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I live in Austin, Oracle has a huge campus here that looks as big as an airport building with terminals/gates and all the trimmings. It's a beautiful building

I live in Austin, Oracle has a huge campus here that looks as big as an airport building with terminals/gates and all the trimmings. It's a beautiful building that gentrified the whole area, for better or worse. I ate there a couple of times, it's nice inside too! I love biking/walking around the Oracle campus area because they made a bike path and the area is safer than it was before. That being said, I know a couple of people who work there and they don't like their job - it's thankless - but I think that's the same with all big companies where you're just another number. When the pandemic hit everyone started working from home and this mega-building was pretty much empty. I am not surprised they're gonna move their HQ here. That's because they got plenty of office space to fill amongst other reasons. Also with favorable taxes and lots of space to expand (if they ever need to) as they hire more and more people. Good thing for those who purchased homes near the campus! Their value will keep increasing as more "execs" move here after the pandemic settles.

lotsofpulp 6y ago
> That being said, I know a couple of people who work there and they don't like their job I’m not surprised. I haven’t met anyone who deals with Oracle because they want to, only because they have to.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- cleansingfire 6y ago
  After an aggressive post sales upsell call: "You must buy more licenses" I laughed at them, dropped them, and they went on my "I Don't Work With Bastards" list. Of course one doesn't always have a choice, but with that list in mind, I often end up with more choice than expected. See also: last man on earth, ten foot pole.
  - ineedasername 6y ago
    I dealt with them on a large project once, ended in a lawsuit. Because 1) Their sales demos (which we recorded) pitched functionality that literally did not exist or was EOL'ed from the system without a replacement before we implemented. 2) It was a fixed-price contract, and when they screwed up & couldn't deliver on their benchmarks, they refused to continue working without additional payment 3) Paid customizations were developed in bad faith & without the contracted specs. In one example, there was a simple requirement: Users could enter a long blob of text, and clerks could review it as part of the user's record in Peoplesoft. They delivered the first part, not the second. When we asked where that functionality was, they said they didn't need to build anything more because the data was available to clerks via the assistance of a DBA. The implementation failed, we got a settlement, and chose a different vendor while out Legacy system limped along for a few more years.
- chrisseaton 6y ago
  Oracle was a fantastic place to work for me. I had a private locking office with a mountain view as an intern - many people on here say they'd kill for that kind of respect and working environment! And they paid me a full senior salary while I did my PhD. Really can't argue with that.
  - cghendrix 6y ago
    I also had that experience at apple. For two weeks. Then was moved into a shitty shared cubicle. Don’t miss working there.
    - chihuahua 6y ago
      Before WFH I would have been envious of a shared cubicle (assuming it means a cubicle with 4 walls that is shared by 2 people)
      - chrisseaton 6y ago
        You mean you'd be envious of the getting to share a cubicle with someone, or you'd be envious of only having to share with only one person and nobody else? Can't tell :)
        chihuahua 6y ago
        It's the latter. 2 people surrounded by cubicle walls is better than a giant room filled with desks and no partitions. The worst I've seen so far was at Amazon. When some people wanted to get up from their desk, they had to ask their desk neighbor to stand up so they could pass through.
Fnoord 6y ago
> That being said, I know a couple of people who work there and they don't like their job - it's thankless - but I think that's the same with all big companies where you're just another number. No, that is specific to Oracle. Here's some references [1]. The other day on HN I read a quote: "What is the difference between Larry Ellison and God? God doesn't think he's Larry Ellison". Can't find it though. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20773799 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20773799
- orliesaurus 6y ago
  10 years ago or so I started a job at a big corp. and I felt the same after 6 months, I stayed 23 months in total and I said I would never go back unless I had complete "creative" control over my career. I haven't ever been tempted to go back, but those terms still remain if I ever get a call from someone from bigcorp.
- duck 6y ago
  That quote is actually a book: https://www.amazon.com/Difference-Between-God-Larry-Ellison/dp/0060008768 https://www.amazon.com/Difference-Between-God-Larry-Ellison/...
redelbee 6y ago
>I love biking/walking around the Oracle campus area because they made a bike path and the area is safer than it was before. That general area of the Town Lake trail was always my starting point for runs. My favorite “section” was definitely the trail on either side of the dam. I would park in the lot across the lake from the now Oracle campus and start most of my runs there. I ran thousands of miles with that as my starting point (I was training for ultramarathons) and never felt unsafe. That started in 2010 so I can’t speak to safety before then. I liked the character of those neighborhoods and everything they had to offer. The JuiceLand on Cesar Chavez always brought out the most interesting characters in various states of mind on Saturday and Sunday mornings. There was always a pickup basketball game going at the Metz Neighborhood Park, and sometimes I would take a break there to refuel and watch for a few baskets. The Oracle campus is on the other side of the lake from there but I think it still had an influence on the neighborhood even that far removed. I won’t say it was a completely negative influence, but it definitely made things less interesting to me. The east side in general was trending in that direction though, so I’m sure it wasn’t all at the feet of Oracle. I don’t live in Austin now. It was nice to reminisce about long runs on Town Lake so thanks for that!
- orliesaurus 6y ago
  I live downtown/East facing. It's a shit show now. All the good things like: - Small bars/businesses - Parks/Green areas - Free parking - Playgrounds are being deleted from the map one by one and they're being replaced with: - Hotels/Large apt. complexes - Huge buildings for big corp/large comp - Paid parking/parking lots - New age bars and posh restaurants - Homeless camps but it's safer to go out out at night at least...if you stay on the main roads
  - redelbee 6y ago
    Oh I’m sad (and totally unsurprised) to hear that. I wonder if there will ever be an exodus from Austin similar in scope to the influx of the past decade. If I could time travel I would definitely visit Austin through the years to see how it was and how it ends up.
  - WillPostForFood 6y ago
suyash 6y ago
Oracle Redwood Shores (Old HQ) is one of the most beautiful campus of tech company in Silicon Valle with trails etc and a lake where the America's Cup winning Catamaran is parked. Wonder if they will move that to Austin as well.
- Apocryphon 6y ago
  Watch out, Lake Travis.
- oillio 6y ago
  I agree, beautiful campus. Fun fact: the buildings were designed to resemble the symbol for databases in logical diagrams. https://images.app.goo.gl/ybduLEGuAFxeGaL88 https://images.app.goo.gl/ybduLEGuAFxeGaL88
  - carlineng 6y ago
    Another fun fact, the San Carlos airport nearby has an FAA identifier of SQL: https://www.airnav.com/airport/KSQL https://www.airnav.com/airport/KSQL
    - muzz 6y ago
      And a fun subfact is that it had that code before Oracle existed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Carlos_Airport_(California)#Origin_of_SQL_airport_code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Carlos_Airport_(California...
- babesh 6y ago
  The campus was beautiful but the inside it was a cubicle farm.
  - suyash 6y ago
    not in the last few years, it's very modern and open office in many buildings.

