you experience the result of a lot of money spent on nice hotels, meals, and leisure time activities. The working conditions for a field engineer can vary from mind-numbingly boring (i.e. sitting in a motel in the middle of nowhere for several days with nothing to do) to very intense tests of character (i.e. getting told to just "fix" some very sophisticated electronic equipment when its -20C and you've been awake for 35 hours, and the rig is losing 10000s of dollars while having to wait). There were many times that I fantasized about dropping everything and running away, or doing something destructive in order to get fired. These frustrations, however, are often short-lived, as everything works itself out in hindsight. As a large company, they are also very top-down in terms of policies and procedures. This means that you will have to do things, or see things done in ways that are not the most efficient or logical, but rather "by the book." This can be very taxing for someone who is creative, or likes to do things their own way.
