Company: Oracle
Date: 2018-02-28
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: former

Don't join the Responsys Team in a client-facing account management type role in Chicago
Pros: Oracle is a strong name to have on your resume. Pay is good for the industry. Good health benefits. Gym in office building is $50 for unlimited use. Work from home every Friday. Unlimited vacation for employees at certain resource grade level. Very casual dress code (when not in front of a client) - shorts/hats in the summer.

But, see below.
Cons: *This applies to the Chicago based client-facing account management roles team working on the Responsys product. Don't join - I was warned and thought, "It can be that bad." It is.

- More than 5 individuals in account management roles in this department have left this department in 2018. I've witness one employee quit within 6 months after being hired.

- I witnessed employees drinking at desks, sometimes within the 9-5 hours. HR should look into this.

- Few to no promotions (people have been in same roles 4+ years).

- I was with the company for 2+ years and only had little professional development discussions. Coworkers and I filled out the company-wide annual review forms only to never have them reviewed.

- With no upward mobility, there's also no opportunity to move departments.

- No raises, whatsoever, even minmal cost of living increases. If you choose to join, negotiate high or it's not worth the headache.

- No office culture. Maybe 1-2 happy hour events per year. No holiday parties. No food. They do provide sodas/La Croix. In a company as large as Oracle, I understand getting approval for "culture-related" activites/perks (food, etc.) is challenging. During my tenure, the company was always "working on budget approval to add to our office culture." The company policy required removal of all posters on the walls from before we at Responsys were acquired by Oracle.

- Account management roles are either OTE (Overtime Eligible) or Salaried + Quarterly bonus. Go the OTE route. Never switch from OTE to salaried/bonus because it actually results in a pay reduction. Quarterly bonuses aren't paid frequently.

- Oracle is a technology company and you'll be working with clients on the Responsys product. My onboarding consisted of NO formal product training.

- In an account management role, you'll spend half your time working with client and the other half trying to navigate broken archaic internal systems for billing/invoicing, resource management, expense reports, timecards, etc. - very inefficient.

- If a recruiter is trying to place you in an account management role on the Responsys product in Chicago office, I encourage you to explore any other options.