Tell Us Your Story
Welcome to Tell Us Your Story, the podcast that tells the diverse stories of businesses, leaders, and influence. Our mission is to ignite inspiration, foster education, and bring our community together. Join us as we unravel the path to achievement, discovering how these remarkable businesses and leaders navigated obstacles, conquered hardships, and transformed failures into success. Their stories will leave you reinvigorated and inspired with invaluable leadership insights and equipped with practical advice to overcome the challenges on your journey towards success.
Tell Us Your Story
Finding Fulfillment on Life's Winding Road: Adaptability in Tech and Ties to Community with John Kostecki
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Join our conversation with John Kostecki, a Director of Product Strategy at Oracle, whose journey reminds us that the roads we take in life can lead to unexpected and fulfilling destinations. From changing career paths to the highs and lows of young love with his wife Susan, John's personal anecdotes are as rich and layered as the product strategies he crafts. His transition from a budding geologist to a tech titan is not just a study in adaptability but a testament to the serendipity of life's twists and turns.
As we navigate the ins and outs of a career with Oracle that spans over two decades, John's insights into seizing opportunities and the critical role of networking are invaluable for anyone looking to climb the corporate ladder. His candid reflections on advancement underscore a career shaped as much by relationships as by skill. Whether you're an aspiring professional or a seasoned expert, John's story is a powerful reminder that our careers are not just defined by what we do, but by the people we meet along the way.
John steps us into the vibrant tapestry of Northern California's Rocklin and surrounding areas, where he has woven his love for community and family into the very fabric of his life. Whether he's discussing his golf league camaraderie or the tight-knit nature of local youth sports, it's clear that for John, home is where the heart is—and the heart is deeply embedded in Rocklin.
His commitment to work-life balance showcases a man who values the importance of personal connections as much as professional achievements. Spend the next 60 minutes walking in John’s shoes and see what gems you find!
John Kostecki
Speaker 1Season 2, episode 2. I am having an incredible time. I think we've recorded eight or nine different episodes for this season and each one is fantastic. Are you having fun?
Speaker 2I'm always having fun.
Speaker 1Today is a transplant into the Rockland area. He's been here at Rockland, california. He's been here, I think, going on 25 plus years, and he's going to talk about a lot about the local area. Did you learn anything?
Speaker 2Of course I did. I got a little sneak peek into the Rockland community, which is really cool. I'm the basketball team when to eat, where to golf and name dropped a couple of people that I definitely don't know, but learning more and more, it was really cool to get just a perspective into the community.
Speaker 1Yeah, and I love it, and this is what we set out to do. We're learning about the different people within our community, how they're influencing others, and just a lot of really good stories that are coming out of it.
Speaker 2There's stories all around us. Welcome to Tell Us your Story, the podcast that tells the diverse stories of businesses, leaders and influencers throughout Northern California. Our mission is to ignite inspiration, foster education and bring our community together. Join us as we unravel the path to achievement, discovering how these remarkable businesses and leaders navigated obstacles, conquered hardships and transformed failures into success.
Speaker 1In this episode we sit down with John Kostecki, director of product strategy at Oracle. There's three key areas that you want to listen into today John's love story with his wife Susan. It's an incredible story. There's some laughs along the way and I encourage everybody who's listening to go and ask each of them the truth, because I don't know that we got all of it. And then John's been with Oracle for over 25 years. This foundation for his success is saying yes to opportunity, so he's going to walk us through that, what that means to him and how he's navigated multiple positions throughout his career. And then community and family is key. He's going to walk you through some of the community in Rockland, the areas that he visits, and really talk about his family. So sit back listening and enjoy this episode of Tell Us your Story.
Speaker 3I am 59 years old, married with four children. I grew up in Buffalo, new York, okay, I lived there until I was 25 and then moved to California in 1990.
Speaker 1Interesting so there's a lot there, right? Yeah, there is a lot there. So four kids and you've been married. For how?
Speaker 3long I've been married. Oh shoot, math is 32 years, put it right on the spot. But I've been. I've known my wife since I was 15 years old. Oh, wow, yeah, we started dating when I was 15.
Speaker 1Oh, so there was a break in there for a little bit, or no? Wow, wow, wow, wow. Did my wife talk to you? No, no, no, no.
Speaker 3There was a break. Well, you know, we both we dated throughout high school. I was I'm a year older school-wise than my wife, six months to the day age-wise and let's see, we dated all through high school, basically through college. We went to different colleges school in Boston, school in Syracuse, new York and but we dated all through that. When I graduated I was out and it was maybe like a year or so after I graduated. We took a break. And I say we, it was probably me who forced it?
Speaker 1It was.
Speaker 3I still hear it to this day, but it was. It was one of those things you know when you're with someone for that long and it was like, if I really want to know, how am I going to know? You know that kind of thing for me, and it was like it wasn't so much her or anything she did, it was just I needed to be maybe without a girlfriend for a bit and just see what that's like right.
Speaker 1Would you give that advice to other people at that age group of?
