Lynette Vaz joined Oracle in a non-technical role in 2004. At the time she was more than a little nervous, and couldn’t help but wonder what she could bring to a global technology company. Of course, her perspective proved invaluable, and she has spent the last 17 years building an incredible career as a senior administrator in our Financial Services Consulting organization. Read on to hear about the inspiring career journey that has shaped the woman she is today.
A new beginning
Before she joined Team Oracle, Lynette was newly married and had just started doing shift work for a company called WNS, but pretty soon realised she wasn’t happy there. “At first I liked it, but after six months the shift work got to me, and the work just became too monotonous,” she begins. “That’s when I started looking for a new job that could challenge me.”
A natural networker, she reached out to her friends in search of new opportunities. At that time, her friend Sharon John was working as a secretary at Oracle. “She asked me ‘Lynette, why don’t you try it, maybe this is something that you’ll like? Because this job is actually interesting—and you like meeting lots of people. There’s a vacancy right now, so why don’t you join?’ So, on her recommendation, I went and gave the interview.”
Overcoming her fears
Lynette suitably impressed her interviewers and the job was hers. But now Lynette had bigger worries—what if she couldn’t do what was asked of her? “I come from a non-technical background, so this entire IT landscape was completely new to me,” she shares. “I was so terrified that I wanted to quit before I even started! I thought to myself, everything is technical, how will I manage this? This is just not me, everything is computer based.”
Thanks to the welcoming culture at Oracle, Lynette’s fears quickly eased. “Everyone around was so helpful and just made things so easy,” she recalls. “I’ve been blessed to have managers who always praised and encouraged me. I can’t believe that it’s been 17 years now…Time has flown and I haven’t even realized it.”
The freedom to excel
Lynette’s career at Oracle has spanned countless teams, with her role traversing HR, recruitment, and project management. “I initially joined a small team in the corporate banking sector, but from there I moved on one step at a time and got myself so familiarized with the seniors and team members that I became the go-to person for all their queries—from computers to settling their expenses to getting their travel arranged and handling customer visits.”
Autonomy is something which Lynette greatly values in her work. She feels grateful that her team trusts her to deliver results, leaving the process up to her. “Yes, I definitely have a lot of freedom,” she agrees. “I will not deny that my supervisors have been very, very supportive and encouraging. They’ve kept me on a pedestal! Everyone is so courteous and I think that tone is set by leadership. If you do your work well, you will be recognized, praised, and rewarded. No one is going to push you, no one is on your back, asking you countless times if something is done. You’ve got the freedom to do the work at your own pace, and that’s how you prove yourself.”
Lynette’s personal transformation
This career versatility has been key to Lynette’s growth both as a person and a professional. “I love interacting with people and my job is interacting with people—it helps me learn so much from my colleagues. I have evolved as a much more confident person because of this. The responsibilities I take on now are so much broader now than when I first started. I like to grow by trying new things, and I’ve got that freedom here. I can just say, I’d like to handle that or work on this and I’ve immediately got that trust. ”
Looking back, Lynette can’t quite believe the difference between who she was when she first started, and the confident woman she is now. “Technically speaking, simple things like online banking used scare me. Now I can happily say I’m much, much better. I’m just more capable of doing things, you know? Taking on new challenges is like second nature to me now. Being here has brought out the best in me, actually.”
A culture worth staying for
Lynette emphasizes how the inclusive culture at Oracle is what made this transformation possible. She remembers the first time she knew she had found somewhere very special to work. “Very soon after I started working at Oracle, I found out that I was pregnant,” she recalls. “I just joined and now I’m telling them that I’ll be taking all this time off! And I had already taken a lot of medical leave because I was suffering with morning sickness.”
Of course, Lynette needn’t have worried. “When I told them, they were so, so positive and they made me so comfortable,” she shares. “I felt like I was talking to a friend back home. I said to myself, oh my god, this is the kind of environment I should stick around for. I only joined six months ago, I’m going to go on a medical break, and they’re telling me not to worry, we’ll sort things out for you. In fact, one of the managers even got my desk moved to the ground floor to make things easier for me.”
Why women thrive at Oracle
The compassion and respect that Lynnette felt from her colleagues is a hallmark of life at Oracle, and it has allowed her to build a balanced and happy life. “I’ve never had a problem with balancing my home and work here,” she says. “The reason I’ve stayed for such a long time is because I can happily manage both together. I’ve always been blessed to have good managers who understand there are times where I have to come a little late or leave a little early because my daughter had to be somewhere or I had to attend a PTA meeting.”
That’s why, to this day, Lynette is adamant that Oracle is the best place for women to grow their careers. “If you’re a woman working at Oracle you are blessed, because you’ll never have to feel the pinch when you’re taking the day off for your child. You’ll never have to know that feeling of, oh my god, my child needs me, what do I do? Everyone goes through the same thing, actually. So everyone’s very, very considerate here.”
The non-technical perspective
Given the unique insights that Lynette has gleaned into life at Oracle over the past 17 years, what does she think non-technical people like her can bring to a team?
“I think non-technical people are used to having to think outside the box,” she affirms. “If you know you’re not technical, you’ll think of different ways to do things. For example, technical people, and rightly so, get so engrossed with what they’re doing, coding and everything else. Sometimes we need non-technical people to help us see the big picture. They also make amazing networkers.”
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