Any chance that somebody here has worked at Oracle before? I've been offered a job and I'm considering transferring but I don't want to jump from one bad situation into another. I've checked their page here and it does seem like we have a lot of the same issues. I could ask there but they can't give me a comparison with IBM, so I'm hoping there's somebody here who can.
Also, how serious is IBM about its NCAs?
Read this:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2021/03/16/avoid-ibm-stock—its-fighting-the-future/?sh=54a5a8243dac
Oracle has a lot of the same issues with entrenched thinking. Trying to purchase market share and relevance. Being miserly with employees and customers.
But you have to do what is right for you. Oracle has a habit of not giving raises so negotiate as high a salary as you can.
" if you find yourself in a growth area, Oracle may not be so bad - I know lot of people have done really well there"
I agree with this. I worked for Oracle until about 5 years ago, and it was mostly good for me until my growth area stopped growing. I worked for IBM in the 90s - liked my coworkers and some of the work was interesting but everyone hated the corporation and the executives. The same could be said at Oracle. I think all of the big tech corporations probably s—, but if you can find a job in an area that is doing well with good people then you should be fine for at least a few years. If you want to work for a corporation run by enlightened people with respect for the individual, you probably need to get in a time machine and go back 50 or 60 years. :-)
I’ve had several customers say that IBM treats them poorly, but nowhere near as bad as Oracle. Wouldn’t go there.
I worked for Oracle before my time at IBM.
Oracle pays above market competitive compensation: high base salary and RSUs but don't expect a big bonus unless you are in the database team and some roles in OCI. Oracle hired ex AWS guys to build their cloud from scratch and they did a really good job on their IaaS offering. It is way better than IBMs - hands down - from the soft layer integrated c-ap.
I came to IBM because I lost my job at a startup, was desparate, and they had opportunities in blockchain which I was interested in focusing my future career on.
Honestly, Oracle is much better than IBM with the exception of R&D. I will seriously consider Oracle after COVID dies down.
YMMV. Just trading 1 one trick pony for another one. IBM = mainframes; ORCL = databases.
Oracle is a horrible company. Everyone I know who works there hates it and their customers hate dealing with them. Also, LOL @ whoever said people are leaving FAANG to go to OCI, thanks for the laugh.
From personal experience, you absolutely do
not want to work at Oracle. There’s zero innovation there, just a company trying to milk the database cash cow to death.
Oracle also cooks the books when it comes to cloud accounting - slow out the gate and poor execution. They have forced cloud credits on customers in an effort to move the needle (and falsify purchases), but customers still rejected them. Many customers find Oracle to be a necessary evil, and don't like paying for Larry's island upkeep or his boating escapades. Oracle is a sales sweat shop, with lots of turnover. Layoffs abound regularly and tenure is a rarity (just like IBM, some find shelter/protection from friends in the right places - I met some smooth talking employees making a lot of $ basically doing nothing). They have gone through a lot of re-orgs lately - not sure the dust has settled yet, and they are probably 24 months or so ahead of IBM when is comes to restructuring. They collapsed a lot of groups. Interestingly they have pretty much eliminated their Storage portfolio - seems it was even less profitable than IBM's. I expect IBM to follow suite
Oracle salary/comp and benefits are overall better than IBM's. Oracle benefits used to be a lot better, but still good.
Oracle hires more lawyers than sales/support folks. Contracts at Oracle can k–l deals, and thats one of the reasons a lot of customer run from Oracle - can be very hard to do business with.
Having said all of that, if you find yourself in a growth area, Oracle may not be so bad - I know lot of people have done really well there, some coming from IBM
IBM was better for me than Oracle. I found Oracle to be very toxic. I can't tell you how glad I am that I no longer work for either of them!
Dude. You're actually asking that question?? You better leave. You get no badge of honor for going down on the USS IBM Titanic. Who gives a flip about the NCA.
if you don't go, you'll regret it. You WILL go on Oracle's block list if you don't accept.
Oracle is serious about it's public cloud, atleast moreso than ibm. OCI is attracting people from fang.
Others groups are ok and probably have same problems as ibm