A reflection of my time at Oracle
There are certain events that completely shift the course & meaning of life.
For me, there are 3 (so far):
- Getting together with Neehar (my then roommate + cofounder). Obviously this led to us getting married and becoming partners for life.
- Getting Kira, my fur baby. Changed my viewpoint on life, my position on eating meat, and my drive to make this a better world for animals.
- Leaving Oracle.
It may seem weird that leaving Oracle is right up there but my short 4 year stint with Oracle had a huge impact on me. Every year, on 31st May (my last day at Oracle) I reflect on how I felt then and how I feel now. This is a post on those reflections.
Oracle was my first (and last) job. I got it accidentally, and right out of college.
If you’re from any of the Ivy Leagues, getting into Oracle is fairly easy. I don’t actually remember ever applying to Oracle. I think my resume was somehow sent there and got picked up. My original plan was to move back to India and join my dad’s company. Nonetheless, I decided to take it up and see where life took me.
The Good
Thanks to Oracle, I ended up living in the Bay Area. I absolutely love the Bay Area. I think I truly found myself there. The cushion of a corporate job also allowed me to explore multiple projects and learn a lot of things in parallel. My first startup, several short films, and a feature film are credited to this.
I was part of a team building the first version of Fusion Procurement. It’s quite rare to land a corporate job which involves building a product from scratch as opposed to improving/bug fixing. This upside allowed me to really understand enterprise product development cycles.
Through my time there, I gained insight into how large corporates work — how the teams are structured, how budgeting is done top down, how hiring happens at scale, etc. All of this helped as I moved on to building my own company.
Most importantly, I realized that being a developer was not for me. I loved studying Computer Science from a theoretical standpoint, but writing code was very uninspiring. This drove me to find what I loved.
The Bad
I can’t speak for all of Oracle’s teams, but the worst thing about my team was terrible management. This is singularly the biggest lesson I’ve taken away — what not to do as a manager / company.
Our management didn’t try to inspire us. The managers didn’t care about our personal & professional growth. There were a lot of bad practices — pointing fingers, blame shifting, cushioning timelines and discrimination based on whether you were single / married.
One on ones were mere formalities. There was no guidance / mentorship of any sort. When I was leaving, I had to force an exit interview. Even this was not well received by the higher management.
Obviously, this led to an employee retention issue. The people in my team were smart and uninspired. In the same year I left, over 70% of my team also left for other opportunities.
The Ugly
Endless months of uninspiring work, bad management, and lack of motivation finally got to me. My last 3 months at Oracle were hell. I would come home often crying and hating my life. I stuck around only for two reasons:
- Save enough to be able to quit and sustain myself for a few years
- I needed a visa while we finished our film, The Green Bandits (H1-Bs truly are golden handcuffs)
The taste of that feeling never left me. It’s been the fuel that drives me to do right by me, right by my team, right by my company.
Why am I writing about this?
Because every year, on 31st May (my last day at Oracle) I reflect on how I felt then and how I feel now.
My team at DoctorC is currently ~130 people. Management is a large part of my role. I’ve had to learn/change/scale rapidly with my growing team. As I scale, I want to ensure that
- I never want to feel that way I did while at Oracle.
- I never want anyone in my team to feel that way.
- I want to build a company where people can strive to be their personal and professional best.
- I want to build a culture that inspires.
The culture of the Bay Area shaped me as a person. The culture at Oracle shaped me as a Founder / Manager.
I cannot bring the Bay Area to my team. But I can definitely bring the learnings from my time there.
I’ve started blogging once again, this time about management and life as a founder. Please follow me if you find what I write interesting.
