Oracle Corporation Recruitment Blog

Oracle India Participates in the Bangalore Midnight Marathon

2011-12-15T03:21:18+00:00

This year Oracle India participated in the Midnight Marathon run in Bangalore. The Midnight Marathon Run first began in 2007 and is funded by the Rotary Bangalore IT Corridor. Taken from the event webpage “The marathon was the first of its kind in the world, being the only marathon that was run in the middle of the night. The only other similar run in the world was in Norway. This event, though being a night event, was run in full brightness, given that Norway is the country of Midnight Sun.”

This year Oracle India Employees participated in the event and when we announced the event internally we had an overwhelming response from our employees who wanted to participate. In traditional Oracle fashion we tackled the contest with gusto and achieved great results, overall:

Oracle Women’s Marathon Relay Team won 3^rd Place !! (of 12 teams)
Oracle Men’s Marathon Relay Team came 4^th Place ! (of 20 teams)
We were the only sponsor that had a huge tent!
Also we all ran the 1^st 500m with our Oracle banner!

I love that Oracle participates in these events. Not only is it great that we are helping a good cause, but I think that it really shows that we offer more than just a standard corporate workplace. We all come here to work together, but for many of us our relationships with our colleagues develop much further. Employees here come together and participate in a range of community events that really brings our people together. With our volunteer days, community groups and our Employee Club employees really can be involved in various events as little or as much as they like with us.

If you are considering an opportunity with Oracle, take a moment to look past the job description – talk to us and find out what our culture is like, yes we are on the cutting edge in the IT industry, but I think equally we have a great work culture and work/life balance here that should not be overlooked.

Congratulations again to all participants of the Bangalore Midnight Marathon.

Oracle Australia Supports MS Sydney to Gong Ride by Chris Sainsbury

2011-11-15T19:18:02+00:00

What is the Sydney to Gong Ride?

The Gong Ride is a one of a kind fundraising event. You can pedal 90 km from Sydney to Wollongong on any day of the year but it's only on the first Sunday of November that you'll experience the camaraderie, fellowship, unity, safey, scenery and sense of achievement for pedalling in support of people living with MS.

Well done to the 22 members of the Oracle Sydney to Gong ride on Sunday 6 November. For many, this was the first time riding over distance – officially a 90km event, by GPS about 84km.

The event started in Sydney Park, Newtown. We left in a few separate groups between 6.30 and 7.30am – and finished with times between 2 hours 45 mins and 6 hours. With 10,000 riders there was a lot of congestion at the start but that soon thinned out as we left Sydney.

It was a great spring day for the event but at 34 degrees it was getting pretty warm once we left the shade of the Royal National Park and carried on over the Sea Cliff bridge and down the coast road towards Wollongong. Unfortunately Dan managed to get himself a facial scrub when someone clipped his front wheel on the descent from Bald Hill lookout. No major incidents thankfully and Dan soldiered on.

Most importantly everyone had a good time (even Dan) and we raised $5,800 for Multiple Sclerosis Australia. In total more than $3.7m was raised for this good cause.

An Interview with Mr Leslie Ong, Managing Director of Oracle Singapore by Sharon Lim

2011-10-27T19:22:12+00:00

Sharon Lim from our ASEAN Campus Recruitment Team had the opportunity to talk with Leslie Ong who is Oracle Singapore's Managing Director. Sharon and Leslie had the opportunity to talk a little bit about Oracle, our Singapore Campus Program and more about Leslie and his career.

Hi Leslie, thanks for taking the time to talk. To start can you tell me a little bit about yourself?

I graduated from Nanyang Technological Institute (NTI) now known as NTU majoring in EEE. Immediately after graduation, I took a job with my Industrial Attachment firm and worked on building automation projects. My biggest project there was developing and implementing a building automation system for PSA building using assembly language programming.

I was fortunate to find a job within a short period as I graduated in the year in 1985 which happened to be a recession year. I joined Philips Singapore subsequently as an application engineer for test instruments. Soon after, opportunity came by for me to move into HP where I started in Sales for test instruments and later computer systems. I stayed at HP for a very long time and recently joined Oracle.

Why did you choose a career in IT?

I embrace learning and believe that learning doesn’t stop at university. IT is a dynamic and ever changing industry so it is a really exciting field to be in.

Why choose Oracle?

I had spent a long time in HP and did many different roles, the last one managing the servers, storage and network business. An opportunity to work at Oracle came along and I decided to explore it.

I was getting slightly too comfortable at HP and wanted to challenge myself. Oracle, being a huge software company, gave me the chance to learn something new and had decided to take up the challenge.

What is the work culture like in Oracle?

We have a very aggressive culture and tried to out-do our competitors in every sales opportunity that we get. A lot of emphasis is placed on learning as well in Oracle as we are constantly acquiring companies and new products.

Do you have any advice for new graduates?

As a new graduate, you have to ask yourself what do you exactly want to achieve and what do you look for in a company. With that information in mind, attend recruitment talks and ask questions to find out if that’s what you really want. In addition, stay open and don’t close your doors towards new opportunities.

What kind of graduates are Oracle Singapore looking for?

We look for high performing graduates. Academic result is a given. We look for all rounded individuals who show us leadership position and are actively involved in their CCA. Out-going individuals are a plus since as we are a sales organization. Nonetheless, we have other roles as well for example if you are more of the technical sound sort, we would still want you in our sales consulting role or the consulting role. Attitude is the most important.

What kind of career path would a fresh graduate expect?

For a start, you go through a one year rotation to pick up necessary skills where you will be able to showcase yourself. Career development lies in the hands of the individual. If a fresh graduate is willing to expose himself more visible and be ready when opportunities come, then it would be much easier for him to progress in Oracle.

What other activities are you involved in? SCS?

I enjoy a lot of water sports such as wakeboarding, scuba diving. Recently, I have been into triathlons and have started a team in Oracle. I also sit in the Singapore Computer Society executive council which aims to elevate the role of the IT professional.

We have also been reaching out to campuses to engage students in the earlier stage such that they would consider IT as a promising career path.

How does social networking affect you and work at Oracle?

I keep social networking sites personal and separated from work. In Oracle, I would use our own social tools such as OraTweets (our own twitter client). I do use facebook and LinkedIn for my personal social life.

Oracle Global Volunteer Day @ the Children First foundation in Kilmore by Amin Abbas

2011-10-10T03:56:55+00:00

In what has become an annual event, more than twenty volunteers from the Oracle team volunteered in a working bee at Moira Kelly's Children First Foundation farm in Kilmore. For the 3^rd year running, the red team contributed to a great foundation that helps the disadvantaged children from all around the world. Children First is an Australian foundation that facilities advanced medical treatment to children in Australia where such operations are inaccessible in their home countries. Such operations are often life changing to these young kids.

The Oracle team work involved gardening and maintenance activities at the farm. The energetic red team replanted the veggie patches it has built couple of years ago, an activity that has been reserved for Oracle every spring.

The team also painted 2 bedrooms, cleaned all windows and cleaned and sanitised the children’s play area. The work also involved weeding, clothes sorting and tidying up of some of the children’s rooms.

As per every year, we also presented the resident children with some gifts and books, Thanks to Kate Ogilvie who arranges for the gifts every year.

The foundation's resident volunteers enjoyed lunch with the Oracle volunteers, and thanked the team for their contribution and ongoing support.

Many Thanks to all our volunteers for the hard work and the great team work spirit the demonstrated. Almost everyone last line to the farm kids and volunteers was, “see you next year!”.

