When Vineela studied computer science at university, her teachers were amazed by her talents. Their encouragement helped her grow and gain the confidence to achieve whatever she set her mind to. Her ambition, dedication, and technical prowess have helped her build an incredible consulting career. Yet she found it didn’t leave room for much else in her life—until now.
New priorities
Vineela’s career story is an interesting one. She’s been with Oracle for eight years in total, but left to pursue an opportunity elsewhere, before re-joining us last year in a senior consulting position at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). By this point, she had set herself a new challenge: to create a fulfilling life for herself outside of work.
“I overcame my workaholic tendencies by coming back to Oracle,” she reveals. “My career has spanned 17 years, and for 15 years of those, work has always come first. I was so eager to learn absolutely everything and do a perfect job one hundred per cent of the time, I was working a lot.”
When Vineela realized she was ready to have a family, she knew she wanted to work somewhere that supported family life and flexibility. “I wanted to raise a family, but I was just too busy with work,” she admits. “I know that Oracle genuinely encourages and helps their employees to have a healthy work-life balance which is the main reason I came back. You can have amazing work satisfaction here but still have plenty of time to spend with family.”
Taking back control of her time
Vineela’s current role gives her the autonomy to plan her own work schedule. “I have the freedom to complete my tasks end-to-end,” she describes. “I decide my priorities. I decide whether I want to involve my team and hand tasks over to them. I really appreciate having the support and flexibility to make my own choices and decide what’s best for me.”
Vineela’s manager also helps her maintain a sense of control over her work. “We work very closely so I always know what’s expected of me. Better than that, I’m actually asked what I want to contribute,” she shares. “The communication between us flows really well. There’s always an overlap between what Oracle needs and what my goals are. It means I have continuous opportunities to grow.”
Leaders who listen
In fact, Vineela has always benefitted from thoughtful managers at Oracle. It’s one of the reasons she found it so hard to leave—and so easy to return. “I can’t tell you what a difficult choice it was to leave Oracle. I have always loved the company and the product,” she notes. “My previous manager was really great and always initiating productive conversations about my career path.”
Vineela opted to grow her career at Oracle as an individual contributor, rather than take on the responsibilities of people management. “You define your own goals and career path here. You literally just have to decide what you want and your manager will help you get there,” she advises. “You can be an individual contributor and still be a massive success. There’s nothing stopping you, it’s all up to you.”
Becoming an expert
Vineela was on a mission to become a technical expert in her field. “My manager explained to me exactly what I needed to do to get promoted,” she remembers. “I followed her advice and contributed to the automation space at Oracle for two years. It definitely helped me move my career forward in the right direction. ”
Now that Vineela has achieved her goal of becoming a technical expert, she feels like she has room to explore again. “I’m very proud of myself,” she admits. “And very happy. Now that I’m at this level, I actually want to start from scratch and begin exploring. That’s why the career management program at Oracle is so great. There’s always new opportunities and challenges on the horizon.”
Life at OCI
As a consultant, most of Vineela’s time is spent working directly with customers. “I spend a lot of time advising Oracle Cloud customers like Zoom and Skype,” she shares. “We escalate customer issues, troubleshoot them, solve them, and bring in expertise from other OCI teams.”
Vineela says this is where OCI excels—collaboration. “Leadership really know what they’re doing,” she says. “The communication from management is very transparent and knowledge transfer between OCI experts works really well. We collaborate with different teams and support product development so all of our perspectives are constantly improving the product.”
Vineela appreciates the smoothness of the work-flow at OCI all the more because she’s experienced life without it. “I’ve worked at customer companies with Oracle products, and didn’t receive any of the training or learning that was needed for the role, which made the customer side so much harder,” she explains. “Working at Oracle, there is so much documentation and support that it’s like a breeze in comparison. You don’t waste any time.”
Women can—and should—have it all
Vineela believes Oracle is the ideal place for women in tech to succeed. “Life has become easy,” she emphasizes. “Flexible working and team support make everything more doable. My colleagues have the utmost respect for women in tech, I’ve never felt uncomfortable or undervalued. There’s even a cab service and security for women travelling home alone from the office.”
In terms of next steps for Vineela, becoming a mother is top of her agenda—and so is more career development. “I can’t wait to be a mum and a technical expert,” she says. “I’m especially looking forward to learning new technologies, mainly around architect solutions. I’d consider moving into pre-sales down the road, so I can showcase the power of Oracle products to customers. I’m excited for what lies ahead.”
Vineela’s key messages for women in tech
- Never stop learning! Try to learn something new every day. If work becomes routine, change it up and learn something new. Don’t spend your life doing things just for the sake it. Whatever you do should be contributing to your goals in some way.
- If you find yourself not being recognized, speak up! Be your own best advocate when you need to be. But also look out for a mentor who can guide you and vouch for you.
- Never try compare yourself with anyone else, including your colleagues. You are unique and are your successes. Focus on improving yourself and you’ll go far.
Women thrive at Oracle because of our strong support, flexible policies, and priceless leadership opportunities. Do you want to join our team? Explore the career opportunities at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.