2008...A Review and 2009...A New Beginning

Happy Holidays to all of our readers.

Work wise, it has been a quiet few days over the holiday period that has been spent enjoying time with family and friends. It is good to take a break and reflect on the year that has been and on the New Year that is upon us.

2008...A Review

2008 has been an exciting year for our Recruitment Team here at Oracle, we have welcomed a number of new employees into our family (either from acquisition or as new hires) and it has been great to see these people contribute to our overall success. Personally I have had the opportunity to meet and interact with some truly talented individuals and it is great to see so many people passionate about what they are doing.

I began posting on this blog in May 2008 with the hope of sharing information about Oracle and also to share my thoughts and ideas in the IT and Recruitment Industries. Over the past 6 months this blog has grown to include contributing writers from our China and India Recruitment Teams and we have had 6000+ views of the Oracle APAC Recruitment Blog. I hope that the information we have shared has been informative and/or useful to our readers.

2009...Time to think about new beginnings

2009 will be an exciting year it will bring us new challenges in the global markets and businesses will be working in a much different economic climate than 2008. I find it is often at these times when we tend to grow and innovate to continue to be successful.

In 2009 I would like for our APAC Recruitment Team to continue to share with our readers on our thoughts and ideas on what is happening both here at Oracle and in the greater IT industry. I am hoping for more surveys, more stories, and also input from our readers.

I would welcome any comments/ideas/suggestions from our readers - if there is any topic or segment you would like us to cover or talk about let us know and we will answer your questions as best we can.


Thank you all for a fantastic 2008 and a Happy New Year and best wishes for 2009.

David Talamelli

Oracle Corp.: Ranked #1 Human Resource Company in China

Over the last five months, the major job portal in China, 51JOB conducted an extensive screening and selection process to identify the top 100 companies in China that have demonstrated best practices in the area of Human Resources Management.

Through their initial screening of numerous companies, followed by data collection and analysis of hundreds of companies, combined with telephone and face-to-face interviews, they have identified the 100 companies whose Human Resources practices have significantly contributed to their success.

This has been one of the most comprehensive, in-depth and far-reaching awards in the field of Human Resources in China and these 100 companies, with their demonstrated best practices, can and should serve as models for other companies in China.



In November 2008, it was announced that Oracle's China Recruitment Team is the winner of the 2008 “100 Best Human Resources Management (HRM) Companies” Award and won a second award of “Best Campus Recruitment Practice for 2008” as well.



Malcolm Bentley, Head of Oracle Recruitment Greater China and Korea, was interviewed in July this year in relation to Oracle Internal Recruitment Function and Campus Recruitment Program.

The author of this article is the Head of the Oracle Greater China Recruitment Team and can be contacted on mal.bentley@oracle.com .

Oracle Q2 Results: Results in Line with Expectations

Oracle today released it Q2 results and our second quarter was in line with expectations as earnings excluding charges hit targets on lower than expected revenue.

ORACLE REPORTS Q2 GAAP EPS OF 25 CENTS

Also of interest was news from Larry Ellison: “We signed our largest on-demand sales force automation contract this quarter,” said Oracle CEO, Larry Ellison. “This was just one of several recent wins over salesforce.com. We also sold our first database machine, launching an all new and important business for Oracle.”

In an article by Jim Goldman Oracle Withstands Currency Headwinds it was interesting to note that Brendan Barnicle, software analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, called Oracle's performance a "home run," especially in this climate, and especially with those currency fluctuations, pointing to the company's surprisingly strong applications software business and solid database unit.

Oracle had second quarter revenue from Asia Pacific of $822 million. This figure is up modestly from the first quarter and year ago quarter.

It is great to see all the hard work that we do here come together to achieve these results.

Other news facts include:


-Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) today announced fiscal 2009 Q2 GAAP earnings per share were $0.25, in line with GAAP earnings per share in Q2 of last year. Second quarter GAAP total revenues were up 6% to $5.6 billion, while quarterly GAAP net income was down 1% to $1.3 billion. GAAP software revenues were up 8% to $4.5 billion with new software license revenues down 3% to $1.6 billion. GAAP software license updates and product support revenues were up 14% to $2.9 billion. GAAP services revenues were down 2% to $1.1 billion. GAAP operating income was up 11% to $2.0 billion and GAAP operating margin was up 166 basis points to 35%. GAAP operating cash flow on a trailing twelve month basis was $8.1 billion, up 16%.