Regards,

Amin

Global Volunteer Days Project (Tree Planting in India) by Manognya Reddy

2011-10-03T16:20:40+00:00

Oracle supports and promotes activity from our employees that gives back to the community.

On Saturday September 24th in Hyderabad India Manognya Reddy from our Campus Recruitment participated in a Tree Plantation Drive at Hi-Tech City Railway Station. Here are her notes from the day.

It was a partly-cloudy day and all the plans were in place to start the much-awaited event.

I was the first one to arrive at the venue at around 8:00 am. Soon after that Oracle Volunteers started trickling in. Most of the Volunteers were Campus Graduates who joined us this year. We put up the Oracle banners and all of us were wearing the red Oracle Volunteer t-shirts. Six Volunteers from Don Bosco Navajeevan joined us.

The plants were brought out quickly (I had left them in the railway custody a day earlier) and soon the whole team was busy. A bit of fertilizer in each pit and the plants were lowered into the pits and covered up with soil.

Within a couple of hours – all the 65 saplings were planted.

Now it was time for a break after the hard work. Juice, flavored milk and biscuits were passed around and relished.

After our snacks we realized that the station parking was littered with paper and plastic. The team swooped down and in minutes about eight bags of litter was cleared and taken away.

Soon our water tanker came and all the saplings had their first watering. By this time it was past midday. We had packed lunch from a local caterer. The team decided to go back to office for a quick wash and for the hot lunch. The entire team was in the office cafeteria. We had a quick lunch and left for our respective homes for a Saturday afternoon nap.

The Campus Graduates enjoyed the experience - In the words of Shruti Mantri and Aditi Sharma - "we are always looking out to do something on Saturdays and this is like a picnic for us" - sums it all.

I am back in office today (26 Sept 2011) and use the train to commute. When the train chugged into the station, I was very eager to look at the saplings we had planted. They seemed to wave at me.

Manognya Reddy

Campus Relations

Oracle India

Life at Oracle by Sakshi Bhatnagar

2011-09-22T20:40:36+00:00

Life is never predictable…no one can ever understand how life works its own course and even though a lot of us try to direct it, rarely does it ever turn out the way that we plan.

When I was in college, most of the students in my class were under a lot of pressure to just get a job in one of the well-known companies. I am pretty much sure, they did not really realize back then what it really meant to be a part of an organization that would not only provide them employment but also be like a nurturing and caring friend.

Hi, I am an ORACLE employee and I have been here for three months now. If you would have asked me what my expectations are from any company that gives me employment back in my college days, I would have simply said none….and that would have been because I was not sure what to expect. Now however, three months into life at ORACLE the past three months have been the best months of my life. It has been a great and a very fond journey, from the innocence of college life to the more mature and sensible corporate life.

By being a part of ORACLE, I have not just found an employer but also a nurturing and caring friend. A lot of people would say that fun ends with the end of student life and there is no fun in being in a corporate environment. To those I ask how can corporate life not be fun when we are still learning something new each day?! At ORACLE, every day brings a new learning experience. It is not just about doing our work but also about understanding what we do, why we do what we do and in contributing to make lives of those we serve, i.e. society better.

The very first day of my induction, I remember feeling awestruck by the very infrastructure and people in ORACLE, each person I met was so humble and so open to helping the new people. It never felt as if I was new to the organization. The people make an organization what it is …and here I found people who were ready to explain and mentor young minds without any false pretentions.

The boot-camp I attended which is conducted specifically for all the new employees is one of the best ways of teaching employees learn ORACLE values and also to encourage employees to communicate and build a human network across the organization.

The "SELF SERVICE" motto of ORACLE actually helps employees to be independent and learn things on their own and in that way being wiser and better humans. The humility and helping nature of the employees does not just limit to the campuses. It is amazing how various charity and good-will events are conducted by ORACLE to help those who need it the most. The fun never stopped with the end of college for me. With ORACLE, I have learnt to have fun and be responsible at the same time. My mentors, my team, my colleagues and a lot more of friends that I have made here in three months have added a lot of value and essence to my life. I have learnt a lot, and it’s not just about work or work ethics but also about life and human values. I can never thank ORACLE enough for providing such a great experience and so many timeless memories to me. THANKS A LOT ORACLE!

Monash University SICC (Society for International Commerce and Computing) Corporate Dinner by Michael Kamar

2011-09-18T18:18:45+00:00

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend the Monash University Study for International Commerce and Computing (SICC) (http://www.sicc.com.au) Corporate Dinner out at the lovely Leonda by the Yarra in Hawthorn, Melbourne. The evening was organised by a group of students at Monash University in Melbourne, and was aimed at providing networking opportunities to students on the cusp of entering the corporate environment, and also to socialize with representatives from a range of corporate companies over dinner.

The evening kicked off with registration, nibbles and chatting between company representatives and students. There were approximately 100 people there, a wide mix of students, from those just starting out at University, those who were just about to complete University, and those who had recently graduated. Dinner started off with presentations from several key sponsors who spoke about life in the corporate world in general, as well as a quick rundown in regards to their own graduate intakes.

The night wasn’t all about presentations though, as the tables were split into groups of students based on their relevant interests, and where they wanted to enter into the corporate world. Representing Oracle, I was placed on an IT centric table with around 8 students who were interested in the IT industry. It was great to engage with the students and speak about day to day life at Oracle, how it all functions, what the process was to get into the Graduate Program, what my role was, etc. But the questions weren’t all work related, and it was great to see interest in out of work activities, and social interaction within the workplace.  

Another thing that worked really well, and which ran at several intervals throughout the evening, was the “Corporate Trivia” that had been organized by SICC. Teams were based on tables (14 in total), and questions had a corporate twist to them, this meant students and representatives alike had to work together in coming up with answers. Everything from ‘name the partial company logo’ to ‘what do these acronyms stand for’ were asked.

This wasn’t as easy as it sounds! Not only was the trivia a great way to get everyone involved, but I found that it also helped students come up with additional questions or queries that they wanted to know about corporate life.  After dinner had concluded, people started to move around between tables again, giving students an opportunity to ask further questions to representatives they hadn’t been sitting with. I found that even students who weren’t directly interested in a career in IT, still wanted to know about Oracle, and what it was like working for such a large organization.

Overall, it was a great night, and was a great opportunity to mix with students who were looking at getting into the corporate world. For anyone looking to get into a corporate job after University, it would be highly recommended to find a similar club or group that runs evenings like this at your University. Having an opportunity to speak to people who went through the same process as you’re about to go through, is invaluable. Thanks again to SICC for organising the event, and inviting myself and other industry representatives along.

Oracle's Trivandrum Development Center Inauguration

2011-09-15T23:46:26+00:00

It was a day of pride for the IT fraternity in Kerala, India when Oracle’s new Development Centre was inaugurated in Trivandrum, the capital city of Kerala.

Steve Miranda, Senior Vice President Applications Development and Joe Gumina, Vice President, APAC/LAD Real Estate & Facilities cut the ribbon to the doors of the facility. The facility has come up in Technopark, which is the first and largest of the IT parks in India. The formal inauguration was done by the State Minister for IT and Industries Mr.Kunnjali Kutty and attended by Mr Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament and senior dignitaries from Oracle.

The facility has come up in the Leela Infopark building within Technopark and has a capacity to house 300 people in a floor with expansion capacity for two more floors. The centre has started up with a set of handpicked engineering graduates from the best campuses in Kerala to support the Fusion and PeopleSoft development.

