Avantages
You get a lot of really great experience. You meet a lot of very intelligent people. You get to travel quite a bit if you're willing to do so.
Inconvénients
Exxon Drilling expects a lot out of you if you work there. If you are not a white male with a stay at home wife, it will be very hard for you to succeed specifically in Drilling. None of the minorities stay longer than 5 years and very few females stay in drilling. It's seen as a nuisance if you take time off to have kids or need to pick up your children because you're in a dual career relationship. All the men I worked with had stay at home wives that took care of all personal things while the men could dedicate themselves to their career. Most of the men then don't know how to work with women in the office because fundamentally they believe women should be at home caring for their men and children. It's very frat boy mentality. I was once told to be more "vanilla" at work. Majority of "drillers" are going to be hardcore Republicans that expect everyone else to be as well. Don't even think you'll get 9/80's or 4/10's with Exxon Drilling US. They may have that in Canada or other parts of the world but if you're based in Houston, you will NEVER get that. Bottom line: drilling is an operationally driven department and if you're not willing to dedicate your life to working long hours and relocating your family every 3-5 years to different parts of the world, you should go somewhere more work life balance friendly.