-“Our non-GAAP operating income grew 25% in constant currency to $2.6 billion in Q2, resulting in operating margins of 46%,” said Oracle Executive Vice President and CFO, Jeff Epstein. “In addition, Oracle generated $7.6 billion in free cash flow in the past twelve months, up 15% over the same period last year.”

Recruiting Survey Results: What would you do??

Last Thursday I raised the question "if you were approached by a Recruiter about a new opportunity would you be interested in exploring further?" with our readers. Over the past few days there have 20 responses to this question and the results were a little bit different than I had thought they would be.

The results of the Survey were:

-No, I am comfortable and happy in my current role/company - 15%
-Yes, I am actively looking for a new role - 30%
-Yes, but only if it provided me with career advancement or other opps. - 35%
-Yes, but only if it was a significant increase in salary - 20%

I initially suggested that a larger percentage of people would say "No, I am happy where I am" - this suggests to me that people in today's environment are more open to the idea of new opportunities then they may have been as long as it falls in line with what they are looking for. One possible reason for this could be the changing demographics of the workplace. With more Generation Y workers joining the workforce, there is a shift in the thinking of what a career means to a person (note: this is a small sample size of 20, however I can see this shift in my daily interaction with candidates).

The other interesting point to note was that people who would move but are not actively looking for a new role are more interested in the career advancement more so than the salary increase. When changing roles, salary makes up only one portion of the reason people look to move and should not be the focus point - I do believe in the saying: do the work what you enjoy (love) and the rewards will follow.

Recruiting Survey: What would you do???

I had the chance to meet Thomas Shaw (CEO of Recruitment Directory) earlier today, it was great to meet him and we had a very thought provoking conversation.

As Thomas and I spoke about passive and active candidates, it got me to thinking of some statistics that I had been told years ago during some training and I thought I would put those statistics to the test.

A number of Recruitment Professionals classify candidates as either being Active Candidates or Passive Candidates. Active Candidates being people who are actively seeking a new role and Passive Candidates being people who Recruiters may approach about roles when they are not necessarily looking for a new role.

Loosely speaking the statistics generally look like this: out of 100% of the workforce: 15% of that workforce is actively looking for a new role. Out of the remaining 85% of the workforce 40% would say "no, I am not interested in a new role" if they received a call from a Recruiter, while the other 45% would say "yes, I would be interested in a new role" if they received a call from a Recruiter.



I have put this survey above together and would like to get our readers thoughts to see what they would do if they were to receive a call from a Recruiter about potential new roles or opportunities.

It would be interesting to see what the results. As you know Recruiters talk to both "Active and Passive Candidates" but regardless of what type of candidate you are I still believe the main thing is to find the right role for an individual that meets what they are looking for (whether it is money, career, work/life balance, etc...)

Can Work be both Challenging and Fun??? by Lucy Zhuang

As a Recruiter for Oracle in Beijing, the one question that I always ask candidates during the interview process is “Why would you like to work for Oracle?” I have received a whole range of different answers, but I have an answer that you may not have thought of from my own personal experiences and that is…..you may have a lot of fun working with us.



Early this year, a co-worker of mine volunteered me to participate in ORACLE IDOL. To explain, ORACLE IDOL was put together for Oracle China Employees and is a take off of the television show China Idol (as well as American Idol, UK idol, Australian Idol, etc…) where contestants sing and a winner is selected. I did not think it was a big deal to sing a song in a Karaoke contest even though I am not that good a singer, but I have to say I had an amazing experience from participating in ORACLE IDOL.



Oracle not only provided a very fancy location, but also offered us a professional make-up service, a photographer, music, a brochure and a banner for each participant’s fans. We were able to invite our families, friends and colleagues as fans to support us. I found that we have many excellent performers within Oracle whose singing and dancing skills almost reach professional level. It was a great experience and sitting there, I felt really proud of myself for being part of such a superb team and company.