That College Feeling at Oracle by Swapnil Jadhav

2011-09-14T20:42:35+00:00

As a fresh graduate I was proud to join Oracle as my first company. I reached Hyderabad with my father 3 days prior to the date of joining at Oracle. I came to visit the campus the next day of my reaching here. I literally fell in love with those three Oracle buildings with blue glass facades.

It feels very different for a person who has never seen how an organization works to come and join work in a big organization. There were so many fears- will I be able to meet the organizations expectations, what if I fail to do my work on time, or what if my work is not up to the mark. Fears akin to what a student gets before important exams during his academic life. Even if you were a brilliant academic performer in college, you still feel fearful when you are about to join work.

At Oracle, the campus to corporate training program makes you feel very comfortable. The games, the open discussions and doubt clearing sessions that we had with the HR team make you get ready for your corporate life. Then you start feeling lucky that you have got Oracle as your first company in your professional life. You learn that it’s fine to make mistakes and learn from them, and it’s not different from your academic life. You get to learn cool stuff and meet some of the most intelligent people here. They inspire you.

Oracle has this protocol of calling everybody by their first names. It was something new to me as we are used to calling people as sir or ma'am. Calling my manager by his first name feels as if he is my classmate from college.

At work place time flies by, it’s not even 40 days that I joined Oracle and I’m loving it! You get to meet so many people in the campus. The gym is well equipped and well maintained. Oracle wants to us to be fit and healthy. Even after I am tired after work I got to gym and feel the energy surging after 30 minutes of run on a treadmill.

When I need to get some fresh air, I can just get out of my cubicle and walk around. There are well maintained gardens which makes me wonder how come they keep the plants so green in the heat of Hyderabad, it looks like my IIT Bombay gardens with well -kept green shrubs around the buildings.

Oracle is a warm company and there is no dress code here, I used to come wearing formals to office in the first few days and was surprised to see most of the seniors here in jeans and T-Shirts.

I must add that while coming to work every morning I feel as if I am going to my college, to learn, to live, to chill, and to enjoy life at Oracle.

Yesterday Was Teacher's Day in India: A Celebration by Manognya Reddy

2011-09-06T01:55:17+00:00

In India, Teacher’s Day is celebrated on 5 September every year. This day is the birthday of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, a great scholar and academician and also the 2^nd President of Independent India.

While he was serving as President, he was urged to celebrate his birthday. However, he suggested that this day be celebrated as Teacher’s Day.

On this day, students express their gratitude to their teachers through celebrations on schools and colleges. They present cultural programs, dress as teachers and sometimes the senior students act as teachers.

On this special day, I was happy and surprised when I received a message this morning from one of our interns who finally joined as a full-time hire. “Best of me reminds me of you. Happy Teacher’s Day! Thanks for being my life-long inspiration. Krupala.”

Teachers have touched us throughout our life and each one of us has our set of “favorite teachers”. Some for their knowledge and presentation, others for their loving nature and dedication to their profession and some for their patience. I have mine too! It seems Krupala looks up to me a teacher is some way.

As part of my work at Oracle – involved in Campus Hiring – it is my good fortune to meet and interact with hundreds of students. Some of them are selected and some are not, but moments spent on Campus are treasured forever. It is a great joy that my profession provides me to meet so many young graduates and it wonderful to connect back to them - even through a small message – like the one Krupala sent! It’s even greater to bump into someone who tells me – You hired me!

On this day, I would like wish all students all the best in their studies and career planning and look forward to more Campus Hiring!

Manognya Reddy

Campus Relations

Oracle India

A Graduate's Experience in Oracle by Gao Xing

2011-09-04T22:33:57+00:00

As a graduating student, I am very proud to join the Oracle family. By now I have worked here for about 4 months, and I enjoyed my time with Oracle immensely. Here are some feelings I would like to share with everybody.

Oracle is a big family composed by people from different countries with different cultures. The more time I worked with the co-workers, the more I like the big family. Every one of them is very friendly and professional, and I learned lots of useful skills from them to enhance my abilities.

Oracle is a warm family. To ensure a smooth immersion into the new workplace, Oracle provides a work partner and a mentor for new hires. With their help, I adapted to the new work environment quickly and was familiar with new assignment efficiently.

Oracle is also a university which offers various training opportunities and further education chances for employees. The professional education benefits, our personal development and technical and soft abilities. The training of seven habits which I participated in improved my working efficiency and communication skills.

Oracle is a club with colorful social activities. The volunteer projects of Oracle global volunteer days are the traditional activities which encourage us to do much more to benefit our community. Besides, every one of us can join in different social club, such as badminton, football and basketball, which can make us more friends and more vibrant.

In general, I feel Oracle is a diversified, technical-driven and forward thinking company where employees can gain more challenges and chances. As an Oracle employee, I think I need to be flexible, adaptable, performance driven and have a willingness to learn. I believe I can be self-motivated to develop a long-term career at Oracle.

Oracle Campus Recruitment is Hiring in India

2011-08-24T18:22:31+00:00

Last week I attended the ATC Source Conference here in Melbourne. I had the chance to talk to and listen to Jim Stroud. As you can see from my previous post - Jim spoke about Recruiting and Sourcing via YouTube. Fast forward to this week and here I am looking to find another Campus Recruiter to join our Team in India. I am working with one of my colleagues in India and she is helping me source for candidates, but I thought what a great time to put into practice some of the things I listened to Jim talk about last week about using video for recruiting.

I think the recruitment landscape is going to change in the next 5 years and I think candidates will be searching for jobs in a different way than what they do today. So with this position that I am looking to hire I think someone who shares this thought with me and who wants to look at different ways to find great people for Oracle would be great in our team, so I figured rather than posting a standard Job Description, why not try something different to try to get a different result.

So this afternoon I took my iPhone and rather than provide candidates with a written Job Description I thought I would do a video Job Description outlining a little bit about the role and what I am looking for. It is not complete but I think from a candidate perspective it gives a better feel for me and what I am looking for more than a written Job Description on its own would.

Note: I quickly realised that either I need to learn video editing or I really need to find somebody who can help me with video editing.

I am not sure if I will find our next Campus Recruiter via this video or not. I hope I do but if I don't that is ok as this video is just one means I am using to find the next member of our team. Bill Boorman was also at the ATC Sourcing Conference and one of the things he mentioned that stuck in my head is - "don't be afraid to fail - Fail often, Move on and Fail Cheap". It was good motivation and Bill reinvigorated me to try something that no one else is doing to recruit (ok maybe saying no one is a bit of an overstatement). You only fail at something if you don't try - I know it sounds a bit corny but I think it is a good saying and a good outlook to have.

Here's the plug: If after watching this video and reading a bit about my thoughts, if you think this is the right opportunity for you please get in touch and let's discuss.

ATC Source Conference in Melbourne (Jim Stroud Presentation)

2011-08-17T22:21:15+00:00

Jim Stroud talks about how to recruit on YouTube

Jim started his presentation at the #ATCSource Conference and started talking about the 7 Reasons why you should recruit on YouTube (this feels eerily like a David Letterman Top 10 List – but it works). Anyway in no particular order here are the Top 7 Reasons to recruit on YouTube

1) The people are there – YouTube has a huge audience and with the uptake in people using mobile devices the thinking is that people will use YouTube to get information more and more.

