Company: Oracle
Date: 2017-07-21
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Confirmed

Principal Member of Technical Staff
Pros: If you join as a developer in the database organization, you are very unlikely to be laid off or fired. If you have a lot of other commitments, or you absolutely need stability (for example due to visa issues) this is a good thing.
Cons: Compensation is on the low end. As a core member of a high performing development team, I got a raise every year (apparently this isn't the case across development). However, it usually wasn't very much, about 3%. Most years I would get some sort of bonus or stock, but never both in the same year, with a value of less than 10% of base salary per year.

As many people in the organization have been there a long time, certain ways of working have become ingrained. There is little chance to influence the development process for the better.

Outside of the database organization, layoffs in development are more of a risk (for example a layoff was covered in the news in January 2017).