Company: Oracle
Date: 2010-11-12
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current

Oracle, a great place lacking great compensation
Pros: Dynamic environment, always challenging the paradigm, continually presenting new scenarios that require creative thinking and problem solving.  An environment that fosters individual thinking and contributions, where opinions are taken seriously and valuable contributions are recognized.  Incredible, hard-working people, with great personalities and very strong work ethic; slackers are weeded out and don't last.  Successfully weathered the great recession, growing substantially even during the downturn.
Cons: Low compensation when compared to other tech companies.  An inconsistent bonus pool that varies widely year to year, with no real reason or explanation as to why.  Acquisitions have reinforced this notion, as those coming into the company typically make 50% more that their Oracle counterparts, where historical bonuses were 2-4x of those at Oracle and usually were contractually spelled out based upon the company's earnings.  Acquisitions happen so rapidly, it's getting more and more difficult to successfully integrate each company before the next acquisition hits.