2) Universal Search – ah ha – just like Glen mentioned previously – do a keyword search in YouTube for the skill set you are searching for and you can see who is looking for those type of videos for example: Java Programmer. You can also do a google search with the site:youtube.com string3) Free Statistics

4) Low Cost using a Flip Camera (well now it would be an iPhone) – it’s real and its a powerful message. The more real your videos are the more believable they are. Nobody believes an actor reading a script

5) It evens out the competition – Corporations do not use video to recruit – Why not get a competitive advantage!!!! It is a big opportunity, nobody else is doing it – why not get on board now

6) All the cool tools that are available: You get a mailbox, you can send video email. Statistics – I have had a YouTube account for a little while and while I have not used it much – I had no idea it had this capability. The depth of the statistics is great and I love that you can send a video email via your webcam to people you want to talk to.

7) Return on Investment – YouTube delivers results – how many views were generated, how many hires did we make from those views. I have not looked in-depth at the statistics on YouTube but from what I have seen today you can really drill down information. It will also increase your search engine ranking.

I am believer in using video for recruitment myself. I think it is going to get more relevant in the coming years, especially with the uptake of mobile devices. This presentation today has been a real eye opener for me – I have always had video on my mind but this presentation from Jim has really given me the motivation to get more involved in this space.

This blog post was originally written on David Talamelli's Blog.

ATC Source Conference in Melbourne (Glen Cathey Presentation)

2011-08-17T19:20:03+00:00

Glen Cathey - forget boolean and think information retrieval

I am at the #ATCSource Conference in Melbourne today and have written a quick blog post reflecting on some of the things that Glen Cathey has spoken about. He is the 1st speaker of the day - I hope I have the writing energy to write other blog posts for the other speakers who are scheduled later in the day.

Glen Cathey spoke about control and how much control Recruiters have when they are mining information and reaching out to candidates. This got me thinking that most of the good Recruiters I know who always hit their target and who always seem to get the right person for an open role tend to by nature be control freaks. This is not necessarily a reflection on Glen's talk about data mining - but more so about work ethic. Good Recruiters know what they are looking for and when they find it they tend to control the process from beginning to end. They close the loop and make sure there are no surprises for either the candidate or manager. That is they ensure candidates are interested in the job, they ensure managers are available to interview, they ensure feedback is given after a meeting, they ensure candidate and manager know salary expectations and pay scales - the more that a good Recruiter controls the recruitment process the fewer surprises you get at the end of the road when you make an offer and the higher your hit rate is going to be.

Back to Glen's presentation:

There are 5 Levels of Talent Mining:

1) Keyword/Title Search - pretty much what is says you are keyword searching - it works but it's not a big deal. Example: "Java Developer" AND Melbourne. These can be automated

2) Conceptual - Using related terms and concepts to find people: for example: Ruby on Rails OR ROR OR rails OR "Ruby on rails"

3) Implicit - searching for and identifying what isn't explicitly mentioned

4) Natural Language - Searching for responsibilities and keywords, not just keywords and titles. For example "responsibilities" = verbs and nouns - things such as "I close" or "I sell" - this targets what people do not what they write about themselves

5) Indirect - searching for the wrong people to find the right people. Talk to someone under/over qualified and ask for referrals.

Recruiters: when you are looking for your ideal candidate - don't just stop at a simple LinkedIn search (the 1st step of talent mining), your competitors who are listening to @glencathey are digging much deeper into the same talent pool and finding the people are not by just doing a 1st level search. Yes this takes more time commitment but to find the right person isn't it worth the investment? This blog post was originally posted on David Talamelli's Blog: David's Journal on Tap

Oracle Recruitment Introduces Our Sina Weibo Sites

2011-08-07T19:15:02+00:00

Our Oracle Recruitment Team here in APAC has continued to grow our online presence. While sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have received most of the Social Media fanfare and media attention over the past number of years these sites are not necessarily used everywhere as much as they are in some regions or communities.

Our Oracle China Recruitment Team has created two new Sina Weibo pages to communicate and share stories with our online communities in China. For information on what is happening in our China Offices you can now connect with us:

To keep in touch with our Campus Recruitment Team in China and to find out about Graduate opportunities in Oracle China: http://weibo.com/oraclecampus

To keep in touch with our Oracle Recruitment Team in China about roles for experienced candidates you can connect with us at: http://weibo.com/oraclerecruiting

I think that it is great that here in our larger Oracle Recruitment Team we do not necessarily view the world with a one size fits all Social Media solution. I think that this is a good example of getting back to the heart of what Social Media is all about (or what it is not about): I do not believe Social Media is necessarily about the platform or channel (FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, Weibo) but I think at the heart of the matter it is about the communication and the content. I remember speaking at a conference a few years back on Social Media and I believe the same message that I mentioned back then which was that it is more important to have meaningful discussions and relationships with your online networks than to be on the latest and greatest SM platform that has come out. The channel will always change and evolve but without the people there to share and talk and liaise with each other these SM networks would not be very relevant.

Many of the various SM platforms we use are a great way for people to find out a little bit more what it is like to work here and a great way to connect with us about potential opportunities and while the medium will change over the years the communication and availability to connect with each other will not. If you have always wanted to know more about Oracle China and what recruitment activity is taking place with us – I hope these pages on Weibo give you a glimpse into life at Oracle and help you connect with us.

Metamorphosis Part II- From Academics to the Corporate World by Ranjan Kumar

2011-07-18T10:24:06+00:00

Phew!! What a week this has been. A popular saying comes to mind “the world is your oyster” A strong belief in oneself is no doubt paramount, but no man can scale new heights without appropriate assistance. The training provided by Oracle clearly demonstrated that every aspect of work life, the skills and tools required to have a successful entry into a professional career was made available.

The week began with a number of Case studies so that we could gain a deeper understanding of various work situations. A healthy discussion among the new trainees and HR provided clarity on work life situations. The pro’s and con’s of working alone or in a team were spoken about at length and several interesting insights were provided for our benefit.

We were given a deep insight on the various divisions of Oracles and their functions and were shown the differences between product development, the support team, the sales and consultancy departments. It was fascinating to learn how all these departments co-ordinate closely and together to form a first class institution like Oracle.

We thoroughly enjoyed a number of unique games and tasks which showed us how to work together as a team. Team building is vital for any institution’s success and all of us felt fortunate to have the opportunity to play our individual roles in the Oracle team.

A very useful session on formal communication, office manners and dress code followed. As all of us were new to the professional world, we paid particular attention to this session. The timing of this session was also appropriate as we all received our own Oracle email id, and proudly sent off our first official communication!

The highlight of this week’s training was a very inspirational speech given by Mr Murali Subramanian,.He spoke about his own experiences and encouraged us to speak on “hunger for success”. His friendly and approachable manner, vast experience and welcoming words made us all feel proud to be part of Oracle.

The last two days of the week were taken up by what we had all been waiting for, which was the Technical skills, we commenced this with the introduction of Oracle SQL server .We were informed that our induction and soft skills training had been completed and henceforth most of our training would be on the technical side.

In summation, this was an eventful week, many new skills were taught and several new ideas were sown in our minds. As one of the HR personnel said, this is only the beginning………………………..

Metamorphosis -From Academics to the Corporate World by Ranjan Kumar

2011-07-13T07:43:17+00:00

“Expect the unexpected” a cliche often heard by me and aptly justified the million butterflies in my stomach. My fears and apprehensions on my first day proved to be unfounded as I saw the smiling faces and warm welcome extended by the Oracle HR team.

It is normal to feel anxious before embarking on any journey, and as this was perhaps the most crucial transition I was about to make, my heart was beating at a dramatic pace as I entered the gates of Oracle Training center. New faces, unknown challenges and a myriad of thoughts crossed my mind. To my sheer relief the atmosphere created by the Management was casual and friendly. Trained to call every senior as “Sir” in my alma mater I was pleasantly surprised that I could address everyone by their first name!

