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Goal-oriented Oracle has goals that few Silicon Valley companies would have the vision or the ambition to even consider. First on the agenda is to complete its domination of the database software market. With that coming to fruition, CEO Larry Ellison and his cohorts are setting their sights on wrestling control of the world from Bill Gates. A brief history lesson In just over two decades, Ellison has skillfully crafted Oracle into the leading maker of database management software and a fighter capable of taking on the biggest bullies on the block. Founded in 1977 to capitalize on technology first developed - and later fumbled - by IBM, Oracle immediately experienced rapid success and growth. However, irregular accounting practices and poor product development during the early 1990s led to concerns that Oracle lacked the ability to keep up with its growth. A shareholder lawsuit forced Ellison to resign as company chairman, but the company managed to rebound. Now, with Ellison recast as a visionary developer of software ideas (his chief operating officer handles the day-to-day business operations), Oracle is ready to take on the 21st century - and the Microsoft empire. Oracle the innovator Oracle's award-winning 1998 program, Oracle 8i, a database capable of managing Internet applications over networks that thousands of corporations and individuals use every day. Oracle's Internet File System (iFS) was launched in May 2000 and is expected to change databases forever. Using the new system, businesses can store different types of files in one database, instead of storing information in documents. Oracle has also moved into new product areas to increase sales. To supplement the database software, the company, through its tools department, creates software developing tools that allow users to customize their Oracle software. Oracle applications include over 30 software items for finance and administration, manufacturing, human resources, and other business applications. And somebody's got to show customers how to use all this stuff - Oracle's service and training department has become one of the company's fastest growing sources of revenue. Oracle is also solifdifying its e-commerce presence with its Oracle Business Online web site. Attracting small and mid-sized businesses with its accounting and planning software, Oracle runs the software for a monthly charge, saving the companies the cost of buying their own computers. Oracle also sells web page starter kits, and helps companies establish b2b exchanges online. Big-name customers include Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co., DaimlerChrysler AG, Boeing Co., and Sears. As far as internet companies go, Oracle likes to brag that 93 percent of the publicly traded online companies, specifically Yahoo Inc., Amazon.com Inc., and E-Trade Securities Inc., among others, use their products. A lucrative venture Oracle's prominence in the industry was cemented with the February 2000 announcement that its in-house venture capital fund would quintuple in size, from a $100 million fund to a $500 million one. In its first year, the fund managed to attain a return of 504 percent, thanks mostly to its investment in Red Hat, a provider of the Linux operating system (Red Hat's stock price soared from its opening price of $14 to nearly $100 by February). As with other Silicon Valley companies with in-house VC funds, including Intel, Oracle hopes to use its fund, in part, to help grow small companies into clients for Oracle's programs and Internet expertise.
While most technical applicants are computer science graduates, Oracle also welcomes qualified applicants from other disciplines. Many candidates have advanced degrees and years of company experience. In addition to traditional recruitment methods such as college visits and newspaper ads, Oracle's Web page (www.oracle.com) provides a wealth of information about the company, its products, and its current job openings. Oracle employees say contacts within the company can be a tremendous advantage since a recommendation not only implies a quality applicant but a chance for Oracle to save on headhunting costs. On the technical side, however, nothing can replace a record of talented software engineering. "Oracle is a very large corporation," explains an insider in understated fashion. "Because a machine as large as that requires a multitude of different parts, each performing a specialized task, to make it run, there isn't one interview process at Oracle. Each organization and department is responsible for hiring its members. There is a human resources department, but they are not primarily responsible for recruiting and hiring the company's employees. This essentially means that each department has its own approach to the hiring process." Most candidates right out of school, though, do find out about opportunities through Human Resources. That department "recruits MBAs for specific roles." Representatives go on campus to find recruits and pass on information about the various groups that are hiring. They then e-mail resumes to appropriate hiring managers. Since "it's extremely hard to find someone with a technical background," the techie MBA is a hot commodity. Insiders warn that finding out about the better opportunities available at Oracle can be difficult outside of campus recruiting. "Find someone within [the company], and start with the internal job bank," advises one. Interested candidates unable to go through these types of channels are encouraged to e-mail their resumes directly. Oracle also gets many referrals from headhunters.
Valley girls (and guys) Employees enjoy the "lively and social" atmosphere that prevails at Oracle. They say that the halls are brimming with "bright and motivated people" who have created a "young and dynamic" corporate culture. Thanks to this enthusiastic workforce and to Oracle's recent performance, morale levels are "sky high throughout the company." Relations between employees are "reasonably friendly, though it's not the Midwest, so you won't get invited over for dinner by everyone." After all it's a great big world Despite the laid-back 'tude of Silicon Valley, Oracle is still a bureaucratic organization like any other, and thus has a down side akin to corporations in other industries. Some employees complain that Oracle's "extensive" size and scope makes recognition hard to come by. "This is a huge company, and I think sometimes you have to either sink or swim. You can easily get swept up and passed over in a large corporation like Oracle." Still, most agree that "it is a very challenging environment, with great opportunities of upward mobility for those who are willing to put in the work and produce results." Come as you are, for the most part Brilliant minds cannot be fettered, so for the technical staff, "as long as you dress decently, not in dirty or ripped clothes," it is acceptable to the Oracle brass. Scoffs another not-so-nattily-clad employee, "Dress code? Ha! Unless you are part of the salesforce, attire is whatever you want." In general, "the dress code depends on your area of expertise. Developers are usually casual on all five days. Sales and marketing people mostly are not, while consultants are dependent on their client to make the call." Some employees feel a need to at least look presentable compared to those who are required to dress up, but this is not always the case. Jokes one insider, "My first day they told me there was one rule: don't wear a tie. That's because the project leaders don't want anyone to dress better than them." Everything you always wanted in a cubicle Most employees work in that odd staple of modern corporate culture, the cubicle. Apparently, there is little rhyme or reason to how much personal space an employee gets. "Some cubicles have two people stuffed into them, some have a huge cubicle to themselves," remarks a puzzled office dweller. The company does not have "weird rules about your cubicle - you're free to do what you want." Also encouraging, Oracle had experts do "an ergonomics assessment to avoid workplace injuries. They made sure your screen was at the right height, and that no one could get carpal tunnel syndrome." Around the campus When outside the cubicle, "Oracle strives to make it so you don't have to leave campus." Conveniences such as "dry cleaning, film developing, and even detailing and automotive work on your car" are all available. On campus, "every building has a cafeteria on the bottom floor with anything you could ask for." To work off that lunch, Oracle employees in the company's Redwood Shores headquarters can go to the company gym, which by all accounts "is not to be believed." It comes complete with "sand volleyball courts, basketball courts, and a heated swimming pool" as well as traditional equipment like "treadmills, stairmasters, bikes, and Sybex equipment."
Oracle Database Server;Data Warehousing and OLAP Solutions;Oracle Application Server;Oracle Tools (Designer 2000, Developer 2000, JDeveloper Suite);Oracle Applications;Oracle Consulting, Support, and Educational Services
Baan;IBM;Informix;Microsoft;Novell;Peoplesoft;SAP;Sybase More Company Profiles For more career information, go to Vault.com ©2000, Vault.com Inc
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