Career advice from Oracle

BANGALORE, INDIA: For almost 30 years, Oracle has been into database, middleware, applications and industry solutions. Vijay Anand, the Vice President for Server Technologies of Oracle Corporation leads the Oracle Fusion Middleware developer organization in India that delivers cutting edge innovations including the JDeveloper/ADF developer tool, SOA Suite, Identity Management, Business Intelligence, WebCenter, Content Management and related technologies. He is also the operational head for the Server Technologies division in India . We talk to him about career options for developers.

CIOL: What are the skill-sets and qualifications you look for in a developer ( fresher & experienced)?

Vijay Anand: Oracle in India is large and diverse and the requirements for developers vary across the various product groups. Within the technologies R&D organization, we look for developers with a strong academic background (typically, a bachelor or masters degree in computer science from a top institute) with deep expertise in building complex software products and strong programming skills in Java.

CIOL: What sort of training do you provide to a fresher as well as to an experienced person?

VA: Oracle offers a unique opportunity for incoming graduates -- they get to pick the project of their choice to work on, based on their career aspirations and strengths. We analyzin the needs and capabilities of each hire and match them based on their choice to a specific project. New graduates hired in the last 4 years have fast tracked to senior development positions within the organization.

Training for such candidates includes an in-depth 6-week induction/orientation course that builds a strong skills base on all relevant Oracle technologies, tools and standards. For experienced hires, we have a comprehensive induction and training program.

The program gives the new hire an overview of Oracle technologies as well as specific in-depth training on the tools and the environment. In addition, there is intense on-job training in the first month on all the key technologies. To further grow, the new hire is put on a curriculum path to build advanced level skills on products and technologies.

CIOL: What are the different domains that a developer can work in at Oracle? On what grounds is a domain given to a developer.

VA: Oracle is the largest enterprise software provider in the world. A developer therefore has a chance to work on the entire gamut of enterprise software, ranging from technologies to enterprise applications. A developer with a strong background in software technologies is typically routed to the technologies organization while one with applications background is routed to the applications group.

CIOL: Which are the latest technologies that a developer can look upto and try shaping a career in?

VA: The landscape of technologies is huge and is developing rapidly. We look for developers who focus on specific technologies and build deep expertise rather than superficial knowledge on a range of so called 'hot' technologies. Specifically, we encourage developers to build skills on enterprise Java, XML based technologies, Web Services as well as in software design, coding and testing.