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Oracle Swings the Layoff Axe

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Re: Oracle Swings the Layoff Axe

#61

Post by sitkack »

rooam-dev wrote: post #24
anti_milestone2 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new cloud infrastructure group is kind of hidden gem. Its very different than the rest of Oracle. It started in Seattle about 4 years ago and is like 40% ex Amazon and 40% ex Microsoft. They also pay very well, because Oracle doesn't have a great reputation. The work is good, with a TON of room for growth and leadership. The goal is ambitious (take on the big players) and well funded. The people are good. Worklif…

Is the work enjoyable? I would assume you have to use only Oracle branded solutions/tools which I am not sure is for everyone.

This is not true, when I was there each team could use whatever they wanted to build and deploy their services. Go, Python, Java, C++, etc. Literally anything was allowed. I have no idea now.

Re: Oracle Swings the Layoff Axe

#62

Post by scarface74 »

johan_larson wrote: post #42
bluedino wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of that means they make great products. Have you ever dealt with their support or engineers? Ugh.

Not all of us are in a position to work only on great products. My impression of Oracle products is that they are frustrating to work with, feature-rich rather than elegant. They can work well, but take a lot of configuring and tuning. The ex-Oracle folks I've worked with have been a mixed bag. Their reports about working for Oracle have also been mixed, skewing toward the bad. I suspect the company is basically run…

If you’re a software engineer in the year of 2019, you’re not exactly hurtinv for opportunity.

Re: Oracle Swings the Layoff Axe

#63

Post by ineedasername »

patientplatypus wrote: post #48

I worked (mercifully briefly) as a sales engineer for the cloud platform. I left because it seemed my job was primarily built around lying to customers about what the product could do and most of what we were selling was half baked and frankly broken. Like "massive java monolith with buried buried buried menus to get anything done, and then it still breaks" broken. If you're still using Oracle products in 2019 you're…

They are, unfortunately, entrenched in certain enterprise products. The major ERP products that run the Higher Education industry, for example. They mostly use Oracle on the back end. And it doesn't help that one those (lesser used) ERP systems is a customized version of people soft.

Cloud options are chipping away at the edges of this. For example, Admissions offices have largely ditched portion of these ERP systems designed for them in favor of more flexible SaaS offerings. As a consequence, if you're into data plumbing, data integration jobs are flowering in Higher Ed.

Re: Oracle Swings the Layoff Axe

#64

Post by jessaustin »

xkcd-sucks wrote: post #11
sgwae wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we compare software engineering to retail, not everyone can work for walmart (Google), but have to make do with the random dollar store chain (Oracle). There is only so many decent jobs you know.

Oh that comparison is wonderful. I would suggest Dollar Tree for Oracle because it's reasonably successful at making money

Their motto: "Smellier than Dollar General, not as smelly as Family Dollar!"

Re: Oracle Swings the Layoff Axe

#65

Post by nate_meurer »

abvdasker wrote: post #45

A close family member of mine worked for Oracle as a mechanical engineer for 6 years. He had survived many rounds of layoffs at Sun before it was acquired by Oracle and at StorageTek before it was acquired by Sun. He described a depressing corporate culture at Oracle with a seemingly infinite number of middle managers. One of his co-workers spent most of his time in the office managing his real estate business. Larry…

> Oracle will only give interviews to people with a degree from their small list of Ivy-tier universities.

That's only for new grads with no work experience. It's a stupid policy, but in my corner of the company we generally made good hiring decisions. I disagree that the company has a lot of useless academics. IME, engineering and product management are full of very smart, capable, hard working people, some of them genuinely brilliant.

Re: Oracle Swings the Layoff Axe

#66

Post by chillacy »

pololee wrote: post #47

I was one of the people being let go in this round. I moved to Seattle and joined OCI as a Senior Engineer at the end of Jan 2019. Yesterday when I came to the office and was doing my work at 9:00 AM, the whole team about 20 people were called by VP to have a meeting at 10:00 AM. He said the whole team got terminated. We had to turn in the computer by 12:00 PM and leave the office by 3:00 PM. There was no buffer time…

That's a bummer, reach out if you want a referral to another popular ex-OCI company in Seattle.

Re: Oracle Swings the Layoff Axe

#67

Post by chillacy »

philwelch wrote: post #41
samstave wrote: post #2

I wouldnt be able to say why anyone would want to be working at oracle these days. What compelling reason does oracle even have to attract talent? (Im not being snide, seeious questions)

According to rumor--lots and lots of cash.

So much cash, I hear even more than a lot of FAANG offers.

Re: Oracle Swings the Layoff Axe

#68

Post by monocasa »

president wrote: post #56
abvdasker wrote: post #45

A close family member of mine worked for Oracle as a mechanical engineer for 6 years. He had survived many rounds of layoffs at Sun before it was acquired by Oracle and at StorageTek before it was acquired by Sun. He described a depressing corporate culture at Oracle with a seemingly infinite number of middle managers. One of his co-workers spent most of his time in the office managing his real estate business. Larry…

What you're describing is general corporate culture after a company has experienced its hayday. Usually all the passionate people including original founders have cashed out, exited the company, and there is nobody left that actually cares about the company. There is a lot of room for mistakes and not delivering results because money grows on trees. People end up skating by and milking their one-hit-wonder cashcow pr…

Oracle's something special in this regard though. It's not like Sun was top of the world when they acquired StorageTek, but having worked in the tape library industry in CO at the time, Oracle seems to be a special section of hell.

Re: Oracle Swings the Layoff Axe

#69

Post by nradov »

pololee wrote: post #50
pololee wrote: post #47

I was one of the people being let go in this round. I moved to Seattle and joined OCI as a Senior Engineer at the end of Jan 2019. Yesterday when I came to the office and was doing my work at 9:00 AM, the whole team about 20 people were called by VP to have a meeting at 10:00 AM. He said the whole team got terminated. We had to turn in the computer by 12:00 PM and leave the office by 3:00 PM. There was no buffer time…

The VP also mentioned they were thinking about the plan in Jan. So why the hell did you hire me then? I joined at the end of Jan.

Mass layoff decisions like this are typically made at a higher level of the organization. The executives don't give much advance notice to the middle managers who make hiring decisions for most engineers in order to prevent leaks.

Re: Oracle Swings the Layoff Axe

#70

Post by kettlecorn »

nate_meurer wrote: post #65
abvdasker wrote: post #45

A close family member of mine worked for Oracle as a mechanical engineer for 6 years. He had survived many rounds of layoffs at Sun before it was acquired by Oracle and at StorageTek before it was acquired by Sun. He described a depressing corporate culture at Oracle with a seemingly infinite number of middle managers. One of his co-workers spent most of his time in the office managing his real estate business. Larry…

> Oracle will only give interviews to people with a degree from their small list of Ivy-tier universities. That's only for new grads with no work experience. It's a stupid policy, but in my corner of the company we generally made good hiring decisions. I disagree that the company has a lot of useless academics. IME, engineering and product management are full of very smart, capable, hard working people, some of them…

> Oracle will only give interviews to people with a degree from their small list of Ivy-tier universities.

I cannot imagine that a company with a healthy culture could allow such a boneheaded policy to persist.

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