So if you are talking to one of our Recruiters and we ask you why do you want to join Oracle? You could say that by joining our family you could be part of the fun too (as well as all the interesting work that we do as well). Yes, the work we do is challenging and exciting and at times can take up a lot of our focus, but with events like ORACLE IDOL it is great to be able to have fun at work as well.
The author of this article has been with the Oracle China Recruitment Team for the past two years and can be contacted on lucy.zhuang@oracle.com

Recruitment is Becoming an Increasingly Transparent Business

With the advent and increased usage of the various social networking sites available I believe recruitment will increasingly become a much more transparent business then it traditionally has been in the past.



In the past, it was the Recruiter's who held most of the information about a Candidate and vice versa about a Hiring Manager. A Hiring Manager or Candidate would have to rely on getting information they wanted about each other from the Recruiter. This put the control of the flow of information for the most part with the Recruiter.

However, with sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Personal Blogs, etc.... information about a Candidate or about a Hiring Manager is no longer just in the hands of a Recruiter. For example, with the right search criteria Candidates can find out what a company is like to work at, why a role is open, what a Hiring Manager is like, etc... I think our roles as Recruiters is changing. A Recruiter's role should be to act as a facilitator in the hiring process and be able to provide the relevant information to both Candidates and Hiring Managers for them to be able to make an informed decision.

With the information available online and on social networking sites, it is not just about finding the right person for a role, I think that is only half the job. It is also equally important to find out what type of role a Candidate is looking for in his next challenge. If a Recruiter can find the right fit for a Candidate and Hiring Manager then it leads to a road for success. If Recruiters are only concerned about meeting their KPI's or putting "bums on seats" it is hard to see that model being successful for a sustained period of time, especially in today's environment.

Inspecht HR Futures Conference - Feb. 26th 2009 - Melb. Australia

The Inspecht HR Futures Conference is a 1 day event on 26 February 2009 in Melbourne Australia. This will bring together speakers covering all areas of HR, Recruiting and Technology to discuss how social media, innovation, culture and technology empower, attract, engage and evolve employees.

I will be sitting on a Panel called: Future of Recruiting - This session will bring together Thomas Shaw CEO of Recruitment Directory, Riges Younan CEO of 2Vouch, Geoff Jennings Director & Founder of Online Recruitment and David Talamelli Principal Recruiter from Oracle Corporation.

Each panel member will have three minutes to give you their vision of recruitment in the future followed by an interactive questions and answer session. During the questions session you can explore topics from the day or the panelists views on the future of recruiting.

Michael Specht has put together a great list of speakers and panelists. I look forward to hearing their thoughts and ideas on the world of Recruitment.

A quick overview of the day is:

Time Session Speaker
8:30 AM Arrival & Registration with Tea and Coffee
9:00 AM Welcome and Introduction Michael Specht
9:10 AM Keynote - Thoughts from TED 2009 Stephen Collins
10:10 AM Implementation of Enterprise 2.0 and its Value in Organisations Sean Lew
10:50 AM Morning tea
11:10 AM TBD
11:50 AM Web 2.0 in recruitment Thomas Shaw
12:30 PM Lunch
1:30 PM Case study on informal learning Jasmin Tragas
2:15 PM Legal issues to consider for Web 2.0 Michael Park
3:00 PM Afternoon Tea
3:15 PM Reframing Professional Development with Enterprise 2.0 Anne Bartlett-Bragg
4:00 PM Panel: Branding & Social Media and its impact on HR Stephen Collins, Sean Lew, Jasmin Tragas, Anne Bartlett-Bragg
4:30 PM Panel: Future of Recruiting Thomas Shaw, Riges Younan, David Talamelli, Geoff Jennings
5:15 PM A few closing remarks Michael Specht
5:30 PM Informal networking


Details of the Conference and information can be found at http://hrfutures.inspecht.com.au/

Geographical Boundaries do not Restrict our Long Distance Relationships…..by Rajendra Prasad

Yesterday, I was speaking from Hyderabad (India) to three Hiring Managers – one in the US , one in the UK and one in the Philippines about their individual recruiting requirements. Soon after that, I went on a call with one of my colleagues from Noida (India), discussing a few critical requirements and later on had a call from my manager from Bangalore (India) inquiring on the status of some new joinees.