Speaker 3I mean, I kind of would because one of my well, yeah, I think I would.
Speaker 1I would too.
Speaker 3I wouldn't dissuade, like it's not that I would dissuade people, but I don't. I think you need to be apart for some time as well, especially when you're dating, when you're 15 years old. What do you know at that point? You know, yeah, but it, but it was a good thing, because after a year and a half, or whatever it was, of not dating, I kind of knew what I wanted you know, and she was the one for me.
Speaker 1So that's good. Yeah, well, hopefully I don't get in too much trouble there. Now so let's talk a little bit about where you grew up. So you grew up in Buffalo, new York. Buffalo, new York how many? How many kids in the family? So mom and dad?
Speaker 3Yeah, mom and dad, you know typical, you know family life, mom and dad parents are. You know, my mom just passed about, just this past June but my parents were married for over 60 years and I have four other sisters. I'm the second oldest of five, so so busy house.
Speaker 2There's only boy.
Speaker 3Only boy. Yeah, one older sister who taught me a lot and three younger ones, and we're all super close.
Speaker 1Great, you know my sister and they also in New York. Are they all spread out?
Speaker 3I have one. My oldest sister is here. She moved to California just about 20, just over 20 years ago for a job and she's now retired. But my other three sisters live in Buffalo and you go back and forth a lot. It's pretty much once a year now during the summertime we go because my wife, you know we dated since we were 15. She's from there too. She has her family, a lot of her family, there as well. So we go back once a year. We used to go back a couple times a year when the kids were real little and then it's just got too busy and too expensive to give twice a year, so we cut out the wintertime in Buffalo.
New York, Childhood, and Career Aspirations
Speaker 1And so I've been to. I've been into the city of New York a couple of times, so I haven't been anywhere else. So do you love New York? Is it one of those things that you, when you think of New York, is it?
Speaker 3I mean New York City and Buffalo are kind of two different worlds, right they're. They're about six and a half hours apart. It's kind of like Northern Cal's, I don't know that kind of thing, New York as a state. It's New York City and then everything else. If you're a New Yorker is upstate, it doesn't matter. If you're, you know, in Albany West, it's upstate, right. But for us we call ourselves Western New York. I'd say Buffalo is more Midwest than it is.
Speaker 1New York.
Speaker 3City, yeah, in terms of just the way the vibe, the people, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1So, yeah, interesting If you're not from there, like and yeah, I think of the city, Totally opposite end of the state, but it's a great place to grow up.
Speaker 3I love being, you know being from Buffalo. In some ways I still call it home In a sense, because that's where I grew up.
Speaker 1So any plans to ever move back, or is California?
Speaker 3now your home, california's home. You know, we've we've kicked it around, we've talked about it for 30 years. You know, for me it was I'm going to go to California for a year. When I moved, yeah, check it out for a year and then I'll be back, or whatever. And I've said it's. It's been a long year that I, that I've been here, but we still love going back to visit our families and things, and you know who knows, never say never. But my wife doesn't like cold, so yeah.
Speaker 2California weather. You can't be never full time we would.
Speaker 3I don't think we'd live there full time.
Speaker 2No, Well, we'll definitely have to get to the decision to move, but how? Like growing up, what type of person are you, John? John type of kid, you know I, you know I was.
Speaker 3I was a good kid, Like did well, did well in school, decent school. I love to do other activities, sports and stuff. I primarily, you know, being from Buffalo, I played hockey as a kid growing up and that's pretty much what I did for, you know, from the time I was eight years old until I was 16, 17 through high school, you know, just did a lot with our families. My dad was really big into sailing so we learned, did a lot of sailing in the summertime on Lake Erie.
Speaker 1Interesting yeah.
Speaker 3Had a had a cottage in Canada for the summer, so I spent a lot of my summers as a kid growing up in Canada.
Speaker 1So it sounds like really active and active, just a great family life.
Speaker 3You know my dad, my dad was a doctor and so he was super busy. My mom kind of ran everything and took care of us and shuttled us to our activities me with hockey, whether it was road trips, traveling or whatever, because I did primarily travel. So we were busy with that. And then my sisters were all into whether it was softball or they did, you know, dancing and things. So she was very busy.
Speaker 1Yeah, I can see that though some of the image of the traditional American family.
Speaker 3Exactly, it was pretty much like that.
Speaker 1So as you're going through, you know, middle school, high school you said you're a good kid, good academic. Any trouble, any hiccups along the way? No gotcha questions, just curious. Oh, he's single.
Speaker 3No, I didn't really have you know other than just stupid kids stuff. You know, you know whatever whether it was, I don't know, just goofing around with the guys or you know, stealing beers when we were in high school, whatever that kind of thing was, but never anything that was really bad in a sense, or a major yeah.
Speaker 1And so what were your aspirations or goals? Let's go to high school so we know you're dating. You have a steady girlfriend the whole time.