A series of sessions began, with introductions and vital information on Oracle explained to us in an easy to understand manner. What struck me most was the amount of thought and planning that had gone into making each session imaginative, interesting and informative. We played innovative games to get to know each other better and were given all the information required about the new locality where we would be spending our new work life.

Most of us were immensely impressed that the Management had arranged for the Bank officials to be around to assist us in opening our accounts on the very first day. For me however, receiving the “Oracle” T shirt was the highlight of the day, we would all be wearing it with an immense sense of pride and belonging !!

A detailed explanation of all the benefits we would receive as employees was given and all doubts and queries were answered. The HR team had created a relaxed environment for everyone so that any questions could be raised without hesitation.

Two vital sessions followed, which included ethics at work and security. These were perhaps the most important for us new recruits. We received a complete understanding of what Oracle expects of us, the dos and don’ts and a clear picture of the work culture at Oracle.

Thus ended my very first day at work, of course we had tea and coffee breaks too as well as a rather short lunch break!!! (HR team please note) Jokes apart, all in all a rather inspiring day for me as I came back with feelings of enthusiasm and anticipation to begin my career at Oracle with energy and determination.

An Oracle's Interns Story by Samarth Varshney

2011-06-23T05:25:15+00:00

I have written a short write-up about my experience at Oracle and am attaching some pics along:

I joined Oracle on 5^th January 2011 as part of my internship program in BITS Pilani Goa Campus. In the short period of six months, I had the most beautiful and interesting time of my life. It was fun to work in Oracle, thanks to the whole team. I had an excellent manager, simple and sophisticated, who gave me the utmost enthusiasm to work.

I gained a lot of knowledge during my internship, thanks to my colleagues. They were very helpful and motivated us (interns) in every possible way. In the initial stages of work, in which you know almost nothing, they helped me gain knowledge at a rapid speed. Thanks to the vast database of study material at the Oracle site, that I could start on with my project in a very short time.

For me, the time flew like anything and made the 6 months look like a few days. It was probably due to the team, that the work was so much fun. We had our deadlines but had full freedom as to how to work and when to work. I don't remember a single instance, in which I was working and not listening to songs. I mean it will always be a time to remember. I hope to join this company and make this time last forever.

Samarth

A World of Opportunities for Graduates at Oracle: Yes Absolutely!

2011-06-02T19:49:08+00:00

Over the past few months there has been an increase in blog posts that have been written about our Graduate Program here at Oracle. We have had blog contributions from Graduates, Recruiters and Managers from places such as India and Australia and we are looking forward to more contributions coming from other countries as well.

So why all the excitement about Graduate Recruitment? A better question I think is why wouldn’t people get excited about our Graduate opportunities.

We have a number of Graduates joining Oracle over the next few months and those Graduates are going to be working in a whole range of different types of roles and activities. We offer a range of Career Paths for our Graduates, everything from Product Development to Consulting to Sales. Some Graduates will move into hands on technical roles in QA or as Developers or Programmers while others may exceed in our Sales or Business Management streams.

I have seen previous Oracle Graduates get the opportunity to work internationally, or work with new technology or break sales records. After 5+ years working in Oracle I can safely say this is the type of company where your career is only limited only by your imagination and desire to succeed.

What about the Technology? Working at Oracle gives people a great opportunity to work across so many different technology products. Where else can you get exposure to Databases, Middleware, Applications and Server/Storage systems. With the number of projects and the range of technical solutions that we offer, Oracle really does allow a person to get exposure to the full Technology Stack. As we say Hardware and Software: Engineered to Work Together.

Yes I am a little bit biased in my thoughts (I am one of the Recruiters for Oracle), but one of the great things about working here is the chance to work with so many great individuals. Not only is everyone friendly and enjoyable to work with but I find a common trait in many employees is that we are all driven to succeed. I have had the chance to work with some great business leaders here and learn from them and the enthusiasm and excitement from everyone is contagious.

To all the Graduates who are set to join us: Congratulations again on your success, we are looking forward to having you join our team!

Oracle NSW Supports Australia’s “Biggest Morning Tea”

2011-05-27T04:46:19+00:00

On Thursday May 26^th our colleagues in the Oracle North Ryde offices participated in “The Biggest Morning Tea”. This is a great cause to help raise money towards one of Australia’s most well-loved fundraising events helping raise money to support the Cancer Council’s work. Organised by 3 of our Graduates (and thanks Daniella, Angelie and Brendan on organising such a great event), we had a fantastic turn out and some fun as well.

We raised more than double the amount of money we were hoping to, which speak volumes about the generosity of our employees and management. In fact to help raise money some members of our management team raised the stakes and agreed to “complete certain tasks” if we reached various donation targets.

While sometimes corporate culture can be perceived as stringent and reserved, yesterdays efforts proved the contrary. How many managers would eat a raw onion for charity or allow themselves to be target practice for employees holding cream pies? This may not be a typical Thursday but it was a fantastic afternoon, and thanks to the help of our brave managers that stood on the front line and had cream pies thrown at them, or the managers with the iron stomachs.

We managed to raise a lot of money for the Cancer research and had so much fun in the process. Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea is a great initiative by the Cancer Council and the support we received from the Oracle team was incredible.

Are All Recruiters The Same??? What Does a Good Recruiter Do by Prinz Mandap

2011-05-19T16:10:12+00:00

Prinz Mandap who has recently joined Oracle has written a blog post about the intangibles that good Recruiters bring to the table.

I’ve often wondered what people actually think specialist Recruiters do. There’s the usual stigma that we’re “just another used car salesman or real-estate agent” and all we do is “whack an ad up on Seek and wait for the flock to arrive in droves”. More often than not, people assume Corporate Recruiters rely solely on candidate applications through the various job boards or basically spam everyone on the market, then sit tight, hang around and hope for the best.

Yes, fine it’s very easy to advertise, become complacent and pass the time before candidates decide to apply. However the ratio of serial applicants to those who’d be considered genuine quality is about a 10 to 1. And even then that’s quite generous! Another pretense is that Recruiters simply scour the social media sites such as LinkedIn, type in a single key word, search in the area they’re after and mail blast every listed candidate with the specific buzz words.

I’m here to clear it up now. It ain’t that easy.

Why do we call ourselves specialists in our field? Well, it’s the same reason why anyone doing what they do is a specialist in their own field. You know what the intangibles are, the factors most layman’s wouldn't have even fathomed. To quote ESPN.com’s The Sports Guy, Bill Simmons, you've figured out “the secret”.

You’re a GP because you studied medicine for 10 years and you can tell when someone actually has the flu or just the common cold. You’re a specialist forward for Barcelona because you know where to be at the right time and how to score crucial goals from the left. You’re a Senior Software Developer because you’re a great programmer who’s specialised in .NET since 1.0 and can see algorithms before anyone else wakes up in the morning.

Whether in a recruitment firm or large multinational, good Corporate Recruiters are specialists in their own field because they too have figured out “the secret”. They too can decipher the intangibles. They know who the better fit will be when two candidates have the exact same skill set while everyone else can’t split them down the middle. They can envision how a hiring manager will react when you present them with a specific CV. They know perfectly, the working environment that will best fit a candidate and can foresee their future success in that role.