This is just a glimpse at a small segment of the typical work day at Oracle.

I imagine this is how many global organizations work today. Long, long gone are the days when all your colleagues are just a whistle away from your cubicle….When there was the personal touch to all your conversations. The team dynamics, of course have changed.

Or has it really changed?

As I don’t feel the change.

Even though I work in a global team and many of my colleagues are in different locations, I feel more of being a part of the team that has stood next to me all through. I have so many connect calls, one-on-one discussions, regular team meetings & outings, fun activities…. that it is impossible to think that I am a stand alone working remotely.

I have never felt this bonding with the rest of the team in my earlier organizations, not to this level. Then what’s different at Oracle?

I attribute this connected feeling with the rest of my team spread across the globe – to the people involved. Here at Oracle I believe it’s PEOPLE are the determining factor.

Geographical boundaries do not restrict our long distance relationships…..!!!

We talk to each other, we inspire each other, we commit mistakes together, we share our successes and our failures – but help ourselves to rise and finish the marathon. We are all a part of the family…we are ORACLE.


The author of this article has been with Oracle India Recruitment Team for the past two & half years and can be contacted on rajendra.p.prasad@oracle.com

Create your own Luck – by Prashant Singh

Hello folks, I am one of the Recruiters for Oracle based out of Bangalore office.

We often get to hear how someone got lucky to get a job or was lucky to be promoted, etc… While some people think they just got lucky in life and that’s that, I honestly think you tend to create your own luck in both your work and personal life.

To reach our goals, the secret to success is within us, what do I mean by this?
I think that this means that by using the Laws of Nature you create your own reality - Good or Bad. Good thoughts and actions create good outcomes and vice versa. The Positive energy created from within us influences each one of us to move towards success. It’s the feeling that we create in our day-to-day life, at work, at home or anywhere else.

People create their own luck by doing the things that puts them in a position to succeed. For example – by having a LinkedIn account, messaging on Twitter, submit their resume’s in recruitment portals, being involved in the IT Community, etc… it is more likely you will get noticed and called up “out of the blue” by a Recruiter. While some people think getting a call like this is lucky, it is not luck at all but really the work that someone does to make themselves get noticed and be found by Recruiters.

In short, you can create you own luck by getting things done at the right place and at the right time.

Earlier this year at our Recruitment Kickoff in India I heard other success stories, thoughts and the passion for recruitment from members of our Recruitment Team. So many of our colleagues here at Oracle share a passion for recruitment and have the zeal to innovate – I think we are creating our own luck through our great teamwork and dedication. If you are interested in “creating your own luck” contact us, we may have that next career role you are looking for.

The author of this article has been with Oracle India Recruitment Team for the past two years and can be contacted on prashant.x.singh@oracle.com

Oracle at the Australian Corporate Games

The Australian Corporate Games are being held this weekend in Melbourne and Oracle has again shown its sporting drive and enthusiasm with 150+ participants being entered this year by Oracle. Special Thanks to Oracle AU for providing the support for us to get involved in this event each year.



This year I competed in the 5km run on Saturday morning and the Men's Basketball held on Saturday night. It was a great chance to get out, stay fit and have a run. It is also a great chance to compete and play with colleagues from our greater Oracle Team - we have had people from every business line involved and we really come together as "One Red Team".



We have some gifted athletes here at Oracle - congratulations to Kate on finishing 3rd in her division in the running event. I have included a few photos of Oracle's Men's and Mixed Basketball Teams. We had a great time playing and look forward to doing it all again next year.

Coming Soon: New Blog Contributing Writers...Oracle India

For regular readers you may have noticed the title of this blog has changed to "Oracle Asia Pacific Recruitment Blog" recently.

Oracle has a global team of Recruiters who help identify and bring talented people into the organisation. Our APAC Recruitment Team covers operations across the region including Australia, New Zealand, China, Singapore, Philippines and India as well as many other countries.

