Pros
Great pay and bonus (even at low oil price due to downstream revenue) Majority of colleagues are nice people, little bull***t Can have interesting studies within project but need to be proactive to get them Good number of flex days (although may have been shrunk since downturn) and good work life balance
Cons
A lot of business tasks that 8th grader could do (seriously). I was paid a lot of money to count the number of land lease squares on a map! Management can hand out a lot of boring business tasks. Need to design or get involve in you own study that management will take interest in to keep your sanity. I had 4 layers of management on my floor (it would be 7 or eight if you went to the top). Too much management, never laid off managers in down turn only good technical staff. Too much red tape, with advisors needed to sign off every task as manager worry about blow back for any errors. Office politics is at least 30% of your energy with another 30% at meetings. If you dont mind sitting in meeting being paid large salary to listen to other people talk for the sake of talking them Shell is the place for you! (I took my laptop to meetings and worked in the meeting, then you would spend all night catching up!)