Last week I completed the last of my seven mandatory certifications.
Has anyone received a raise based upon the successful completion? Has anyone even asked?
Without a raise, the only way that I see how I can benefit from the OCI certifications is to take my act on the road, and go to either a customer, or a partner. Perhaps another cloud provider!
OP here, and I tend to agree with you!
The OP’s certs mean d*ck
I am very definitely the “old” Ax-Man who has been here for many months, and was muzzled and censored for a while.
I always tell the unvarnished truth. No hype, no opinion, just the facts borne out of direct experience and observation out of many years in the executive ranks of Oracle.
The bottom line, if any of you don’t know by now, is that all of you are just numbers to Oracle. Even VPs are simple numbers, completely disposable and many quite worthless.
If you keep your heads down, take the salary you have been given (and any paltry RSUs), then you will be just fine. You can skate by at Oracle even working 20-25 hours a week if you’re smart about it. Nobody cares to be honest.
But show your disloyalty, start demanding things beyond what you’ve negotiated or been given, or stick your neck out, and you will find yourself marked for the guillotine sooner or later.
The longer you are at Oracle in a non-executive position (SVP and above) the more your skills will atrophy and rot over time, and the less Attractive you will be to prospective employers. If you are a core OCI engineer or developer, you likely habe marketability, though most of them have already worked at Azure or AWS.
Plenty of stories here from folks who have either been Axed or left for greener pastures. Only you can take control of your career. Don’t let Oracle do it for you. Remember — some of us get PAID to axe people like you right out of the company.
Which reminds me, stealth layoffs began last week, but bigger ones will be happening starting in April after today’s earnings announcement, and executive imperatives come down as the earnings are digested and more need for rebalancing of legacy product lines and orgs becomes obvious.
April is going to be a wild ride…..
What the (new) Axman says is true at many companies. If you have an offer, go and come back. Otherwise you are marked.
Folks like that are referred to as boomerangs. Not unusual. Back in the day, people would cycle between Sun and Oracle, and vice versa. Many companies don’t discourage that.
So you're saying we need to get a job offer and threaten to leave Oracle to get a raise? How sad is that....
No more sad than anything else at the ora-hole.
The latest posts are correct. As a long-time Oracle executive, I can definitively tell you that there is plenty of money available for raises, and RSUs available to be given out.
Generally this is done at the discretion of a group’s SVP or VP. Any time an employee is told that there is no budget for a raise or bonus, or no RSUs available, that is 100% a crock of bull.
As said, I’d an important/crucial employee announces they are leaving, salary matching money and RSUs can and often do magically appear out of nowhere, in an attempt to keep the employee. If the employee is only getting a modest increase at the new job, then Oracle can and will easily match or slightly exceed it. If it’s a 60, 70, 100% salary increase, then Oracle won’t bother to try to match it, unless in the very most unusual of circumstances. It has happened…..
However, and I tell you this as The Ax-Man …. Axing people ruthlessly is what I do. If you say you’re leaving, and are deemed too important to lose, and given a big salary increase to retain your services …. You have VERY CLEARLY shown your disloyalty to the company, and you are placed in a status (privately) where you will be disposed of (Axed) at the earliest possible opportunity. May be six months … a year … couple or three years down the road depending on the circumstances, but you have shown and played your cards. And you will NEVER be considered a team player or worthy of anything again from Oracle.
So it is ALWAYS best to leave no matter what if you receive another offer. You can always come back in a few years at a much higher salary, and nobody will care. You will be welcomed back if you make a clean break. But if you accept a counter offer and stay at Oracle, you are marked and tainted and on the Ax-List.
Choose wisely.
The Ax-Man
Stock options (a gamble that you fund) vs. a raise (which funds you)
It ain’t Amazon or Google, or even Apple. Take the money and run
I happen to know for a fact that money for salary increases is available in some circumstances. Eg., someone who is considered crucial to a team, who has gotten an offer from another company - in this scenario I have seen Oracle match and exceed in their counter-offer. I have witnessed this more than once.
So you're saying we need to get a job offer and threaten to leave Oracle to get a raise? How sad is that....
The Oracle bashers here have no clue. Get your boss on the phone and ask for a raise, the standard response will be "there is no budget for xxx this year".
For someone who claims to have a clue, I'd argue your knowledge isn't all that great either. I happen to know for a fact that money for salary increases is available in some circumstances. Eg., someone who is considered crucial to a team, who has gotten an offer from another company - in this scenario I have seen Oracle match and exceed in their counter-offer. I have witnessed this more than once.
Additionally, for certifications it simply isn't going to happen. At Oracle certifications are not leverage - not for salary bumps and not for stock.
There is no real value for oracle cloud certifications in the market. Its just an internal management push so that the one pushing will get a raise if he/she achieves their goal.
The Oracle bashers here have no clue. Get your boss on the phone and ask for a raise, the standard response will be "there is no budget for xxx this year". You are now in the position to negotiate for stock options...you need to ask, they are not offered but can be "obtained". It is a secret.
A Certification in an of itself in not a bad thing. Learning and codifying skills can be useful. They keep your mind sharp, help you stay active and alert. They can also give you the confidence to help you should you decide move on and explore other options. Short of that not all certs are equal and equally useful. My expired certification in AIX looks pretty on a wall but other than that I don't even list it anymore. Use what you have as a stepping stone to what you want. That is where is can be useful.
You may have secured you position with Oracle for another 12 months but the nature of your question indicates a lack any real experience either within Oracle or the industry in general.
If you want a promotion, increased pay or to move externally you need to do something real and stop focusing on meaningless certifications.
You will get a horizontal promotion, same pay and more work, that is how it work. Your name will still be on list of layoff when the time comes.
This:
As far as using your Oracle Certifications to get a job at another cloud provider (i.e., a real provider), you can forget it. Those Oracle certs are useless. In fact, Oracle on your resume at all at this point is a black mark. In an interview, the first thing you will be asked is why have you stayed at Oracle so long? The problem is that your continued Oracle tenure indicates you like to play it safe, and not stretch yourself, hiding away in a huge org rather than working to improve your skills/marketability - a rotal negative in an interviewer's eyes.
Is absolutely true. Everyone needs to move on.
Pair that cert with AWS, Azure and/or GCP. Then watch the recruiters come calling.
It's been years since oracle certification meant anything.
The only certification I've seen recently:
the founder of the company is a certified loon. or swan.
grizzled old buzzard.
Raise?!? More likely, if you don't get whacked, is you'll get a pay decrease. And you'll thank them for it because you got that instead of a pink slip.
As far as using your Oracle Certifications to get a job at another cloud provider (i.e., a real provider), you can forget it. Those Oracle certs are useless. In fact, Oracle on your resume at all at this point is a black mark. In an interview, the first thing you will be asked is why have you stayed at Oracle so long? The problem is that your continued Oracle tenure indicates you like to play it safe, and not stretch yourself, hiding away in a huge org rather than working to improve your skills/marketability - a rotal negative in an interviewer's eyes.
Now, instead, if you go get Amazon or Azure certified, that could actually benefit you. But an Oracle cert? Nope!
Honestly, your thought process, as indicated by your post, makes you appear naive, and does not bode well for your future. Hopefully I'm mistaken about this... Good luck!