Company: Oracle
Date: 2016-11-30
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Confirmed

Stay away from the gears and you might find a sweet spot
Pros: The pros include a great benefits program and a lot of flexibility for many roles. I was able to work from home most of the time. It's also a global business so travelers might enjoy opportunities to see more of the world depending on your role. 

Oracle is a giant enterprise with about 150K people, so it's hard to write a review about the company as a whole. Because of it's size, it's possible to find pockets of well managed and very stable teams. If you're looking for work life balance and stability such a position could be a great fit—if you can find it!
Cons: Perhaps the biggest con is the company culture—while there are many many smart and talented people at Oracle the company culture stifles bottom up ideas and a real sense of connection to the company. This stems in part from the silo'd nature of the company. For example, I'm a marketer and discovered an incredible disconnect between product management and marketing. On top of that, the internal systems for everything from HR to collaboration are simply horrible. I can't tell you how much time I wasted on broken systems and processes. 

Finally, compensation is generally below market at Oracle—from my experience as a manager— raise pools are very small and the longer you've been with the company the further below market you'll be. One effect of this is that A players tend to leave the company ... if/when they come back they can reset to market rates. But that's the exception not the role which leaves the company full of B players. Finally, I don't have much faith in executive management when it comes to their vision or with respect to how they treat employees. 


Suffice it to say, I would only recommend joining Oracle if you come in with a great salary (because it will not increase), in a position that is not subject to political contests, and where you can work from home.