After meeting and greeting, the very first question that is gently tossed towards a candidate is: Tell me about yourself? The question may also be phrased as, give me a brief introduction of yourself or walk me through your resume’ or tell me about your qualification and experience? The question though looks simple and easy to answer, has many facets and intentions attached to it:
- By virtue of its open-ended nature, the question provides candidate some room to say few things about himself in any which way the candidate likes and thus make him feel comfortable and settle down.
- All the information that you may give here are already there on the resume for interviewer to see. Therefore the intention behind the question is not to get information but to see how well you deliver the information. How focused and coordinated your thoughts are.
- How confident and comfortable you are while speaking as well as how good your spoken English is. In other words, this question also tests confidence, communication skills and proficiency in English language.
The way to handle the question is to treat it as an opportunity to showcase your talents; to convince interviewer that your knowledge and experience is the best fit for the job. Also, this being your first answer, creates your first impression on interviewer. Through a quality answer you can influence his perception about yourself and make him somewhat bias in your favor. Similarly, a poor answer here may also create a poor impression right in the beginning.
Tell me about yourself, do we need to prepare for this question? The answer is an absolute yes. Find out what are the qualifications, skills and experiences the company is looking for in a candidate. This you may easily find in job description advertised. Also knowing the type of wells going to be drilled can give you some idea on where to focus while telling about yourself. For example, if it is an exploration campaign, highlight your expertise on coring operation, detailed description of cuttings and on large suite of electric logs that you have witnessed. If development wells are being drilled then it is better to relate your experiences to common problems encountered in the field such as formation overpressure or depleted pressures in reservoirs or mud losses, or if it is a directional well, mention your geosteering skills. The answer should be in your own English, well practiced so that it can be delivered effortlessly in less than two minutes.
To highlight these points through an example, let us create a scenario: you are being interviewed for a new drilling campaign in a field that is known to have overpressure zone and some pockets of H2S. This information among others, you have collected from either job description advertised by the company or from you own research about the field. Here are three possible answers to the question, according to the geologist’s position:
Mudlogging Geologist: I have done masters in geology and have two years experience as mudlogger. I am fortunate to have worked on both offshore and on shore rigs for two major oil companies. While drilling offshore wells we have encountered overpressure zones. It was little challenging for me, as I had no previous experience working in overpressure environment. However, I stayed vigilant and monitored drilling parameters closely. This helped me detect kicks at least on two occasions at very early stage. As a result, drilling team was able to control the influx in a relatively short time. On onshore location we were expecting some H2S pockets, which we did not encounter. However, we were all prepared with trainings and equipment to face the situation. Working on land rig I also got the opportunity to do a few rig ups and rig downs, that gave me lot of experience on how to properly install sensors, do cable connection and logically trouble shoot the problems.
Data Engineer: I have three years experience as mudlogger and two years experience as data engineer. So far I have worked with 5 major oil companies in three different countries. On the job I am focused on quality of data, logs and various reports that I hand over to client on daily and weekly basis. My skills for troubleshooting are very well developed and always maintain sufficient spares to meet any eventuality. I noted from job description that HPHT well experience is required for this operation. In this regard I would like to inform you I have worked on HPHT wells both as a mudlogger and as a data engineer. I am well versed in interpreting mudlogging parameter trends to empirically identify overpressure zones as well as estimate overpressure using d’exponent plot. As a mudlogger I have also measured shale density and plotted it to pick any deviation from normal compaction. I have extensively drilled in H2S infected fields as a mudlogger, and am, currently holding a valid H2S certificate.
Wellsite Geologist: I have 10 years cumulative wellsite experience. Breaking it down I have worked three years as mudlogger, three years as data engineer and four years as wellsite geologist. This experience was gained while working with seven oil companies in five different countries. As a wellsite geologist, I am well versed in witnessing mudlogging, wireline and MWD/LWD operations. I have also been involved in geosteering directional and horizontal wells. Have taken conventional and sidewall cores in several wells. I feel quite competent at planning the operation and managing the cores on surface. I have been part of a drilling campaign that drilled HPHT wells. Where a major responsibility was to estimate over pressure using d’exponent, sonic log, resistivity log and density log. I feel quite comfortable in setting up isodensity lines to estimate overpressure. As a lead wellsite geologist I am aware of my role in implementing safety guidelines of the company during coring and logging operations. These are my major competencies that I wanted to bring to your attention.
Please be sure, whatever claims you are making on your knowledge, skills and experience are genuine, as these will be probed thoroughly during the interview. If you failed to defend your claims, you would make your integrity doubtful. This alone could provide interviewer a reason not to hire you. So, the take away points to handle this question are: research what skills and experience are required for the job, prepare those thoroughly and highlight them in your answer.