Lead Energy Specialist Schlumberger Withdraws Job Offers to Recent IIT Graduates

“We will personally communicate our decision to every student affected by this decision,” said the letter from Gautam Reddy, Managing Director, India and Bangladesh, Schlumberger.

Driven by the global slump in oil demand due to Covid closures and an oil price war, a premium recruiter working in oil services has withdrawn his job offers to graduate students at the Indian Institutes of Technology ( IIT).

Schlumberger, the world’s largest oilfield services company, wrote to the IITs on April 6 that it had decided to “reduce and withdraw some internship and graduate job opportunities” in an attempt to accommodate the “sudden reduction” in customer spending. “

“We will personally communicate our decision to every student affected by this decision,” said the letter from Gautam Reddy, Managing Director, India and Bangladesh, Schlumberger.

Schlumberger is the second multinational company to revoke its IIT job offers. As reported by The Indian Express on April 4, Gartner Inc, a US-based research and advisory firm. USA, was the first to terminate its offer to 11 students at IIT-Delhi, IIT-Kanpur and IIT-Madras.

Read | Explained: Why did oil prices drop below freezing?

Gartner’s withdrawal, reported on March 30, was seen as an early warning sign on all campuses, and IITs fear many more companies will reconsider their placement offers. Human resources minister Ramesh Pokhriyal and IIT-Delhi director Ramgopal Rao even publicly asked companies in the first week of April not to withdraw the offers.

Schlumberger’s decision has affected at least one student at IIT-Delhi, who was offered a junior field engineer position, and one at IIT-Bombay. The IIT-Kanpur student, who had secured a job at the Schlumberger Pune Technology Center (PUTC), was offered a similar profile at the Schlumberger Pune India Technology Center (PITC) with a lower pay package. A similar offer is known to have been made to a student at IIT-Madras.

Parag Deshpande, vice president of the Professional Development Center at IIT-Kharagpur, said: “Schlumberger made us some offers. As on the date, none of the offers were revoked. “When asked if IIT-Kharagpur had received the letter on April 6, he added:” That was a generic email. We have not heard from them. “

Speaking to The Indian Express on Tuesday, Reddy confirmed that offers made to students at IIT are canceled. “Last Friday, our global CEO (in announcing the results for the first quarter of 2020) had clearly stated in North America that we expect our clients’ spending to drop by 40% and globally by 15%. It is unprecedented. “

“We have a long-standing relationship with IITs. I am from IIT-Bombay. IIT recruitment is an ongoing process for us. Right now, when we are doing business restructuring, it is not fair that our current employees (hire more people). We have to take care of them first. It is as simple as this. All those who start from the top management have taken a salary cut within the company, ”he added.

When asked what this means for job offers made to IIT students this year, he said: “So far we have withdrawn them. If the business climate changes, we will be the first to communicate with (students) who have been filtered through the entire (recruiting) process. “

Schlumberger cut its shareholder dividend by 75 percent and is restructuring companies to cope with the biggest drop in demand in the energy sector in decades.

The Covid pandemic has resulted in a historic energy defeat. On Monday, US oil prices turned negative for the first time, falling from $ 18 a barrel to – $ 38. Government-mandated pandemic closings have slashed demand for crude oil and oil producers are lagging no space to store oversupply.

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