If I posted a tweet saying I needed an IT Sales Rep who’s worked in the applications space, what would I see? I’d probably get a ton of replies and RT’s from different salesmen working in applications, currently ready and willing, explaining why they’d be perfect for my role. But what if I needed someone who was unique to that organisation personality wise? What if what I was looking for was someone aggressive, switched on, proactive and innovative? Basically someone who was entrepreneurial? As opposed to someone from a more laid back, consultative, relationship management environment?

Am I being too fluffy for you? Maybe. But that’s the fluff that separates candidate A from candidate B (who on paper possess the exact same X’s and O’s); the difference between someone having a 2 month career at one company and a five to 10 year career.

The reason we do what we do and we’re good at it, is because just like every profession, just like whatever it is that you do, we’ve come to learn through years of hard toil, what “the secret” is.

It might sound cheesy to you, but trust me… A good Recruiter can likely already tell whether you’re going to be a good egg or not.

Oracle India Campus Koffee Konnect Program Part 2

2011-05-16T15:14:58+00:00

Oracle Management Speaks on Koffee Konnect: Atul Aggarwal , Senior Manager – Oracle OWSM

I was at BITS Pilani on the 5th and 6th of April to connect with campus recruits as part of Oracle's Koffee Konnect program and was accompanied by two colleagues from Oracle NOIDA.

Being an alumnus of BITS Pilani, I was looking forward to visit my alma-mater after 10 long years, and believe me, it was an awesome experience to be back there in Pilani.

We met students at around 5:30 PM on 5th April and had around 30 Graduates who participated in this event. They all seemed very positive and exuded a lot of energy and vibrancy. The students seemed quite well-informed about Oracle. In fact some of them went into the details about the various offices in India and our work culture. We answered their queries related to Job locations and the nature of the work we do. In general, they were over-joyed and it seems that with this program/event, we left a lasting impression with the students.

I personally feel that with this event Graduates will get a sense of belonging and will feel strongly that they are part of one Happy Big Oracle family. Such was the response that some of the higher degree students showed their interest in doing their practice school (mandatory training as part of course curriculum) in Oracle itself. After having a discussions with them, We invited them to join us over for cool drinks/beverages in the famous Connaught place in Pilani campus. Some of the students joined us and we had very fruitful discussions with them about various topics like Oracle Open World, Work Life Balance, Flexi-hours etc.... The students seemed very upbeat, enthusiastic and were very keen to be part of Oracle family as soon as possible.

Oracle India Campus Koffee Konnect Program Part 1

2011-05-10T04:54:24+00:00

Koffee Konnect is a candidate engagement program that has been designed to help maintain contact with selected candidates at various Campuses across India.

The primary objective of Koffee Konnect is to keep the candidates connected with Oracle during the long span from selection till on boarding.

A special initiative was taken by Oracle’s Campus Relations team and the program at 23 campuses. The representatives from Oracle who visited all the campuses were our Senior Managers and Directors. They are the brains behind our success in the Product Development space and their long tenure with Oracle has been the facilitator for them to understand our Culture and Values.

They are the people who would be mentoring and grooming the young minds to reach heights in their career. The Senior Executives who went to the campuses were from our Server Technology, Application Development and Communications Global Business Units.

The program was well organized and meticulous planning by our Campus Representatives went into it. There were huge posters designed and displayed in all the Campuses mentioning the key details of the program to spread the fire and buzz Oracle was all set for. Our Senior Representatives interacted with the students and definitely relived those unforgettable moments of their college life again.

They spent time over “Koffee” and shared light moments with our new members in the Oracle family over snacks. For memories to be cherished they distributed goodies to our placed students and also to their placement staff. And whenever time permitted at couple of places they also took our new mates for dinner.

The benefits from this initiative can be listed as:

• Koffee Konnect ensures that candidates remain engaged. The meeting is informal and helps the candidate to have a warm connection with the organization through the visiting member.

• Koffee Konnect is a platform which makes the candidates believe that they are already a part of Oracle Corporation and is a gesture to appreciate and value their decision to join it.

• Goodies are distributed to the students as part of the event which also brings in a feel good factor .

This program was conducted in the time span from 24^th March to 15^th April; visits to 23 Campuses with our 21 panel members.

Megha Chaturvedi

Recruiting Research Analyst

Some questions taken from the Q & A session at NITK Surathkal:

1) How Sun acquisition helped in Oracle business strategy?

Oracle was using Java technology extensively in our products. Acquiring Sun technology has further strengthened the Oracle products and its development. Also, with Sun acquisition, we are now into high end hardware business. We now call this campaign as "Hardware and Software, Engineered to Work Together". This enhances the value proposition of Oracle - both in software and hardware side of business.

2) What is the career path for India based employees?

We do all the development functions carried in Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) at India

Development Center. Our job grades and career enhancement policies are same across all

regions. We have one global job grade system and is followed across teams.

3) Do we have any training for new hires?

For all newly joined campus hires, we will have structured class room training sessions. Once these trainings are done, they will get 'on the job training / guidance' from their managers / leads or mentors. Apart from this, we will have soft skills class room training courses.

Finally, all Oracle employees can access vast collection of hosted online courses which covers both technical, functional and soft skill training needs.

Oracle and Gild Present: Clash of The Titans

2011-04-19T14:20:42+00:00

Clash of Titans

Where the Champions Meet

You are just 4 steps away from an Ipad with Oracle’s new initiative “Clash of Titans- Where the Champions meet”.

The competition in collaboration with Gild is for all 3rd year Engineering students from the top universities across India.

The competition which spans four levels is based on logical reasoning and brain-racking games. Several exciting prizes including a Rolling Trophy, iPad and iPods are up for grabs and each of these levels of just 8 minutes just brings you closer to them. The competition would be around various domains like Cricket, Landmark, Logical Reasoning and Logic puzzles.

So, if you think you can handle it all, Gear up for the “Clash of Titans” and register yourself at www.gild.com/oracle

Oracle Graduate Hiring : A Manager's Perspective

2011-04-19T02:44:37+00:00

I am Raj, working as Director, Applications Development. Our group implements, maintains, upgrades and extends the applications that Oracle requires to meet its rapidly changing business requirements and provides a showcase for Oracle's products to external customers. Our business is truly global organization with its large team spread across the globe, supporting worldwide business operations on a global single instance.

Last year, when we decided to infuse some fresh energy into Applications Development we were quite clear that we would like to have some talented fresh graduates joining our large organization. From our earlier experience in the past, we knew that the Oracle culture of combining personal growth with Organization goals would help in giving these individuals the best platform to start their career and at the same time the organization would gain a lot in the long run when this bunch of young enthusiasts absorb all the knowledge & skills and start delivering.

Today we feel really happy that our Graduates have performed so well and are working on all aspects of work - be it the routine work or complex coding or tricky support issues.

Graduate recruitment can be more difficult than hiring experienced candidates as we need to hire them based on their future potential rather than their existing skills. Considering this challenge, we formed a team of seasoned interviewers who were typically from our development team and had spent a considerable amount of time in Oracle. The interviewer selection was done based on the ability of the person to judge the aptitude and attitude of candidates. We worked with the Oracle Campus relations team to source the right candidates as per our job requirement.

Since work at Oracle gives you a lot of variety with varied amount of complexity we needed to hire the candidates who can gel well with the Oracle culture and continuously perform. To get a perfect fit of individual aspirations and organizational goals, our multistage recruitment process emphasized greatly on open communication between the candidates and interviewers - apart from evaluating their technical capability. During the interviews, we explained in lot of details about our team, our products and future work - even if the candidates were not asking these questions. This was really needed so that freshers can take an informed decision.

