Thread regarding Oracle Corp. layoffs

When you see jobs being posted that you’re interested in, You need to reach out to people you know at those companies to get your name before the hiring managers. Everything else is a total waste of time. Hiring has become incredibly risk averse and bureaucratic. Good luck!

7nrb, nice summary. The only thing I can add is the hiring process at most companies is slow and inefficient. Hiring is done through workflows and applicant tracking systems, often with little or no human contact beyond phone screens, Skype interviews and the Holy Grail of an on-site interview. You will probably be ghosted st least once, and it’s hard on your self esteem.

Build your personal network outside of your current workplace, and keep building it. It’s the best hedge against the fustercluck of modern job hunting. When you need to make a move,you can reach out to a real human instead of getting caught in the recruitingmeat grinder.

"Among the 20+ other folks in our org who still keep in touch and were also let go only 2 have found jobs so far."

I'm so sorry. That's an awful position to be in, however, thanks for sharing as a warning to others. Any additional details or lessons learned that you are comfortable in giving could be important for those who are here.

As a pure guess on my part, I'd bet that there could be a couple factors in play.

The most obvious is the age of everyone in the group. Age discrimination is definitely a factor everywhere, but especially in technology. The average age in many tech companies is around 30 and there is a bias (conscious or unconscious) against hiring older workers. There is also the compensation differential of those with lots of experience and it can be tough to overcome younger competitors who are willing to accept a fraction of the income for the same role.

The other is the technical focus. Oracle has been selling on-premise, vertically scaling proprietary solutions for a long time. Especially with 20+ years, that is a lot of experience and focused time on a particular solution set. The problem is likely that the market has likely changed. It could be that there is still a market, but that it doesn't require as many people to support. Or it can be that the market is shifting elsewhere. In either case, this leads to fewer available jobs for those skills. Those who are able to retain a position can continue deriving an income, but those who are pushed out either have to try to find an opening somewhere else or need to try to retool and enter a different position/career. For most, either option is typically difficult and slow. The role that seems most likely to have this issue right now is anything tied to hardware -- whether it is Sun or engineered systems.

The real challenge is the combination of both factors. Unfortunately, I've seen that happen and it is awful. Starting around the upper 40s, individuals who lose their jobs can have a really difficult time landing an equivalent one. For many, it requires a reinventing of oneself to either build a bridge to the skills that are now in demand or to start a different career.

While this type of thing is heartbreaking, it is critical information for everyone who comes to a site like this. The challenges of aging, career progression, being pigeonholed and of technical shifts is something everyone should be aware of and have a plan about how to deal with it all. Again, I'm sorry for what you're going through, but thanks for being willing to speak up and share.

I have to agree with @Wtkvdz7-3ued, I've been knocked over by how far behind my skills were from being stuck at Oracle. The only real training we ever did was the BS mandatory training, which is an absolute joke compared to equivalent training at other valley companies.

@Wtkvdz7-3ued

Nice work. In The technology section, the only thing that is constant is change and you have to be ready and able to adapt. I had to and I am fine with it, it keeps my mind sharp and gives me something new to shoot for.

@Wtkvdz7-4jzg, who are you calling a troll? I posted that it took me over a year, because I did not have an engineering skill set and could not take a job way less than what I was being paid at O. While i agree that there are a number of trolls on here (esp the one that seems scatologically obsessed), you might want to re-read a number of the posts.

Some WERE fortunate to find jobs quickly; when I was RIF'ed, a number of my co-workers were as well and they found jobs quickly enough. A lot had to do with skill set, but I also noticed that the younger men found jobs more quickly than older men and women.

Hop off your anger horse and good luck.

Was let go on jul31 after over 22 years at Oracle. Among the 20+ other folks in our org who still keep in touch and were also let go only 2 have found jobs so far. I completely agree with @Wtkvdz7-3mbq I have not found anything and my experience is similar

others:

@Wtkvdz7-pdo

@Wtkvdz7-ysu

@Wtkvdz7-tdz

@Wtkvdz7-1yyn

@Wtkvdz7-1pij

@Wtkvdz7-1yyn

are trolls, to all of you -- prove us wrong come out of the dark and post your linkedin so we can see your employment history.

I am tired to all of the BS that pops up here, really puts a damper on people who want to use this as a resource

@Wtkvdz7-3ued - excellent post. Congrats on reinventing yourself.

The main issues are that (1) Oracle is a technology laggard in most of what it does, (2) its model is one of proprietary hardware/software in an increasingly open source and commodity world and (3) its core underpinnings are focused on relational database in an era when NoSQL and NewSQL is where the real innovation and growth is. As a result, many working for Oracle have a skillset mismatch with what the market is looking for.

