Company: Oracle
Date: 2015-02-11
Overall rating: 1/5
Employment status: former

Poor sales culture
Pros: Oracle as a brand name still carries some clout when you apply for your next job when you resign.
Cons: In the hiring process, Oracle managers will dangle a carrot of a good compensation package.  However, this will never materialize: when a sales rep leaves, the best accounts from that territory are re-assigned to long tenured sales representatives.  So there are two classes of sales reps--those who have been around ten years or more and consistently benefit from this re-shuffling of accounts and the rest of the reps who are themselves re-shuffled every couple of years.  

If you are currently in the hiring process, be aware that you will be assigned the worst accounts that this particular VP has in his account set.  These are historically bad accounts that haven't purchased from Oracle in years.

Oracle has structured territories and product portfolios to encourage the maximum competition between reps.  There are overlapping territories and overlapping product sets between sales reps from different departments.  What this means is that you'll have to constantly fight off other reps who would steal your deals from under you.  Always watch your back.

There is a high level of management overhead.  You'll have to report progress on deals to a half a dozen different managers from different LOBs.  Humiliation is a common tactic for motivation--reps are thrown under the bus constantly, and always in front of as big an audience as possible.  Managers encourage rivalries among the reps, and duplicitousness internally and with clients.

You'll spend days (literally) writing requests for discounts for every deal.  

Oracle also relies on the CRM that they sell.  It's slow and really difficult to use.  Not a great endorsement for any reps trying to sell it.  

There are no stones to overturn for prospecting with Oracle.  Oracle is so well known that IT departments are already well educated on all Oracle products.