Company: Oracle
Date: 2015-10-05
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

About what I expected after avoiding it for years.
Pros: Oracle is a great place to get started on a career or making a change.  Having Oracle on the resume can't hurt. It's like IBM or Xerox used to be. A fair number of people move from Oracle to Salesforce and other similar companies. There is a lot of training available and you work with smart people. The comraderie on the floors is good. I enjoyed the people I worked with.
Cons: Oracle has a well deserved reputation for being a pressure cooker.  Management seems to manufacture stress that gets passed down. You are assigned a Quota and it is unacceptable to commit to anything less than that number. In your first weekly 1 on 1 your manager builds a forecast with you that may or more likely,  not reflect reality. You subsequently stand and commit to that number in weekly team meetings.  If something falls out for any reason whatsoever (frequently because it was never real to begin with), you find something to backfill. You never lower your forecast under any circumstances. Oracle customers are trained to buy at the end of the quarter and especially the 4th quarter due to heavy discounting. Oracle customers don't like the company and feel trapped.  You can make money if you get  lucky in your account assignment.  If not... One year three people on my floor went out on medical leaves due to mental stress. You hear about that sort of thing often. It's a tough environment.