Speaker 3Yeah, after my freshman year my wife and I dated. So you know there was a lot of time we spent together, obviously, but I went to a Catholic all boys high school and my wife went to a Catholic all girls. So you know, it was great, kind of had that time. So you know, even though we dated and we were with each other a lot, when I went to school I was with all my buddies and all these guys and it was kind of like a big fraternity in a sense. So that was a lot of fun. You know, like I said, played hockey throughout. That was my passion. I love doing it, still love doing it, and then, you know, but outside of just the family activities, it was a pretty normal high school experience.
Speaker 1And then, what did you want to do after high school? Did you know what you wanted to do for a career?
Speaker 3Yeah, I don't know. For me, it was one of those things where and I almost think a lot of people you're exposed, based and you think this is what I want to do, based on what your parents do, right? So, my dad being a doctor, naturally we're like only son.
Speaker 2As soon as you said that, I was like, oh, the doctor is gonna come up, yeah, he's gonna be, you know, you know right, I should go into medicine, and that's you know what I thought, but it wasn't like I had a strong feeling.
Speaker 3one way or the other was just, I don't really know anything else, right?
Speaker 2Was college or for sure, though. Oh yeah, college for sure was a thing, yeah, yeah for sure.
Speaker 3My parents stressed you know, education, college. My sister went off. In fact I went to the same university as my older sister, boston University, and there was no doubt about college. Yeah, it was just kind of where I had hoped, maybe to play hockey, but then I ended up not doing it and decided, you know, I went to school at a bigger school in Boston University, and that wasn't in the picture for me.
Speaker 1So and what were you studying when you went to?
Speaker 3So I went there as a biology major again, thinking I would go into medicine. But after about a year or so I don't know if it was my first maybe midway through my first year, three quarters I was like this is not for me. You know, and even I think back when I was younger, in high school, my dad as a surgeon. He would take a couple of times he would take me you couldn't do this today, but he literally would take me into operations that he was doing.
Speaker 2Oh, took my sisters.
Speaker 3He took me. He even took my wife and I when we were dating into different procedures. So, we're scrubbed out in the OR like basically standing right there.
Speaker 1It's a whole different idea to take your kid to work, eh.
Speaker 2What kind of doctor? Just any, any, just bunch of different surgeries. Thoracic cardiovascular surgeon so those are major surgeries, right Wow.
Speaker 3Cutting people open and then You're just sitting there.
Speaker 1it didn't freak you out, it did freak me out a bit.
Speaker 3In fact, I remember getting a little queasy one time and the nurses are like, why don't you come out and sit in the nurses? Room you know, in the break room with us, and I'm like, that sounds like a good idea.
Speaker 1Oh my goodness, when you think about it. Times have changed so much it's impossible to do that now, absolutely impossible.
Speaker 3Oh no, you could never do that. I mean, I remember the one I think it was my dad was taking out a portion or part of someone's lung, was a smoker and they had a big tumor in the lung and literally takes it out, has it in like a tray and he's cutting it open, showing us, you know, here's the tumor, and all this and I'm just kind of like whoa.
Speaker 3Oh wow, this is so much better, but you, know, having seen that on a respect for you know my dad and what he did over the years. You know the work that he did. He was very busy, he was. He went into work seven days a week. You know he would have his patients, they had his home number, they would call them and the families and that kind of thing which you don't see. It's medicines changed right nowadays, but yeah, so I kind of going back right or going forward back to where you know was that for me I think, looking back on that and then into college, just wasn't my passion and I wasn't really sure what that passion was.
Speaker 3And I took a course. My sister said, hey, take this elective. It's a great one because she was a senior. When I was a freshman it was an elective. She took a geology course and I took that and I loved it. We did field, we went on the field, we did field trips kind of thing and you know, out in the field, camps and other things, and so I was like this is kind of a cool major, but what would I do with it.
Speaker 3Well, you know, maybe I could work in oil and gas or something like that that sounds interesting, so I switched over to geology and like, oh, that is really interesting and my dad I remember the call to tell him.
Speaker 2I was just gonna say so. How did this go, Dad? I wanna switch majors.
Speaker 3Yeah, you know what? He was fine with it. He didn't. He wasn't like you know. If that's what I wanted to do, he was happy.
Speaker 1Very supportive.
Education, Career, and Love
Speaker 3Both my parents, yeah, always very supportive yeah.
Speaker 2What's the decision? Hard for you, did you feel? I don't. I'm probably a little. It's been so long I don't know if it was that hard.
Speaker 3I mean, obviously I think it was a little hard just because you know you feel like you wanna follow when your father's footsteps in a sense right. But it was the right thing for me, I knew it. It wasn't my you know drive to be a physician.
Speaker 1And is that what you ended up graduating?
Speaker 3That's right graduated with a degree in geology. Never worked a day in it.
Speaker 2As a geology.
Speaker 3I mean I was. We can go into that.
Speaker 1Yeah, well, you graduate.
Speaker 2So what's the dream air?
Speaker 3You know, like I said, I thought, oh, I'll work in oil and gas or something there, maybe I'll be out on an oil rig down in the Gulf or doing you know whatever. And at the time this was. I graduated in 86. The market wasn't really good in terms of jobs. There were a lot of advanced degree folks that were out there.
