Company: Oracle
Date: 2015-08-13
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Great place to start your career and move up or out
Pros: Great place for younger employees to cut their teeth and learn a lot. GREAT to have Oracle on your Resume! It does open doors for you.
>Oracle is a great place to work once you figure it out. Each product group has their own personality and power to get things done based on your management's clout and product position within Oracle's vast 34K products. It really is all about the team you are working with amidst the thousands of other employees.
>The new acquisitions are all treated as the "shiny penny" with all the attention and everyone wants to be connected to the newest tech brought into the company. Sometimes at the expense of other products.
>Oracle has an M&A machine and multiple acquisitions a year are the norm.
>Everything is "self-service" at Oracle and once you learn your way around this quagmire and find the people behind the self-service curtain - you can actually get stuff done. 
>There are some amazing resources for creating programs and campaigns (from the marketing side) and lots of really smart people hidden away around the world that you can tap as subject matter experts. 
>OpenWorld is an amazing conference in SF where Oracle takes over the city with 60K+ attendees and you really see how many companies have put their trust in Oracle for running their enterprise systems. 
>Benefits are great.
>Very supportive of remote employees
Cons: >Oracle is not really a first to market type company - they tend to lag behind and then try to take over once the market is more mature. If you recall, Larry noted at the 2008 OpenWorld Keynote: "Cloud Computing: Maybe I’m an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What is it? It’s complete gibberish. It’s insane. When is this idiocy going to stop?" 
Or this choice quote from an interview with Charlie Rose: "Who am I winning for? Am I winning for Oracle shareholders or is it simply a matter of personal vanity? I'll admit to it. Mea culpa. An awful lot of it is personal vanity."  
>Lots of fire drills driven by a top exec or middle management. 
Lots of Self-Serve Process to get anything done and sometimes these feel like a black hole of no return.
>Because of automated processes, sometimes things take longer to get done that needed. 
>It takes around 3-4 yrs to figure your way around. Who's who amidst a constantly changing cast of characters. Lots of churn.
>Finding a person to speak with regarding some of these can be challenging. I never spoke to an HR person in my entire time (4+ yrs) there.
>Pay is competitive when you start, but no one gets raises and the only way to increase your pay is to leave and come back in 2 years. Depending on your product group, bonuses are typically non-existent, but Larry still needs another island or toy and the senior execs all seem to get their $$MM bonuses so the disparity in pay is ever-present and annoying. 
>There is a huge bureaucracy to getting some stuff done. Hiring is painfully slow and every new hire crosses Larry's desk for approval (or so they say...) 
>Open headcount due to churn is not replaced quickly.  
>There is an endless amount of work to be done and the "old-timers" who survive keep their heads down and under the radar and don't work around the clock. There is little recognition for busting your butt.
>You will still find an interesting split between Oracle culture vs the Sun and other acquisitions that have come into the company. 
>Becoming part of the Borg takes time to assimilate. Resistance is Futile!