After job offers were released to candidates our managers worked out a detailed customized induction and training program. We made it a point to include a wide array of technical topics covering most of the future work that the graduates may be involved in. The training included theoretical sessions followed by practical exercises. We also worked with respective module managers to arrange for application specific training to the allotted candidates.

Once the candidates were on board and undergoing various training, we assigned them mentors - who were senior team members to help the new joiners with day to day operational/technical doubts. Senior Managers made it a point to review and check the progress through direct interactions. Once the training was over, the local module managers inducted them into specific teams. Since we have a large group in Oracle, we tried to ensure that our graduates felt at ease to speak to anyone from the team and seek help wherever needed.

When I look back at last 8 months we spent together with our Graduates, I think we really made an excellent choice. They have picked up real fast and are doing full-fledged work. It's always a pleasure to watch them moving together as a team and getting ready to 'mentor' the next set of Graduates in few months time!

The Oracle Australia Teams Grows: Introducing Prinz Mandap

2011-04-14T14:31:20+00:00

We are quickly approaching the end of our Financial Year and what a year it has been. On top of numerous new initiatives we have run it has been one of the busiest years for me personally (by a large margin) since joining Oracle. With all the work we have had, we are pleased to introduce a new Recruiter to our Australian Team – Prinz Mandap.

I took the chance to talk to Prinz this week to get his first impressions of joining Oracle and find out a little bit more about him. We are excited to have him on board and are looking forward to seeing him becoming an integral member of our larger Recruitment Team. If you know Prinz and want to pass on your best regards or would like to find our more about his Prinz his LinkedIn profile can be found at: http://au.linkedin.com/in/prinzmandap

1) Welcome to Oracle, we are excited to have you as part of the team. Can you give us a quick snapshot of who you are and a little bit about you (not just the boring work stuff).

Well, after Uni (I did a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science at UNSW) I wanted to get straight into the world of IT and eventually moved into a Sun Solaris UNIX sys admin role. At the time I was also getting involved in client business development and recruitment work and after travelling with the Mrs. for a few months, I caught up with a good mate of mine who encouraged me to go work with him at his recruitment firm as he felt I'd do really well utilising my technical background. After a few sleepless nights I took the plunge, switched industries completely and haven't looked back since. It was a big gamble but it's definitely paid off!

Aside from work I'm definitely into my sports. If I'm not playing it I'm either watching or reading about it. I guess it's my competitive nature. My faves are definitely basketball and football (soccer) with a side order of rugby (union), tennis and cricket. I'm hoping my little boy, Christian, will be a little more coordinated than his old man and who knows, maybe one day even get the chance to don the blaugrana kit of Barcelona?

Technology's a big passion of mine too. My friends call me a geek but it's definitely helped at work because it allows me to not only keep abreast of what's currently going on in the market, but it allows me to envisage trends about technology and its future effects on developing industries, whether it be the influence on social media, cool new gadgets or even what company Oracle decides to acquire next!

2) What attracted you to Oracle and our Recruitment Team? Was there anything that made us stand out?

How could you not be attracted to Oracle?? People who know me know how much I go on and on about the company. I've specialised in Oracle apps, fusion middleware and databases for a few years so it feels natural being part of the family. Friends and colleagues of mine have also either previously worked or are still with the company now and I've seen firsthand their success. To have longevity with one organisation in this day and age is a testament to Oracle's ability to inspire, promote and encourage career progression.

The Recruitment team have really impressed me, particularly learning about everyone's backgrounds, accomplishments and success stories. It really is more than just a day to day recruitment role and to see what goes on and what projects everyone's working on is exciting and makes me realise how vital our role is to the bigger picture of the Oracle brand. I was also impressed hearing about the history of Oracle's recruitment model and the successes of its implementation and I can't wait to contribute to continued roll outs of what is now a global initiative.

3) This is your first week here at Oracle? What are your initial thoughts so far?

In a word, brilliant. As with every new job I was a little nervous being the new kid in school. But everyone's been great, very friendly and helpful. It's definitely made for an easy transition. I've also been very impressed with the people I've met thus far. It's certainly struck me as an environment built on hard work, success and achievement. However as with all high performing cultures, the onus is on you to be proactive and make things happen. Nothing is spoon fed here so if you want to something, don't sit around and wait. You need to go out, grab it and get it done yourself!

4) From what you have seen so far of Oracle, if you had to pick a song that suits your introduction to Oracle what would it be and why?

Great question! Music's another passion of mine and I listen to all sorts of weird and wonderful genres from classical to indie to electronica to folk to hip hop! But choosing just one song would be virtually impossible so I'll have to cop out and say my introduction to the world of Oracle reminds me more of the continuing evolution of the band, Radiohead and their musical style, which still today continues to push new ground. Does that count as an answer??

5) Recruitment as a function is always evolving and changing – do you have any predictions of how companies will recruit in the future?

This is such a loaded question and I could probably go on for hours with this, so let me be cautious and keep it short. I honestly think the way social media is still a novelty in business utilisation will increasingly become integrated into the day to day function of the recruitment process, not in the long run, but in just a few short years.

It's evident we've moved away from the traditional recruitment process due to the complexities faced in sourcing quality talent today. Professional networks and communities are recognising this as they slowly embrace the social networking mix and this will only continue to gain momentum as corporations accept and become increasingly convinced of the power of social media as a business tool and its value in terms of pre-engagement, talent management and the building of engaged communities.

Working @Oracle: What Our New Campus Hires Have to Say

2011-04-13T18:38:06+00:00

This blog post comes from a group of Graduates who recently joined Oracle in our Applications Development Team:

To start off our career in a product based company like Oracle, is definitely a dream come true. As engineering grads fresh out of college, Oracle seems the best thing that could have happened.

As Vineeta who is one of our Graduates puts it, "I was very excited on getting a job offer from Oracle - the industry's leading enterprise software and database provider Company! Having heard about Oracle's excellent work culture and dynamic work environment, I was looking forward to represent a global brand and build my future here with a progressive career path."

What we all got in return is a whole package of talented and hardworking people combined with a progressive work atmosphere, where we all are propelled to learn each and every moment that we spend in the office.

Learning from the experience that we get here are one of the major attractions for working at Oracle.

Fresh out of college, we had doubts on how easy would it be for us to enter the professional world. Srinivas one of our Graduates says "It is very easy for anyone to get adjusted to working life at Oracle because the rule book is very thin, but rigid. But more than the rules, it is the people I met here who helped me adapt to this place." There is no special thing you have to do to adjust in Oracle. The transition is smooth and you will never realize how easily you blend into the work environment.

We started our journey with extensive training sessions. Another Graduate, Abhilasha says, " the training was extensive and very intricately designed. This definitely proved to be a good start. The technical and in house training on Oracle Products helped us understand the line of business and importance of different modules of Oracle Enterprise Solution." And as all of us agree, it's a great experience going through the entire training period and then slowly getting pulled in to the main work flow.

The training prepared us for tasks that have not an ounce in common. We all were put in different modules under the big banner of Development and have found out that the training we had was just the tip of the iceberg. The real challenge is to understand what our team does, what our role in it is and how to perform the required tasks. The training and continuous interaction with colleagues does help a lot to make it a smooth ride.

