Company: Oracle
Date: 2015-11-03
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Oracle OD: Promoting Mediocrity
Pros: I was in the Oracle Sales Academy Class Of program and just left after a year and half with the company. After the training program, I was placed in the ASR position which was a great because it allowed me to skip spending time in a business development role, which most other companies require. That being said, half of the people who went through training with me were demoted to a business development role after accepting their offers being specifically told they would be put into a closing role. What’s more, they were demoted not because of any indication of skill or dedication, but because of where their last name was in the alphabet. 
The benefits of going through the Class Of program and spending any amount of time at Oracle is simply that it makes you a desirable candidate for other companies. Job security is also very good, but that is more of a benefit for someone with a family to support. It doesn't seem to be a winning benefit for the new hires who are just starting their careers and are more focused on career development than paying for the college funds of children they probably won't have for another 10 years.
Cons: The downsides of working at Oracle are many, and their extremely high turnover rates reflect this. While upper level management seems to be aware that they have a serious problem maintaining a stable workforce, their inability to react quickly or effectively has resulted in little improvement to combat this issue. These issues may differ across departments, but I can speak to the problems of Oracle Direct, their inside sales organization. 
-Career development is extremely limited and structured, with the expectation that those in OD will either go into OD management or the Field. There are requirements on how long you need to stay in a specific role, regardless of achievement or potential, and they are longer for Class Ofs. Additionally, raises associated with promotions are severely limited, particularly if you joined Oracle through the Class Of program (most promotions are capped at $3000 for Class Ofs, and Class Ofs will be paid significantly less than their coworkers who came from outside the company no matter what role they move into). Limits on salary potential ultimately make staying at Oracle detrimental to your long term earnings, and will set you back compared to your colleagues who leave the company. If Oracle thinks the experience employees gain at the company is beneficial and important, the company needs to start paying loyal employees in a way that reflects the value of that experience.  
-OD Management is not an appealing next step for most employees, as it pays poorly and is more administrative than an opportunity to manage or motivate. It seems like those who continue to rise through the ranks of OD management are there not due to their ability, but because there was no one else. All the capable and talented managers I met took the position to bide their time until a specific Field position opened up or to leverage it to move into a management role at another company. 
-Uneven territory distribution further contributes to this problem, as reps with more field reps and better territories will do well regardless of effort or talent. This leads to reps getting promoted to management positions, even though they have never actually ran deal. It also heavily favors reps with heavy install territories- those who are mostly versed in up-sell and additional license opportunities, but who have little to no experience or understanding of how to work and compete in a net new territory. Oracle needs to promote more reps who might not have the strongest numbers, but have more experience actually running their own deals and working in a net new territory. Current management has little credibility and does a poor job motivating reps in the territories where Oracle stands to grow its business the most. 
-Ongoing training in OD is sparse and often not very helpful. There is a heavy emphasis on sales skills and methods (which all seem to revolve around cold calling, even as it proves to be ineffective and everyone else in the industry is moving away from it), while failing to provide adequate product training. I brought this up to management on multiple occasions, and received this exact response at least 3 times, "You don't need to know how the product works to sell it." This may have been true when OD was just meant to be up-selling modules and additional licenses into Oracle's install bases. It is not effective now that the company is moving into new market segments with their Cloud solution and is facing serious competition from other vendors. Reps should be able to have a real conversation about the benefits of Oracle's solution, as they lose credibility when they can only have high-level, 'fluff' conversation with prospects. 
-Finally, company culture is dismal. There is persistent frustration among employees stemming from the feeling that they are not valued by their employer. There is a serious lack of team building and management consistently uses a 'one size fits all' approach to handling their employees. Real dialogue about the issues that are causing Oracle's high turnover rate are rare if they happen at all.