From the best workplace to the worst. Thanks, Oracle!
Pros
Opower has been a fabulous place to work for the past 3+ years, but the Oracle acquisition has ruined all of that in less than 3 months. If you join today, you'll get to work with some of the smart, interesting people that made Opower great. But act quickly, because they'll all be gone soon. - Free snacks, free massages, and free Friday lunches are still around - Good office locations: near Montgomery BART in San Francisco and Courthouse Metro in Arlington/D.C.
Cons
- Opower's best and brightest are fleeing in droves, while only the most mediocre, least experienced, or most ossified employees remain to welcome our corporate overlords. It's only going to get worse over the next few months. - Oracle people and policies are already changing the fast-paced, get-it-done, fun-loving culture of Opower. We're going from Google Apps to Oracle's crappy "Beehive" alternative, from unlimited PTO to 2 weeks, and from an office of motivated talent to an office where people apply to new jobs all day, if they come to work at all. - Oracle ensured that the most talented Opower employees will leave by lowballing the Oracle job offers: our same base salaries but with unclear bonus plans, no equity, no transportation or gym subsidy, a much longer annual review cycle/uncertain promotion potential, and no more unlimited PTO. So, significantly less total compensation. But hey, there's 401k match! :| - No more mission-driven culture. Oracle could care less about saving energy or creating a clean energy future: they literally said as much in our employee town hall. (Sorry, having compostable forks in the Oracle cafeteria isn't the same thing.)