Talking about the work environment, its surely a pleasure to work here at Oracle. All colleagues are very approachable and supportive. Who else could have experienced better than Sujit another one of our Graduates, who says, "They help us at each point wherever we get stuck. I work alone from here, and I need to work remotely with my team, I never faced much difficulty. Even local colleagues, who do not belong to my team, were ready to help. That was really nice." On the same line, Pragya another Graduate feels "The best thing of all was that even after being a fresher I was not considered to be a 'no good' employee. Though I took longer to understand simple things, my colleagues always found time to explain things to me. One of the best experiences for me was my interaction with the Vice President of my team and to my surprise I could talk to her just like any other of my colleagues. She completely understood the fact that I was a fresher and explained the things accordingly to me."

The work culture at Oracle is designed to make one feel comfortable with whatever is going on and respond in the best way to any quick requirement that may crop up. At Oracle, It is an important thing that our work is our passion as the people here believe that you cannot achieve success unless you are truly involved with your work.

Other than working as a team and maintaining healthy relations, Oracle employees take Corporate Social Responsibility seriously and contribute much to the society.

Less than 3 months into Oracle and more than half of us are involved in the Oracle GVD - Oracle Global Volunteers, arranging a visit to the amusement park for Orphanages, Conducting Annual Sports day for a school that lacked a playground and many more events as such.

One can absolutely put to rest the thought "Will I be having fun at Oracle?" Because, as we experienced, ranging from the annual OraOvations to team lunches to timely meetings, we never knew how quickly time flew and we became full fledged corporate citizens in less than 6 months. Overall it has been a great Oracle journey and we are enjoying every moment of it.

The Taste of Humble Pie with a Side Order of Facebook

2011-04-05T03:45:57+00:00

For those of you who read this blog, you will know I am a Social Media enthusiast. I utilise Social Media in my work, in my personal life – it touches just about everything I do in some form or another. About 12 months ago, with so many SM sites to use and update, it all became a bit too much for me to manage. I had to draw the line and make sure my days didn’t get sucked up into the abyss of SM.

If you look back in the archives you will see blog posts that I have written where I announced that I was closing my facebook account. While I enjoy SM – it was becoming too much for me to maintain too many SM sites. Facebook was good in its own right, but it did not give me the competitive advantage that other networks did and I was not really all that interested in what people were doing with Farmville or Mafia Wars. As for keeping in touch with family and friends – call me crazy, but the phone (skype) still works.

I know there are settings to limit the amount of feeds and updates that you get on Facebook but at the time it was easier for me to simply close my account and draw that line in the sand to help me monitor my SM usage.

I know when I need to eat humble pie and today setting up my new FB account, I certainly got a full serve of it. Today I reluctantly joined back up to FB. I would have liked to have thought that today when I set up my new Facebook account, it would be the event of all events but rather than setting up my profile with a bang I have re-joined facebook with more of a whimper.

So why did I rejoin FB? There are two main reasons: The first is as much as I use phone, email, messenger, twitter, etc.... to keep in touch with family and friends FB can be good to keep the channels of communication open with people that you don’t always speak to. There are some people who I used to speak to on FB that since I closed my account I do not think I have spoken to since. I would like to keep in touch with these people (as well as everyone else) but I don’t always have the time available to me. FB gives me the chance to keep in touch with people I don’t see or regularly interact with every day. The second reason is that I want to look at using FB for work. I have used FB in my role in the past but it has not really been effective. With some of the changes over the past 12 months I think there are some new apps that could be beneficial.

One thing that I want to do better this time around is better balance my work and personal connections. I don’t necessarily want to share pictures of my kids with my work connections and vice versa I am sure my family isn’t hanging on tender hooks (sp?) to find out what role I am hiring for. How do I balance this?? Any suggestions?

I may have been quick to close my account but I don’t regret closing my FB account last year, at the time for me it worked. Will FB be around in 5-10 yrs who knows but for the moment I am happy to jump back on this bandwagon, although I think in a more limited capacity than previously.

Oh my new FB profile is facebook.com/david.talamelli

(it still needs to be updated)

BITS Graduate Internship: An Intern and a Recruiter Reminisce

2011-03-24T15:02:55+00:00

BITS Internship: An Intern reminisces…..

BITS is one of the first Indian engineering colleges to require compulsory internship through its "Practice School" program wherein more than 300 industries have collaboration with it both in India and abroad. Students get to have hands- on experience of industry for around 11 months of the 4 years they spend in the college.

I have chosen Oracle India for my year long internship program primarily because of the brand value that gets added to my resume. Since DAY 1, I loved the work culture, flexibility, atmosphere and the variety of roles and platforms that you can chose to work on. The transition from college to Oracle has almost seemed effortless due to the support from my team mates and HR managers. Though we had other placement offers in hand, all the Oracle interns from my batch chose to stay with Oracle for the most apparent reasons :)

I'm with the Release and Operations team for the HCM (Fusion) Product. The experience of working in a virtual global team is truly amazing. You get to interact with people having diverse technical and functional backgrounds and the knowledge and learning experience that you gain in the process would give an edge as you grow professionally. I got a change to visit the Headquarters in San Francisco and the London offices as part of my team's internal training. I got to see the difference in work culture very closely and tried to pick and adapt to what's best for me. The interaction with the top management has been really helpful during the visits.

Oracle is not just about work. We have a lot of clubs such Toastmasters, Oracle Volunteers, Volleyball/Cricket/Table Tennis Clubs where you can interact with people having similar tastes and have loads of fun. I'm part of Oracle Volleyball and Table Tennis teams and we have regular corporate events where we compete with teams from Microsoft, Google, Dell, Amazon and other tech companies. All Thanks to Oracle, I enjoy every bit of my time here."

Gowthami Guttikonda

BITS Internship – A Graduate Recruiter’s Thoughts: An enriching exposure.

I am one of the Campus Recruiters for Oracle India Development Center. It has been a great pleasure to be associated with the BITS Practice School over the past 4 years. I have been interacting with several interns like Gowthami.

The BITS Practice School interns are focused group of students. The internship is for a period of five and a half months. The internship is evaluated through quizzes, group discussions, mid-semester report, mid-semester seminar and final report and final seminar. They are enthusiastic and eager to learn while they study and many of them have actually opted for Oracle as a full-time hire post the internship.

About BITS Practice School – (BITS PS)

BITS PS is a formal internship program which aims at linking the academic world to the industrial world. BITS PS Stations with designated faculty to monitor the interns have been established across India. Students from all branches of Engineering, Science and Humanities are drawn into this program. Its beginnings can be traced to 1973 with 1 PS Station, 12 students and 4 faculty. Currently it has grown to 258 PS Stations, 1800 students from (from Pilani and Goa Campuses*) and 70 faculty.

Manognya Reddy

Tech Talk “Oracle Apps Technical Stack” April 9th Bangalore

2011-03-23T13:34:41+00:00

Tech Talk
"Oracle Apps Technical Stack"

Tech Talk is an initiative to bring together the Industry Experts to discuss challenges and solutions. This helps in promoting exchange of ideas on the affairs in the industry on a specific skill.

The primary audience of the Tech Talk is people from a number of organizations having experience and know-how and making the forum a valuable experience.

Please find below the details of the Oracle Apps technical tech talk and also register yourself for the event by reverting to the mail at the earliest. Registered candidates need not reply again.

Agenda Oracle Apps Technical - Cloud Computing/Fusion Tech
Venue 6th Floor, Tower D, IBC Knowledge Park, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore Google map	Date 9th April 2011
Time 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Why should you attend the Tech Talk?

You will be inspired by the numerous stories behind the product/ skill
Exceptional opportunity to establish meaningful, ongoing relationships with peers in the same skill space
It’s a turf to share ideas, insights and innovations

For further details, please contact Sonia Chatterjee on 9880628773 or 08040297330.

We look forward to your participation!