Speaker 3They wanted you to have a master's or something beyond right To really get a good job in that field. So I said, okay, that's fine, I can go back to school and get a master's degree. But it was at that point I thought, do I really wanna? Do I really wanna go back and get a master's in geology or at the time, like MBAs were a big thing? So I thought, hmm, maybe I'll go into business. I'm kind of intrigued by business and accounting, finance type thing and I applied to business school in Buffalo and I started maybe six months or a year after I graduated with my bachelor's at the University of Buffalo, suny Buffalo, and the MBA program.
Speaker 2Oh interesting, so how long?
Speaker 3were you there, so I was there. It was a two year program. I went through about a year and a half. And then I decided with about just shy of a semester to finish that I was gonna move to California because I missed my now wife.
Speaker 2She had moved out to California, so was this where the break was, or was the?
Speaker 3break. The break was kind of right shortly after I graduated in 86, between the time I graduated and when I started graduate school.
Speaker 1Got it, so let's talk about that. Absolutely, I know Natasha is going to go ahead and talk to her this just gets better.
Speaker 2You followed her across the country. This is like for all the ladies listening, okay, so she.
Speaker 3Yeah, the ladies love this better.
Speaker 2Give it to us, John. So what happened so?
Speaker 3I just I don't know. At one point I forget how long we weren't dating, but my wife had graduated. She was working in Buffalo. She's a nurse, she was working with the Children's Hospital there and we weren't dating but we'd see each other or her friends, it's a small town basically it's not that big of a city so you bump into people.
Speaker 3But she had a brother who was living in California and his wife down in San Jose and she had taken a spring break trip with some friends out to California and she was like I want to live in California, I want to work in California. So she decided, since we were broken up in Buffalo small town, she's like I'm ready to move, I want to try something different and go. So she moved in with her brother, took a job at Stanford Hospital, working in the neonatal ICU there, and so she was there, you know, and we would, over the year and a half, I think, from the time she left and when I moved out there it was roughly a year and a half we would connect once in a while when she would come back to visit her family. But it was this one point. I remember having lunch with some of my buddies and my really good friend who was the best man in our wedding. We worked at a bank together while I was going to school back in Buffalo.
Speaker 3And I just said to him I need to call, I want to talk to see if we can get back together again. So we did and then made this decision.
Speaker 1Before that happened. So it sounds like she was trying to move on, like you guys at some point had you're broken up, she's moving to California. She's like I need the break. So was that by design as Susan's listening to this to get you to chase?
Speaker 3her to California. You know, I don't know.
Speaker 2She could have just been living her life.
Speaker 3I don't think she was trying to get me to chase her, in a sense, but she was like well, I'm going to move on, and you know. Follow if you want Do her, you know, follow her, and that sparked it right, you missed her and I missed her, yeah. I realized. You know, the grass isn't always greener or just it was like.
Speaker 1You know I miss her. You know this is a love story.
Speaker 3It is yeah.
Speaker 2And that's a whole lot.
Speaker 3But I thought could I see, you know cause, maybe date other people who go out with other girls, you know, and I'm like, can I see myself at this age, or getting older, you know, sitting and having a conversation or enjoying it? You know, Maybe not, but with her I could.
Speaker 1She's the one. So how many fights are there about who you dated in that year?
Speaker 3and a half. I try not to bring it up because I always lose.
Speaker 2So Thank you.
Speaker 1Anthony for making it a problem. You know what I'm, more the. I don't you know, nothing ever happened, right, john? Yeah, nothing happened. It was a quiet year and a half.
Speaker 3I didn't really date anyone. I was kind of boring. I stayed home most of the time. Perfect answer, perfect date that was my time to reconnect with the boys. No, okay.
Speaker 2Are you digging any later?
Speaker 3Do you believe that?
Speaker 2Oh, absolutely not but you know, we'll just, we'll let you have that one.
Speaker 3Well, you know.
Speaker 2You're young, I mean you have to, so it's a good story. You need time to grow and be yourself.
Speaker 3It was necessary, for sure, yeah.
Speaker 1I'm sure it was really good for her too. I mean really nice, I'm gonna ask her next time I see her.
Speaker 3So Please don't.
Speaker 1So you have six months left to graduate.
Speaker 3get your MBA Well yeah, I basically had like three courses left which I kind of screwed up on my calculations and what I thought I had in terms of credits and things like that.
Speaker 3So it was like okay, I should go back, but at the time I was thinking I don't know what it was. It was just like I was ready to move and head out to California. Right, you know, buffalo was a great place, but the opportunities weren't the same, and especially being, you know, 1990. Back there, everyone looked to California. It was like the land of opportunity and all these great things in Silicon Valley and all you know. So I just said, you know what, I'll finish my degree at some point, which I never did.
Speaker 2Oh, talk about regrets. That's one of them.