lotsofpulp 6y ago

> That being said, I know a couple of people who work there and they don't like their job I’m not surprised. I haven’t met anyone who deals with Oracle because they want to, only because they have to.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
cleansingfire 6y ago
After an aggressive post sales upsell call: "You must buy more licenses" I laughed at them, dropped them, and they went on my "I Don't Work With Bastards" list. Of course one doesn't always have a choice, but with that list in mind, I often end up with more choice than expected. See also: last man on earth, ten foot pole.
- ineedasername 6y ago
  I dealt with them on a large project once, ended in a lawsuit. Because 1) Their sales demos (which we recorded) pitched functionality that literally did not exist or was EOL'ed from the system without a replacement before we implemented. 2) It was a fixed-price contract, and when they screwed up & couldn't deliver on their benchmarks, they refused to continue working without additional payment 3) Paid customizations were developed in bad faith & without the contracted specs. In one example, there was a simple requirement: Users could enter a long blob of text, and clerks could review it as part of the user's record in Peoplesoft. They delivered the first part, not the second. When we asked where that functionality was, they said they didn't need to build anything more because the data was available to clerks via the assistance of a DBA. The implementation failed, we got a settlement, and chose a different vendor while out Legacy system limped along for a few more years.
chrisseaton 6y ago
Oracle was a fantastic place to work for me. I had a private locking office with a mountain view as an intern - many people on here say they'd kill for that kind of respect and working environment! And they paid me a full senior salary while I did my PhD. Really can't argue with that.
- cghendrix 6y ago
  I also had that experience at apple. For two weeks. Then was moved into a shitty shared cubicle. Don’t miss working there.
  - chihuahua 6y ago
    Before WFH I would have been envious of a shared cubicle (assuming it means a cubicle with 4 walls that is shared by 2 people)
    - chrisseaton 6y ago
      You mean you'd be envious of the getting to share a cubicle with someone, or you'd be envious of only having to share with only one person and nobody else? Can't tell :)
      - chihuahua 6y ago
        It's the latter. 2 people surrounded by cubicle walls is better than a giant room filled with desks and no partitions. The worst I've seen so far was at Amazon. When some people wanted to get up from their desk, they had to ask their desk neighbor to stand up so they could pass through.

