Oracle

Amazing minds, cutting-edge technology, and the ability and opportunities to learn.

Quality training, at least in the earlier years before the cutbacks kicked in.

I had the great fortune to work for Sun whilst it was still in its ascendancy and experienced an amazing place to be an engineer. So many clever people who were happy to help out, to share their knowledge, and lead by example.

Sun engineers strived to be the best, to solve problems, and to provide fixes – in essence, to do the right thing by the customer.

There were also opportunities to travel. Sun had annual tech training for their entire engineering and support organization. My first experience of this was Denver, followed by San Francisco, and later I got to present to my peers in Las Vegas. Such incredible times, such amazing memories.

Then there was the 2000 kick-off event in Disneyland, Paris. Clearly, Sun was doing very well at this point.

Of course, in the early years, there were beer busts every month, a professional but relaxed atmosphere, and such a vibe as the company was growing so fast.

Processes were there and, for the most part, made sense, but management was open to feedback from engineers and often sought it out to solve problems.

As a techie, it was such a cool place to learn, grow, and become a better engineer.

When the cuts really kicked in, the culture changed. Management dictated policy, processes, and direction, and the engineers began to be treated like children.

Then there were the annual reductions in force (layoffs) that sapped morale and got everyone nervous.

Training later suffered as the quality trainers were let go and contractors were brought in, when you could get it. This was after years of no pay rises, so training was offered as an alternative until that got too expensive.

Did I mention the lack of pay rises?

After a few years, management knew they couldn't change anything, so they didn't bother. Annual reviews became pointless, depressing, and futile. There were quotas on how many top grades could be given out each year, so even if you had overperformed in the current year, if you had received a grade 1 review the previous year, tough luck—you would get a lesser grade this year.

This encouraged everyone to do the bare minimum, and as such, quality suffered.

Ah, well, it's all a bit too late now.