Speaker 3But I said you know what, and again it was going to be a year break and I'll finish the degree. I'll just go out and check it out for a while and then maybe I'll bring Susan back to Buffalo with me you know, but it never happened. So moved out to California, packed up my car A buddy of mine drove with me and, you know, moved in with Susan and her roommate in their apartment in Mountain View until I, you know, found a job and got on my own and moved out with him Interesting?
Speaker 1Yeah, so there's a couple of parallel paths here. So now you're coming to California, you're going to have to get a job, but also you're reconnecting with Susan. So how long until you guys end up getting married from the time you get to California?
Speaker 3So I got there in January of 90,. We got married in August of 91. So it didn't take too long.
Speaker 1It didn't take too long, so you guys both knew.
Speaker 3Yeah, we knew, you know I was. I joke with her like when we got engaged on Valentine's Day of 1991, the next day I think, she was on the phone with her mom and they had a wedding date A place. I was like whoa, that was quick, we really did.
Speaker 1Yeah, times have definitely changed. Yeah.
Speaker 3And six months later you know we got married. But that was great.
Speaker 1And so what are you doing for work so you have your degree in biology, working on your MBA?
Speaker 3Yeah, took you know, just three credits short of my MBA, which is crazy, or three classes, I should say.
Speaker 2Oh, it's like three credits, so like it's one class, no, three credits.
Speaker 3So what that's? I think I don't know if there were three or four credit courses, whatever it was yeah, yeah, very close.
Speaker 3So I was at a I can't remember the occasion that it was dinner with my brother-in-law's wife's family, her sisters and her sister's husband. We got to talk and I just met him that evening and you know, whatever, hey, john, what do you do? You know, you know, and we were talking I said, you know, I'm out here, I'm looking for a job, you know kind of look, to get into business, accounting, finance type of thing. And you know, he said he was the CFO of a small defense contractor in Belmont, like San Mateo Belmont area, and he's like we're looking, we're looking for some people here here, give my controller a call. And so that was my first job. I went in, interviewed with them and had a job which was great.
Speaker 1And was it something?
Speaker 3Something, I didn't even know what the heck I was doing.
Speaker 3Yeah, because I worked in banking back in New York in Buffalo, and I thought, you know, maybe I'll do banking or something else. But this came up, it sounded like a decent opportunity. Interesting it was a company that made like threat warning like basically threat devices or warning devices on aircraft, like helicopters and jets and things that basically let them know they're getting tracked or locked in by someone else, someone else's radar right. So it's kind of a cool technology, cool company. I was hired into their government accounting and compliance group so I had to like immerse myself in government regulations, contracting regulations, the FAR, which is the federal acquisition regulations, and all things, government accounting Right. So totally new to me. But you know, to this day, when we talk about kind of career path, it was, believe it or not, it was the, what I learned there in 18 months and a lot of the connections and networks and friendships I made that got me to where I am today in terms of my job.
Speaker 3Yeah, so you know that's like for my story. It's one of those things where I didn't really have a like this is what I wanted to do in life, but I kind of followed this path and it was. You know, it's weird things. You might learn someplace. Or this experience or niche, you know, expertise that you gain somewhere, you can leapfrog and kind of use that to build a career, and so it's always fascinating to me.
Speaker 1There's very few people who know what they want to do at that age, very few that we talk to, and so we have kids of similar age have that conversation like try a thousand things, throw everything in your phone and see what sticks, because you're building your foundation and that's some of the advice I was like take that first step and the path will open. And I can't remember where I heard that quote. It's a quote, but so as as this podcast has evolved, so you know.
Speaker 1For those listeners that have followed us. It was Grandpa and the Millennial, and now it's evolved to you know it's tell us your story in Northern California, and so we really want to talk to you about you know we've heard where you grew up and how you got to, where you were at with Susan and your wife and where you started your career. So where are you at today? What is your role today? What do you do and what does it look like?
Speaker 3So today I work for a software company, oracle Corporation, and I work in the product development group applications development specifically at Oracle so our cloud applications and I work in what we call our product strategy group. So I'm a director in our product strategy group responsible for a lot of product direction in terms of working with our field field sales groups, our customers, direct customers, partners in terms of driving product direction, like what do we need to build into products, you know, where do we take it from a roadmap perspective, that sort of thing and a lot of sales support, customer engagement, those types of things.
Speaker 2And that's what I do.
Speaker 3So and I've been doing that I've been at Oracle for 26 years now. Congratulations.
Speaker 2Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I was just going to ask if it was a climb to get.
Speaker 3Yeah, I mean it was a progression certainly. You know I've had, I guess I would say, kind of three main jobs when I was at Oracle. When I started I was a worked in product development same, very similar group, basically a lot of the same people that I work with today as a matter of fact, kind of growing, growing old at the company together. But I worked as a product analyst and then shortly thereafter a product manager. So I managed a couple of different application products and did that for about nine years and I decided I want I didn't want to leave Oracle but I wanted to move into the sales organization to get a different perspective right and work kind of the upfront selling to customers. So I worked as a what we call, we used to call sales consultant, now we call solution engineers and that type of thing.
