Company: Oracle
Date: 2010-09-16
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current

With good and bad points... however the best company I worked for
Pros: PROS:

The financial package is very good comparing with the market (at least in consulting area) and I speak here not only about the base salary but other benefits as well (except the bonus that you should expect to take it only 25% of the time). So the company car deal is the best I ever heard (this is what the car dealer told me as well), private pension package in top of the mandatory state pension, home office (with the payment for basic needs like Internet and phone) and the possibility to use shared offices when you need, fidelity bonus after 1 year (very small... but the idea is nice)...

Trainings and knowledge sharing are exceptional. In the first 3 months after joining Oracle I took trainings with the market value of 25.000 Euro. Now, you can imagine that you will not learn the ABC in Oracle University, if you have no idea about your area (or if you are a freshman), but my case was only to get familiar with the applications as I already had senior knowledge about the CRM/ERP architecture in general. The KT depends of team communication and of manager, but if you have both then you have a very good DWH of knowledge that you have access at. Additionally I got a MBA sponsorship from Oracle.

Team and direct manager again exceptional, either if I am not so happy with the next levels of management. However if you have a good direct manager that act as a buffer between the team and the rest I think that you will not feel it so bad. I mention again that this is my lucky case that I got such a good team and manager, because I have a friend with same position like me in French team and she left Oracle especially because she was very unhappy with her work environment and with her manager which was a nightmare.

Respect and appreciation: very high purely from "respect" point of view, but financially you should never expect anything (see the CONS)
Cons: CONS:

First of all the balance personal life/work is 0 (because 0 divided by anything is 0 :). Theoretically I was paid for 39 hours but adding the extra hours and travelling I went on normal bases to 60-70 hours of work per week. However the weekends and 4 weeks of vacation were mine (I never worked 1 weekend in 4 years). This can be OK if you don't have a family, but if you have one and you don't want to divorce, sooner or later you will end up by searching something else. I can mention that the 75% of my colleagues are singles (without a serious very long-term relationship).

Never expect a promotion or a salary growth. If however you succeed to be promoted after years your manager will explain you how appreciated you are in the company, but that the situation is bad (either if the shares are going up on market) and that the promotion will not be noticeable in salary. But this is what it's happening in other big companies as well, so the new strategy I see is: stay 3-5 years with a company, then get a "promotion" in other company for 3-4 years and then come back again to Oracle to be "promoted" to a job that you would not reach inside in 20 years.

Never expect a financial recognition for your exceptional work.

Better get used that you don't get the end of year bonus (if this is related somehow with the performances of the company and not a commission of your work... so I don't speak here about a sales bonus for example). If you get it you have why to be happy, but 3 out of 4 years you will not get it.

Never expect to apply internally to find another job in Oracle (especially cross-countries).