We are looking forward to new contributing editorials from members of our India Team (thanks Sreejith, Deepak and Prashant for offering your commentary) on our Recruitment Blog.

Below is a picture of our Oracle Recruitment Team in India.



and a brief overview of Oracle in India:

More than twenty years ago, before India became recognized as the dynamic force in information technology that is known to be today, Oracle was one of the first multinational software companies to set up operations in India.

This early commitment to the country marked Oracle's vision for India as both a domestic market and a center for research and development. The company became the first multinational company to establish core software development operations in India to support its global product development strategy and to address the needs of the local market.

Today Oracle has offices in Bangalore and Hyderabad and sales and marketing offices across six Indian cities. We look forward to hearing more from our team in India.

Life at Oracle....A View from our Graduates

What a fantastic Blog that has been created by some of our 2008 APAC Graduates. The link to the blog is:

http://oraclereds.wordpress.com/






A quick overview from the Oracle Reds Blog:

"Oracle Reds are existing Graduates in the Oracle Graduate Development Program whose role is to interface, inform and inspire undergraduates in our previous universities about Oracle and the Oracle Graduate Development Program.

We want to create a platform for us to be highly open, sincere, honest about our experiences in Oracle.

We want to help you in making an informed decision before joining.

We hope that through this blog, you can have a taste of our exciting lives in Oracle!"

It is great to see a different perspective on life at Oracle and it is great to see such enthusiasm, innovation and passion coming from our Graduates. With people leading by example as our Graduates are I believe Oracle is truly in good hands for the future.

I hope this you enjoy reading about the experiences our 2008 Graduates are experiencing here.

Strive to do what You Enjoy

I read an interesting Blog entry today from Kate Carruthers in Australia.

The title of the Blog is : " Why work in IT? 17,500 jobs slashed at BT, Sun and Yahoo!

I think during downturns in the economy reporters tend to report all the "doom and gloom" stories as it grabs the headlines and it can be easy to get swept up in the headlines.

While there are number of companies announcing lay-offs and redunancies there are still a number of companies that are hiring which tends to go unnoticed during these tough financial times.

In IT there are some great people and companies who really make innovative solutions and it can be very satisfying to be involved in that.

I think the reason for people to go into IT or stay in IT is not just about job security or salary, but people should aim to do something they enjoy and love (if they want to be accountants - go for it, but if coding is what someone enjoys they should strive for that). Your career can be your ticket to do the things you want to do and while you may not get there straight away, I think it is a good idea to spend your days doing the things you enjoy if possible.

Gen Y......The New Workforce

Today I read an interesting article from the Recruitingtrends.com website. The link to the article is:

"Trends in Gen Y Workers, Research Reveals seventy percent of recent college graduates leave their jobs within two years of being hired, according to a survey exploring the working and job searching habits of so-called Generation Y.

**43% of Gen Y are not in the career they expected to be in after college, either because they couldn't find a job, or another opportunity presented itself

**60% are currently looking for another job or career, despite the fact that 57% indicated that they are also happy at their current job.

**74% of recent graduates are in a career that aligns with their college major"

The thing that I notice in these figures is that in today's workforce, while many people are happy in their current roles they are open to exploring opportunities else where if a new role matches an individuals career plans or addresses some need they are looking to fill. Being happy in a role or company does not automatically mean a person will stay there indefinitely. I find this is not unique to just Gen Y, but this happens with most people in the IT profession at all levels.

When I talk to candidates, I think it is important to work out first what a candidate wants to do and then we can see what the 'best fit' opportunity may be. If you are going to move from a role you are happy in, it needs to be for the right reasons, so if you are talking to us let's work out what you are looking for and see if we can find that fit whether it is career advancement, work/life balance, travel, etc......

I think this is quite an interesting subject (from the perspective of a Gen X'er), if you are looking for information on the different traits, motivations, drivers, etc... of the different generations (Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y), there are a few good books and articles out there by local Australian Bernard Salt and also by Kevin Wheeler who is based in the US which would certainly be worth looking up or having a look for at your local book store.