Speaker 1So it's actually really different than yeah, it's different.
Speaker 3Exactly, and so it was a great experience and I did that for almost 10 years, but it was a lot of travel. It was tough, you know, being away when my kids were kind of my older ones were kind of in their grown up, high school and that sort of thing. So you know, missing things. It was never extensive like Monday through Friday travel, but it was a lot of disruptive nights it's disruptive, exactly.
Speaker 3So yeah, did that for 10 years and then I decided I want to get back off the road. I really missed the group I worked in so I went back into there and you know they basically said, well, we'll find a spot, we'll create a position, and a lot of because of the background really got me the job at Oracle, like I mentioned, was that first job I had that that knowledge and government contracting and stuff. So I work a lot with what we call our regulated industries, which is higher education or healthcare customers meaning mostly providers like hospital systems and things and public sector, so state and local governments and it relates a lot to the ones that receive a lot of government funding, government grants and things and contracts.
Speaker 1So, yeah, it's a very storied career and when we talk about Northern California, we're in the Sacramento region and Oracle is a big company here, but they're a worldwide company. Yes, how many employees do you know off the top?
Speaker 3Yeah right, well, don't you know, within 5 or 10%, because we're about 100. 75, 80,000 employees. Now, when I joined we were well, I still know employee number was 30696. So just under 31,000 when I joined in 1997.
Speaker 2Wow, it's a lot of growth.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, we, you know, just being the second one in the region, I talked to a lot of people that have either worked at Oracle or they worked at Oracle? We know a lot of people that do. Do you know how many people in California, northern California, work at Oracle or have a big Northern.
Speaker 3I don't really, you know, I don't really know. My group is basically, I guess I would say mainly out of what used to be our corporate headquarters, which was in Redwood Shores. There's maybe I don't know, I guess in 10,000 people that work there and then we have, you know, some other smaller satellite offices, but Rockland was one of the larger offices in Northern California when I moved up here in 2004,. It was one of the reasons I came here because we had a local office and at that time I think there was Rockland probably had about 1,000 people working out of here and that fluctuated over time, but it's a lot for Rockland.
Speaker 1It was quite a bit, yeah, and then shortly after when I moved up here.
Speaker 3I know they and it's totally primarily whole other side of Oracle. Then you know no real development folks that work up here in Rockland. So I was kind of a fish out of water.
Speaker 1By yourself.
Speaker 2Yeah, by myself.
Speaker 3I think there was one other guy from my group that worked here when I first came up here in 2004. But yeah, it's primarily. You know, the main center of is down in the Bay Area and you know, through the years we've acquired different companies so we have different satellite offices around throughout the Bay Area. But outside the Bay Area it's primarily, you know, rockland that gets would be the other main hub in Northern Cal and go ahead, natasha.
Speaker 2Are you so in your position? Are you a people leader? Do you have? I don't manage people.
Speaker 3I used to which is one of the things I kind of like in my role now. So it's more I work with it. My team is probably my broader team when I say down from. You know, our main VP, who runs our group, is about 20, 20, 20 to 30, 25 to 30 folks that work for her.
Speaker 2And all around here.
Speaker 3We're spread out all over. You know some in California, east Coast, midwest, you name it, you know a couple in or a few in the UK and Portugal and other.
Speaker 1So we're we're spread out around pretty well, and has COVID led to some of that spreading as well as that opened up opportunity?
Speaker 3I think it. Yeah, I would say it. We were pretty. We were pretty distributed before COVID, but there it definitely has. You know where some people may have gone into an office at some period of time. We've shut down so many offices. You know since COVID that people now I think the majority of my group probably work from home.
Speaker 1Yeah, so this is one of the the, so it's changed quite a bit.
Speaker 1It has changed a lot and this is one of the reasons why we we've changed our format and wanted to talk about you know, tell us your story in Northern California, so we want to hear individual stories like you and then also highlight this is an employer in our state and in like, there's massive opportunity for people of all levels. So, as you think about you know, like I said, we have kids the same age 25 year old, 21, 30 year old as they're looking at their careers. This is a pathway. If someone wanted to come work at you know, oracle or follow your path, what, what, what does that look like? Is it an easy I wouldn't want to say easy path, but what are the opportunities for? People are looking at an organization like that. How do you get in? They come talk to John and say hey, john, can you help me out here?
Speaker 3I mean because we're so large and there's so many areas you can work in at the company. I'll speak primarily from a development perspective. So there's probably, I guess, two, two main tracks within development. There's folks that are the engineering side right, that have some sort of background in engineering or computer science, right, that are developers. And then there's the I would say the the I'll just broadly say product management side of the house, which I'm a part of.
Speaker 3Product management slash strategy that is primarily focused on kind of the business background and understanding. So a lot of people are going to have business degrees, accounting, you know finance, that sort of thing, right, because at least from building software you've got the functional side. So you got the folks that say, okay, I understand, this is what the software needs to do, this is the basically it needs to, how, what it needs to do, how it needs to interact with the user, you know that sort of the piece of it. And then we hand that off to our developers who go and take that and develop that into the actual code, right, yeah, so there's there's a couple of different paths and how you want to get into my.
