Freeze after Freeze - Principal Software Engineer Oracle Employee Review

3.0
4 Aug 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Smart people all around, if you actively look for them. Opportunity to move sideways into different teams and gaining new expertise. Chance to grow and complete your education with some real world skils and experience before going out to do something real on your own.

Cons

There is a hiring freeze, followed by spending cuts, followed by hiring freeze followed by spending cuts. The hands of lower management are tied in their ability to select their own team and they are forced to work with what they got, because they cannot replace employees who underperform. As a result, there is a lot of slackers all around who just coast on the fact that it is better for the manager to have some half done work out of them than to have nobody to replace them. Getting the tools required to do your job can be quite hard and you have to know the right people. The procurement system is difficult. Getting a monitor above 17" or non-refurbished computer is just hard to do. Replacing 5 year old computer with 3 year old refurbished one is not savings, but insane waste of resources. All this results in so much wasted time and inefficiency that Oracle could probably do the same job with half the people if they actually motivated them and gave them the right tools.

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5.0
10 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great company, great work life-balance

Cons

compensation could be better; there's also normal big-tech slowness

4.0
21 Oct 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Every group/division can be different in how they treat their employees, but I'd say overall there is very good atmosphere of trust and fairness. There is a strong focus on education, and they reimburse for outside classes taken (Up to 5k/year I think). Benefits are good, and I'd say quite competitive in the market. Good 401K matching (they'll contribute a max of 3% of your 6% or greater). Free drinks in the breakroom. Flexibility to work from home at times. (If you live 50+ miles away from an office you can work full-time from home...policy).

Cons

They don't try to make the workplace anything special (maybe a pool table and arcade game are cliche or gimmicky?). In the 10 years I've worked there, they've given 2 measly %1 cost of living raises (this is the same with most everyone I've spoken to, some don't get any raises). You will not get a substantial raise ever, unless you leave then get rehired on (they will not match offers, better to leave). New employees that you train will make 10 - 20K more than you several years after you hire on (not just me, they do this to all tenured employees). They will give these untrained, less experienced people higher titles (again this is done to everyone not just me). You learn pretty quickly that you're dispensable. The company has billions in cash and they don't re-invest in their employees, just in acquiring new companies and hiring new people that know nothing that you get to train.

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