Fnoord 6y ago

> That being said, I know a couple of people who work there and they don't like their job - it's thankless - but I think that's the same with all big companies where you're just another number. No, that is specific to Oracle. Here's some references [1]. The other day on HN I read a quote: "What is the difference between Larry Ellison and God? God doesn't think he's Larry Ellison". Can't find it though. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20773799 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20773799

orliesaurus 6y ago
10 years ago or so I started a job at a big corp. and I felt the same after 6 months, I stayed 23 months in total and I said I would never go back unless I had complete "creative" control over my career. I haven't ever been tempted to go back, but those terms still remain if I ever get a call from someone from bigcorp.
duck 6y ago
That quote is actually a book: https://www.amazon.com/Difference-Between-God-Larry-Ellison/dp/0060008768 https://www.amazon.com/Difference-Between-God-Larry-Ellison/...

redelbee 6y ago

>I love biking/walking around the Oracle campus area because they made a bike path and the area is safer than it was before. That general area of the Town Lake trail was always my starting point for runs. My favorite “section” was definitely the trail on either side of the dam. I would park in the lot across the lake from the now Oracle campus and start most of my runs there. I ran thousands of miles with that as my starting point (I was training for ultramarathons) and never felt unsafe. That started in 2010 so I can’t speak to safety before then. I liked the character of those neighborhoods and everything they had to offer. The JuiceLand on Cesar Chavez always brought out the most interesting characters in various states of mind on Saturday and Sunday mornings. There was always a pickup basketball game going at the Metz Neighborhood Park, and sometimes I would take a break there to refuel and watch for a few baskets. The Oracle campus is on the other side of the lake from there but I think it still had an influence on the neighborhood even that far removed. I won’t say it was a completely negative influence, but it definitely made things less interesting to me. The east side in general was trending in that direction though, so I’m sure it wasn’t all at the feet of Oracle. I don’t live in Austin now. It was nice to reminisce about long runs on Town Lake so thanks for that!

orliesaurus 6y ago
I live downtown/East facing. It's a shit show now. All the good things like: - Small bars/businesses - Parks/Green areas - Free parking - Playgrounds are being deleted from the map one by one and they're being replaced with: - Hotels/Large apt. complexes - Huge buildings for big corp/large comp - Paid parking/parking lots - New age bars and posh restaurants - Homeless camps but it's safer to go out out at night at least...if you stay on the main roads
- redelbee 6y ago
  Oh I’m sad (and totally unsurprised) to hear that. I wonder if there will ever be an exodus from Austin similar in scope to the influx of the past decade. If I could time travel I would definitely visit Austin through the years to see how it was and how it ends up.
- WillPostForFood 6y ago

suyash 6y ago

Oracle Redwood Shores (Old HQ) is one of the most beautiful campus of tech company in Silicon Valle with trails etc and a lake where the America's Cup winning Catamaran is parked. Wonder if they will move that to Austin as well.

Apocryphon 6y ago
Watch out, Lake Travis.
oillio 6y ago
I agree, beautiful campus. Fun fact: the buildings were designed to resemble the symbol for databases in logical diagrams. https://images.app.goo.gl/ybduLEGuAFxeGaL88 https://images.app.goo.gl/ybduLEGuAFxeGaL88
- carlineng 6y ago
  Another fun fact, the San Carlos airport nearby has an FAA identifier of SQL: https://www.airnav.com/airport/KSQL https://www.airnav.com/airport/KSQL
  - muzz 6y ago
    And a fun subfact is that it had that code before Oracle existed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Carlos_Airport_(California)#Origin_of_SQL_airport_code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Carlos_Airport_(California...
babesh 6y ago
The campus was beautiful but the inside it was a cubicle farm.
- suyash 6y ago
  not in the last few years, it's very modern and open office in many buildings.