Galina was looking for a challenge. Here she’s discovered what she can really do.
Life at SLB isn’t always easy. What we do is challenging but we trust you with the reins early on to make an impact wherever you can. You don’t do this alone.
You’ll work shoulder-to-shoulder with experts worldwide to solve challenges and accomplish more together, faster. It’s something that our Senior Electrical Engineer, Galina experienced when faced with interesting technical challenges that took a collaborative approach to solve.
Galina participated in a program called Tech & Field that exposes her to Field Engineer activity. Her first project meant spending 18 months in the field, learning on the job, taking measurements, leading a crew, and executing operations in the field.
“It was the kind of experience that you cannot find in most other companies. It was a very busy and exciting period that really marked my career and transformed my personality in a positive way.”
This method of learning on the job has given Galina the confidence to tackle anything. Her biggest project to date has been to put in place the qualification of different inertial sensors that capture movement. For example, an Accelerometer measures static forces of acceleration—e.g. gravity and/or dynamic forces—e.g. vibrations.
A Gyroscope orientation and angular velocity, and a Magnetometer can detect change in the earth's magnetic field. All of these combined, assist navigation, solve movement problems, and describe the dynamics of a system, so understanding their potential can make a big impact on our work.
“You have to provide an excitation, a mechanical input, in order to see how good the sensor is. For example with a Gyroscope, you would need to rotate it at a precisely controlled rate and compare the output of the sensor with it. If your simulator isn’t accurate you can’t say if the eventual inaccuracy in the output is due to the sensor or to the poorly controlled equipment.”
It was a challenging project. Galina’s team were attempting something almost entirely new. They installed a state-of-the-art movement simulator to aid their metrology testing. These sensors had to be free from any external factors that might hinder their results–such as vibrations from nearby traffic – so Galina and her team took out the elevated floor to anchor the machine on the concrete and move the laboratory wall so they could bring the 600kg equipment in.
“Installation day was like being in the field again. There was a crane and lots of other equipment with multiple teams working together. It was a big project with a lot of technical aspects to ensure all the parameters would be accurate enough. It was really exciting when the measurements I expected were confirmed by the new machine. I made some assumptions, and when they were proved right, it was a great feeling.”
Feeling empowered to shape results in your own way is an important part of what we do. There is a lot of on-the-job learning and problem-solving amongst our experts working together to solve the most challenging technical questions every day. Combined with thousands of training programs and courses that equip you with the skills you need to solve the latest digital, technical, and software solutions, Galina agrees it’s the best of both worlds.
“Whenever I've needed training, I’ve been totally supported and my learning curve has accelerated. Then, you apply this knowledge to what you do on the job, share and develop it with your colleagues, and your learning goes so much deeper.”
