Great place to be a programmer. - Consulting Member of Technical Staff Oracle Employee Review

5.0
2 Dec 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Oracle has an excellent software development team in the server division. The average quality of the developers is surprisingly high for a mature company of this size. There are a substantial number of world-class people there, although perhaps not in as large a concentration as 10 years ago, due to long-timers retiring and losing a lot of the best young talent to places like Google, but it's still a lot better than Sun was at its peak. The scale of software development at Oracle dwarfs almost anyplace other than Microsoft, and the engineering culture is, to my mind, far superior.

Cons

It's a huge company, so it's hard to stand out sometimes. There are politics, but they aren't crippling. I worked at a number of smaller companies, and any of the other places with more than 100 people had worse politics and worse outcomes. While I worked at Oracle, they would have "bake-offs" when there were conflicts about how things should be done, and the best code would win. Being involved in one of these is a lot of pressure, but you can actually win just by doing a good job. You also have to learn to think a little outside the box - but not too far - to make useful contributions, and your boss needs to toot your horn in order for you to be adequately compensated.

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5.0
14 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good work life balance for an engineer

Cons

Lots of changes in organization structure

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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