Something to pass the time
Yes yes, I know, there are plenty of things I should be happily ranting about, but this is where I whine, rant and generally attempt to explain things; other info can be found elsewhere (right to change mind reserved). I feel like I ought to explain properly what I do for a living, even though everyone seems to be content with the cheap explanation I tend to give. Due to probable length (and for those that don't care), I'll place it beyond this cut:
I work for WesternGeco, a company based on explorational geophysics and recently purchased by Schlumberger, Ltd., a company based on the creation, maintenance and improvement of oil wells. Roughly, we make underground maps and rent them to oil companies, so they can tell people (hopefully our people) where to drill. We send land crews and sea vessels to regions and record absurd amounts of data at no small expense (approx $1 mil operating costs and 1TB data per vessel, per day). Our teams send out seismic (sonic) signals and record the time of return on a series of recording devices. As these times are based on signal reflections off of events in the earth, we can use this to make an accurate image of the subsurface of the earth. This raw(-ish) data is sent to a processing center where people, such as myself, attempt to turn those recordings into a clean, coherent image. This requires a lot of processing and noise removal through some proprietary software - imagine, if you will, making a flow chart, but with complex processes for each step that, aside from choosing variables, are automatically performed by the system. The software automatically distributes the necessary calculations on our vast processor farm and eventually something is returned. Also, this is why my business cards say 'seismic engineer' and not 'geophysicist' (but I'm working on that). I'm not experienced enough to make processing algorithms yet, so most of my time is spent in training or looking over output graphs to make sure we didn't screw anything up when we performed some process. Its not terribly complex, and I have a pretty nice cubicle, great coworkers, access to endless free tea and cappuccinos, and pretty good pay and flexible hours, so I certainly can't complain. Also, we hate Halliburton, which is funny and a bonus.
I work for WesternGeco, a company based on explorational geophysics and recently purchased by Schlumberger, Ltd., a company based on the creation, maintenance and improvement of oil wells. Roughly, we make underground maps and rent them to oil companies, so they can tell people (hopefully our people) where to drill. We send land crews and sea vessels to regions and record absurd amounts of data at no small expense (approx $1 mil operating costs and 1TB data per vessel, per day). Our teams send out seismic (sonic) signals and record the time of return on a series of recording devices. As these times are based on signal reflections off of events in the earth, we can use this to make an accurate image of the subsurface of the earth. This raw(-ish) data is sent to a processing center where people, such as myself, attempt to turn those recordings into a clean, coherent image. This requires a lot of processing and noise removal through some proprietary software - imagine, if you will, making a flow chart, but with complex processes for each step that, aside from choosing variables, are automatically performed by the system. The software automatically distributes the necessary calculations on our vast processor farm and eventually something is returned. Also, this is why my business cards say 'seismic engineer' and not 'geophysicist' (but I'm working on that). I'm not experienced enough to make processing algorithms yet, so most of my time is spent in training or looking over output graphs to make sure we didn't screw anything up when we performed some process. Its not terribly complex, and I have a pretty nice cubicle, great coworkers, access to endless free tea and cappuccinos, and pretty good pay and flexible hours, so I certainly can't complain. Also, we hate Halliburton, which is funny and a bonus.