I worked as a developer in the Fusion Middleware area, first on the on-premise tools and later on Oracle Cloud.
My experience at Oracle was extremely negative. I believe a large part of that was because I am female, honest, and a highly competent developer.
Those qualities were not valued in Oracle development. Let me address each of them individually.
Female - There were no female managers or architects in the area where I worked. Management was dominated by Indian men from a culture where women are expected to be subordinate to men, and in my experience that attitude showed clearly. I worked for multiple managers who used the same kinds of tactics. They sabotaged demos I was giving by providing incorrect conference numbers, setting me up to demo on systems with bad network settings that caused slow screen updates, telling me to prepare slides for a two-hour session and then suddenly saying I only had one hour while pretending surprise that I had created slides because I had been instructed to do so. I was also once paired with another manager’s aggressive subordinate, who went first and then claimed I was demonstrating something different from what I had been told, making me appear unprepared.
I was undermined in many other ways as well. I was restricted in what I could work on, excluded from status meetings, denied information, given incorrect information, and subjected to every kind of obstruction imaginable.
Not everyone behaved this way, but enough men did that it became impossible to function normally. I was constantly forced into a defensive position. Although there were a couple of senior managers above me who supported me, my direct managers did not, and they had enough control to make it appear that I was the problem when I was not.
There were a few women I interacted with. Some, like me, were honestly trying to do their jobs. But one woman in marketing appeared to believe it was in her interest to undermine me with the men, and another woman who was very involved with one manager also helped set me up at one point. Because of that, I eventually felt I could not even trust the other women at the company.
Before Oracle, I had been a very successful developer at other companies and had received awards for my work. Oracle has serious cultural problems, and if you are a female developer, I would advise leaving the company. There is a much better life outside of it.
Honest - The managers were, in my opinion, largely incompetent. They were deeply insecure, and even the slightest sign of initiative beyond what they explicitly directed was treated as a threat. From what I observed, this was true of nearly every manager I encountered. They were paranoid, dysfunctional, and operating inside an equally dysfunctional environment. Managers would temporarily align with one another to sabotage employees or other managers they wanted to target. It genuinely seemed like they enjoyed doing this, and that much of their professional world revolved around schemes to damage someone else’s reputation or career.
By the end, I felt as though I was working inside an organized crime operation. The sabotage never stopped. One manager cultivated loyal enforcers who would do whatever he wanted to anyone he targeted. Unfortunately, I ended up under this truly toxic individual. Oracle moves developers around like interchangeable parts, and you often have no control over who you work for. This manager made s-xual comments toward me and treated me in a degrading way. He isolated me from others in the group and refused to assign meaningful work. In my opinion, he was deeply disturbed and manipulative.
Later, he worked with another manager and a woman connected to that manager to isolate me further and pressure me into writing a new application they intended to take credit for themselves.
There is no place for honesty at Oracle. If you want to be a thug and enjoy the idea of operating inside something that feels like a mafia structure, then Oracle may suit you. Honesty will not help you succeed there.
Extremely Competent Developer - If you are a strong developer who wants to build meaningful products and do real engineering work, Oracle is not the right place. I was an excellent developer. Earlier in my career, there were times when my abilities were questioned because I was female, but I was always able to prove myself and earn the trust of the men around me through competence and results.
At Oracle, competence was not appreciated. The managers I worked with valued loyalty above all else, and the people most loyal to management were often the least capable technically. They protected their jobs by flattering managers, attacking other developers, and helping management manipulate or undermine people within the company.
I was promoted once while I was there, but I believe that only happened because of intervention from a senior manager above me. Even while I had support at higher levels, the manager directly above me continued sabotaging me constantly.
I would have left earlier, but I had reasons for staying, so I continued trying to demonstrate what I could do, just as I had at previous companies. None of it mattered. Management remained determined to harass me regardless of my abilities.
I also saw other highly competent developers, including men, targeted in many of the same ways. My impression was that management feared capable developers because they themselves were incompetent, insecure, and uncomfortable with real technical discussions about products or code.
One important thing to understand is that none of this was obvious at first. The managers were skilled at hiding what they were doing until you started paying very close attention. They always had plausible explanations ready, and because you want to be cooperative and professional, you initially accept those explanations and move on.
For a long time, I had an application that I mostly worked on independently, and that insulated me somewhat.
My competence also allowed me to survive there longer than many people would have. My first manager gave me increasingly difficult assignments. Initially, I believed that meant he trusted my abilities. Later, I realized he was escalating the difficulty in hopes that I would fail. I believe he wanted to point to the “incompetent woman” and say, “See, she couldn’t handle the work.” But that never happened because I successfully completed every assignment I was given.
It is a deeply unhealthy place. If you dislike women, will blindly obey your manager, including sabotaging coworkers, and especially if you enjoy attacking people and playing dirty tricks, Oracle may be the place for you.
If you actually want to do real engineering work, almost anywhere else would be better.