It isn't that "Oracle" is on the resume that is the issue, but what that represents --- employees who are reasonably paid, but don't have the in-demand skills to justify that level of pay elsewhere. Other companies are growing and are hungry for good talent, but if one can't speak at some level of depth on technologies companies are using (e.g. NoSQL, Hadoop, nginx, Kafka, etc.) or the Cloud-based, distributed computing architectures or the hot trends (e.g. Machine Learning, IoT, etc.), landing a job outside of Oracle definitely will be difficult. It really comes down to making sure that one has marketplace value.

I found my way out of Oracle. During my own search, during my first couple of interviews I was hit hard by how the skills that were good enough within Oracle weren't anywhere close to what hiring companies wanted. As a result, I pulled back from interviewing and invested several months into learning -- taking online courses, reading case studies, looking at corporate engineering blogs, working through examples/tutorials/code samples, etc. -- in order to get into a more marketable position. It worked. I not only landed a job, but received a significant increase in compensation and benefits all within a culture that is radically better than Oracle's.

I know former Oracle colleagues who found their way out and their stories are all similar -- that they took charge of their own learning in order to avoid being trapped by how Oracle is increasingly becoming a legacy company. I now interview potential employees and, in general, I see that not having sufficient skills is a relatively common thing. For those coming from Oracle, I'd like to see them make it out, but the struggle in the interview is difficult to see. The on-premise, vertically scaling system/software that has been central to Oracle's efforts is so totally opposite from where the industry is moving that technical interviews often show a real lack of technical breadth and an inability to explain fundamental concepts or basic architecture. The culture is also damaging as the "tyranny of control" that flows from the top of Oracle erodes some of the key soft skills that are being evaluated in interviews. I believe that this, in part, is why some with long tenures at Oracle have resigned themselves to just try to hold onto what they have. If they can, then more power to them.

While it might be hard to land a job outside of Oracle, it isn't impossible. It does take some work and targeted effort to re-tool for the job one would like to land, but the payoff can be significant.

@Wtkvdz7-1dms No offence, but did you ever consider that your former managers may not be too keen to recommend you because you apparently have trouble stringing together a single coherent English sentence? And what's that thing about "lifting briefcases"? Is that supposed to be hard to do?

I have a feeling we'll be 5 to 7 percent up - no inside info, just have a feeling (also looking at the pipelines)

Watch oracle sales numbers for next 2 quarters. If bad more layoffs......

Who cares.

Watch oracle sales numbers for next 2 quarters. If bad more layoffs......

It's true, there are less takers for Oracle employees atleast without reference. Not everyone one has reference like me. All my exbosses feel I can navigate my way and they ignore my pleadings. Help me plz, I am ready to lift briefcases just take me out of Oracle.

TK was valuable because of who he knows. Connections. It’s difficult to compare execs changing jobs with the rank and file.

Even TK got a job !

i think there is some truth to this. As an ex-O Sales consulting employee, i have definitely seen my peers struggle to land a job in the big cloud companies that they talk to.

I was let go in May but I decided it was time to change careers and go into project management so I have been concentrating on getting all my training and certifications in order. I still get calls for IT jobs. I'll get back into the job hunt after I pass my final certification. So yes, Jobs are out there.

I got a job in less than 2 weeks after getting laid off. Nice decent raise too and am over 55.

The OP, or the person who copied and paste this must be terrible in their skills and knowledge, looking at YouTube all day, and hence cannot find a job.

It'll depend on where you are. It took some people formerly in BRM months to find a new job, and some were young. Two weeks? Maybe in the Bay Area.

I too was part of the Sept 1, 2017 RIF, am in my 50s and found new, higher paying employment within a couple of weeks of the RIF.

This is baloney. I was there for 15 years and found a job while still there. If you need help presenting your skills in a more general (less Oracle focused way) you can hire someone to help with your resume.

Just like everything else in IT, it depends. Depends on your skill set. Depends on if you have a C.S. Or Engineering degree. Depends on the job you are applying for. Depends on how well you present in an often grueling interview process. Depends on how you get rated in code tests, personality indexes and the like. Depends on every box getting a nice big green check mark and not a red X. You have to remember that O has such a wide variety of products and orgs that it is difficult to make comparisons. Most of hiring is still subjective and based on human quirks, expectations and experiences. That will never change, it just gets additional baggage attached in the recruiting process.

Gee, I landed a new job (in fact two offers) in 6 weeks and bumped my salary by $30k. Not bad for an Ops guy in his late 50’s.

I was part of a group of long time oracle employees who were laid off recently in OCC. Just about all of us have found better jobs at other software companies. In truth, the layoffs were a blessing in disguise. We got a nice lay-off package plus we got away from the oracle dysfunction.

I will say that it too me awhile (about a year) My skills were a bit too focused within Oracle and fortunately, a company looked at my larger skill set (non-engineering or development). The other issue is that while Oracle did not give decent raises, they did start at a high pay rate. I really could not go a whole lot lower for a number of reasons (lower like $30K-40K lower).

Really? Everyone that I knew that left or was RIF'd have ALL found other employment.