Company: Oracle
Date: 2013-11-04
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Would only work there again if my family were starving--literally starving
Pros: Excellent compensation, great benefits, nice gym, pleasing campus, good food options, and, because it is a desirable employer, you generally end up working with competent/intelligent colleagues. Also, it is a refreshingly international campus, with many foreign languages to be heard as you walk around.
Cons: I was warned about Oracle's multitudes of miserable employees, but I refused to believe that there were no good departments in such a large and sure-to-be-multifaceted company.  And perhaps there are harmonious departments that run smoothly enough, but my experience sadly fit in with the legends circulating in the valley. I witnessed an outrageous degree of politics (every company suffers from this, but Oracle antics exceed the usual). Morale always seemed to be dropping. And it was difficult to simply to our job. Two VPs splitting control over the same product were vying over our little group as just one pawn leading to ultimate control of said product. In vying for our group, both had a hand in almost destroying it. The petty and destructive behavior was completely tolerated in the higher rungs of the organization: the executive VPs were aware of the warfare and did nothing to promote productivity. In the org structure, our little group was always placed under a branch that made it difficult to accomplish anything. I've never had to jump through so many hoops to simply perform the task I had been asked to perform to begin with. I came in so very proud to be an Oracle employee. I recall having the "Sunday blues" with other jobs, but with Oracle, I had the blues on the eve of every workday.