"Science offers so many opportunities in so many different areas so keep studying science!"

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Joanne N. Bentley

Born in Chester, England, UK, 1975

B.Sc.(Honors) in Geology and Geography

Keele University, Stafforshire England

Fields of work

Geology, petrophysics, application support, on-site consultancy, training

Areas of interest outside work

Swimming, gym, step and reading

I had always been interested and fascinated by nature, especially the different environments: rivers, seaside and volcanic. Then when I was in school, about age 14, I became involved in the Rock Club in which we could study rock and mineral specimens and cut and polish them for display purposes. I absolutely loved learning about the earth and how it formed. The subject is so interesting. This prompted by study of Geology and

Geography at University and hence how I came to work for Schlumberger.
What I like about Schlumberger is that every day there is something new to learn. There’s always a new challenge because of an ever-increasing pace to get up to speed in your area of interest. Learning to become a trainer and teach software to our clients has been a challenge for me, particularly teaching computer systems to people who have been in the industry for over 30 years and are used to doing everything on paper. And they’ve been working longer than I’ve been alive! New challenges now are developing my writing skills to coincide with my scientific skills.

Some of the most interesting experiences I have had in my career so far are visiting clients for on-site consultancy days when I worked in Software Support, this mainly involved sorting out problems they had with their data. It’s especially enjoyable when we visit foreign clients and my recent work in Marketing has enabled me to visit many interesting places such as Alaska, Brazil, Japan and recently Columbia. The travel also prompted me to learn a new language – Spanish, which I do twice a week. This proved a great help when visiting Latin America. You do not realize in school how important it is to not only learn Science but languages also. Science has lead me to a very interesting and varied career so far.

So, if you are a young woman considering a scientific or technical career, I recommend that you keep studying the science! Read lots also. The most up-to-date information is found in the papers and journals such as New Scientist and Nature. This kind of career is so interesting and far more rewarding than a lot of jobs that women tend to go for. Science offers so many opportunities in so many different areas.