Speaker 3From my experience, a lot of us you know their account, counting backgrounds, because that's very fundamental to the group I work in. As far as you know, we call our ERP, so it's a lot of financial based applications, your core financials. I work in specifically around kind of our projects, project financials, project management software. But there's other areas too. You might have a background in supply chain so you could have a whole supply chain track that you can make.
Speaker 3So you're either going to come in with some business, or functional knowledge or expertise, right yeah, background, or, you know, a traditional engineering developer background, so, and so it sounds like there's clearly a lot of different positions or jobs about opportunity.
Speaker 1Wise, when you look through your career, would you say you've had a lot of opportunity to kind of pick your path and what you wanted to do?
Speaker 3Yeah, I think so and I've kind of done that, even though you know, kind of had three different as I mentioned earlier tracks that I went into. But at least for my company there's a lot of opportunities, I feel, to kind of move around. If you want to experience something else, they're always supportive of at least my management has always been supportive of you want to go and work in another group? You want to learn something else? That's great. You know, make sure you're a better employee, right, yeah, and that's that was actually my motivation when I'm, you know, I've been in development nine years and I figured out, hey, I've done this before when I joined it was we were launching a brand new product.
Speaker 3So you go through a lot of pains early on with a new product that there's not a lot of expertise in terms of. And we were kind of a niche type product, niche product, I should say. So I went through a lot of that, those pains of not only being product management and the development team, but in essence we were support, we were consulting. You know we wore a lot of hats because you, just when you introduce a new product, there's not the knowledge base out in the field.
Speaker 3right yeah, In that you don't have that ecosystem right to support it. So that was a tough time in the first three, four years. You know a lot of late nights. You know three, four in the morning getting stuff done, staying, fixing. You know working with developers to fix bugs or whatever it was we had to deal with. You know now it's a whole different ballgame. But at that time we started to launch a whole brand new. You know we went from an on premise right type of applications and everything's going to the cloud. I was. It was at that inflection point where I said I'm not sure I want to go through building a brand new product again going through.
Speaker 3I've done that, been there, done that. Why don't I go off and see like let's, let's get the perspective from the front end, from the sales side? So that's what, you know, got me into there. So, to answer your question, we, yeah, I feel like I've had a lot of opportunities to try different things. You know, as a large company, there's a lot of resources right In terms of career paths and the company's really tried to focus, I think, over the last five to 10 years, on developing their talent. Yeah, keeping the bench straight, exactly so, and that's important.
Speaker 1So it. I'd love that we're able to highlight just people and then as well as organizations and things. So, as you're, you said you're 59, how much you know? Don't want to put you on the spot, is it? Another 15 years, or do you have that plan?
Speaker 2And if you, don't want to hit you, wow. No, I don't.
Speaker 3I don't have an exact timeframe. It's a. It's a function of a number of things. You know I still enjoy what I do. That's important, yeah, and I got to say you know I've, you don't stay. I don't think I never envisioned myself being at a company for 20, over 26 years now, you know, and I always feel challenged. I'm impressed by the quality of the people that we have. So I still enjoy it. Right Good, and I've got a pretty good. You know I know what I'm doing. I've been around a long, long enough that I know my job. I know what I'm doing, so I don't know how much longer. I think it really depends. I have a, I have a sophomore in high school, so he needs to get through high school. I don't want him to save my dad's retire.
Speaker 1I think you're talking.
Speaker 2I can hear you talking yourself in that long You're going to work right now.
Speaker 3Man I don't know, you know, we'll see.
Speaker 1We'll see.
Speaker 3It won't be for at least another three, four years. Good, good.
Speaker 1So this is where conversation is going to change. It's been different than all of our podcasts. We want to talk about Northern California, some of the fun things you like to do, um, recommendations and things. So we're in the Rockland area, which is right outside of Sacramento. So what are? I know, some of the things you do for fun, but what are some of the things that you do for fun?
Speaker 3Well, um, you know, number one I, I love the golf, so I, I golf, we've golfed, yeah. So what's your?
Speaker 1favorite in this region. If you had to pick two spots where, where? Where are people going? What which ones are you endorsing right now as?
Speaker 3far as courses, courses, well, I love dark course up in Auburn or like the pine's kind of yeah yeah, that's a great course. And man, where else there's a course Uh, I'll probably butcher the name out at cash Creek, which is not exactly.
Speaker 3Oh yeah, Uh, Yoka day. He, I've been there. It's beautiful, Beautiful, yeah, Beautiful. There's some great courses around here. You know, up in Auburn you've got the ridge and dark horse and you know there's a number of great tracks just around here, whether it's a Timber Creek or Lincoln Hills or Whitney Oaks or you know, there's something for everyone.
Speaker 1There's something for everyone. Yeah, so are you golfer for score? Are you golfer for fun?
Speaker 3We have to take shots, or is it competitive? Yeah, I like to shoot. Didn't you golf together?
