Pros
The company's product line and reputation make selling here pretty easy. Who doesn't want to take a call from Oracle? The money is good- $100k plus on target as an inside sales rep!. (all based on territory though) if your territory sucks, then tough luck, and there are career programs to help with your career trajectory. This company is cool in that unlike every other company in this industry, Oracle will train you to sell their products. no need to have product specific sales experience, you just need SALES EXPERIENCE, that's all. period. Most of my colleagues did not sell software, hardware, or tech services in their last jobs, in fact some came from insurance, finance and even enterprise rent a car. The best things here though are the sales trainings which cost oracle thousands per sales rep and are ridiculously good, enough to teach you how to sell ice cream to an eskimo. My last company couldn't hold a hair to oracle sales training. the benefits are nothing less than first rate (Gym:). I should also mention that they don't require you to work more than 8 hours a day, which, if you've sold software before... especially at a start up, this is good, very good. You have the opportunity to compete with the big dogs in one of the toughest and most competitive industries there is. It feels good to say you knocked out SAP, HP and IBM on a couple of deals this year. If you start your sales career here, your potential could be limitless. Every company in the high tech industry gives street credibility for Oracle experience(because the training is that amazing), so even if doesn't work out here, you're still good. If you can make manager or senior sales rep, the money gets even better, (150-300k +) a year. I work for a senior rep that makes around what President Obama is getting paid. Well, for more on potential, see below....
Cons
Don't get me wrong, this is a great place to work, especially considering what their reputation will do for your career, and/or your resume for that matter. I did mention lots of Pro's and they should be considered. However this place is like working in a government. It is over 110k employees and approvals for anything take forever and need to have plenty of justifcation. Also, moving up in this organization is not easy, they pay incredibly well as you move up the ladder so only the all-stars, and i mean all stars make it. It truly is hard to stand out and be noticed. I had incredible performance my first year, but i was considered just in front of the pack. you're measured against the top 1% of sales reps in the company (20k salespeople, every country in the world) . If you want to move up fast in a sales organization, you better be good, and i mean good, or this is not for you at all and you will wash out. The company is very metrics driven, it's so big that this is how they measure you. You can be the best rep in the world booking all sorts of business, but if you don't make the required calls, push their initiatives, show enough activity in the system, that's it... sorry... Most people here consider this the reason Oracle can have a sales sweatshop mentality, and to some degree it does, but it's not as bad as other companies in the industry (i.e. salesforce.com) The size of the company makes upper management distant from the front line managers, which get to rule their own fiefdoms since all their upper managers care about is numbers (bookings, activities, etc). I'm still here, but i'm on my way out, it can be a good life (real good-with big houses, tropical vacations and rolex watches)if you can make it, if not, you get to watch your counterparts live it up and it's time to go. And not that this is a bad thing, this company has set me up to succeed elsewhere in the industry, and i can't be more than grateful for that.