Last weekend I completed 15 years at Oracle, all of those years have been spent in Applications Product Development, specifically financials. That may sound like a long time to do the same thing, but I have been through a lot if big shifts in the IT industry and within Oracle during that time, it’s always been a challenging time and the only constant is change.
I started out in the UK for 2 years before moving out to California in 2000 where I have been ever since, in the 300 building you see on the left.
The earliest Applications release I started out working on was 10.4 and I think the database version was 7. I still have a promotional VHS cassette that all employees were sent when the 8i database was launched and a license plate holder with the tag line ‘the internet changes everything’ which I got on my first day starting at Oracle HQ. I also have more Polo Shirts, hats, bags and vests with the Oracle Logo on than I care to count.
As I said earlier the only constant has been change and I’ve seen a lot of interesting changes, shifts and fads come and go. Here’s a list of the things I can recall in a somewhat chronological order
- Character mode Apps
- Client Server GUI Apps
- Browser based Apps
- The Millennium Bug
- Providing 24 hour cover over New Year 2000, when nothing happened
- The emergence of the internet
- The dot com boom
- The dot com bust
- The Network Computer (including Larry showing a network computer on Oprah)
- Oracle starting consolidation in the Enterprise Applications space
- Web 2.0
- Social Apps
- The Cloud
So there’s a few of my favorite things, feel free to add yours or comment on mine in the comments section below.
Filed under: Musings, Oracle Financials
Stumble It!
How could you forget “Floating Toolbar”?? :)
Congrats on 15 yrs at Oracle-it is a long time, but when you are able to work on so many different areas it feels like a new job every do often!
There have been no shortage of new and exciting challenges, that’s why I am still here!