Speaker 1before you said yeah, but listeners don't know.
Speaker 3You know I'm competitive, I like to shoot well, right, but it's not the end of the day, it's not going to ruin my day.
Speaker 3I'm still going to have a good time on the golf course. So you know, my younger days maybe not so much, but now I just enjoy being out there. It's not right now. It's as I tell my wife, you know, it's just a great social thing and I've gotten my kids to my boys at least, to start playing the game, because I said something you have for life and it's really a social. It's four hours you get to spend with good friends or meet new people or whatever that is so.
Speaker 3There's that aspect of golf. I think that's unique from other sports.
Speaker 1Oh, it's so much fun and we have a. We have a fantastic group in the northern California area that we golf with. So who's out of all of your friends, who's your best? Who's the best golfer?
Speaker 2Oh yeah, wow, this is being recorded.
Speaker 3Well, man is it probably would Jason.
Speaker 1Yeah, I'd say Jason Woody, you know he's got.
Speaker 3He's got he's got the most talent and skills, I think, in terms of just hitting the ball and Beautiful, smooth swing.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, he's good, we just I can't keep score with the guy.
Speaker 3But when you, when you bring handicaps to do, it has to be day, it has to be flow. Oh yeah, because he goes out there and he shoots a low number and he wins the money.
Speaker 1Exactly. And then, when we go on our golf trips, you have Becker who seems to Everything talk about yeah.
Speaker 3So that girl does pretty well.
Speaker 1I love it, as we start talking, to introduce you to.
Speaker 3But Natasha, this is like again another great thing I think about golf. So it doesn't matter if you're a low handicap or high handicap, meaning really a golfer, because you have this handicap or index system. You can all go out and play and kind of equalize it right through the strokes and what you have to give, so everyone of all levels can go out and play and compete, and Usually the high handicappers.
Speaker 2Have you golfed for a long time?
Speaker 3Yeah, I started golfing with my buddies and I think I was like 12 or 13. Oh, wow, yeah two of my friends my, my two best friends were started golfing and they're like hey, come on, you should come out on golf with us, okay, whatever. So Went down to Kmart.
Speaker 1I don't know where came.
Speaker 3We went, but I went bought a because my buddies had done the same thing. I go to Kmart by this set and you know basic set. You know three irons or four irons or whatever it was, and a driver. And At first, before we were good enough to go out on a course, we went. There was a park nearby and we would just go out to this park and hit golf balls around the park and that's what we did. So I started playing, you know it's just just for fun.
Speaker 1Yeah, I always tell people if you're looking for a hobby where you can take the sport of golf away like there's passion in fun, I just like hanging up my friends.
Speaker 2Yeah.
California Restaurants and Community Activities
Speaker 1Taking it. Another question around on the California if you were to take your wife somewhere for dinner, where's? Where's the top two restaurants you're going to?
Speaker 2Such a hard question too.
Speaker 3It's hard because you know what we? You know we like Italian, so we love Via Roma. We like going to.
Speaker 1My wife likes ill for now, the for now any of the open house, because there's a couple right, there's one full.
Speaker 3I mean I want, I haven't been in Folsom, but you know we'll. Typically just we don't go that often but if we go we usually go in Roseau near the Galleria, but we've been to the one like kind of downtown near Cold one center especially that's a pretty spot. I love that. I like sushi. My wife's not a big sushi eater, but man other restaurants chef's tables great. I mean. There's a lot of options.
Speaker 1There are a lot of options and but I should say we don't go as much as we should in terms of going out as much, you know, but those are some so that's what's a wife. What is the same? List with the friends. Are you going out?
Speaker 3You know, I don't know it. We usually end up at the local watering hole, which is not a bad thing.
Speaker 2But it can be, you know that's right. Yeah, we did.
Speaker 3And so yeah, you know or it's I, danny got me in. You know Danny Flores got me in this weekly nine-hole golf group every Tuesday. So you know that's kind of the one said the one day of the week that I there's 30, some guys, right so all different, great different guys, young to old, and and it's nice just doing the nine holes and then hanging out afterwards, you know, just chitchatting, having a beer or whatever.
Speaker 1Yeah, so that's that's really cool, yeah, and I know a lot of those guys, so 30 guys were. We want to come have a beer on those Tuesday nights.
Speaker 3Where are we going, like we have a lot of listeners that might show up, so we wrote the, the guy who runs the league does a great job. He Does three ten week sessions at three different courses for the year. So we just finished up, we were playing at Shoot where we Lincoln Hills. We just finished up, but we've played wood Creek, we've played Morgan Creek, we've played Turkey Creek, so he rotates it around every Session which is a ten week session and this is he, who's he is.
Speaker 1He just manages the tournaments, or?
Speaker 3I mean he plays in it I. I was introduced to him. I didn't know him before I joined the league which this was my second year playing in the league and Danny and Woody Jason got me into the league. It was funny. Once I joined I knew like four or five other guys yeah, I played hockey with. That was my old. I stopped playing hockey for a few years just for various reasons, but that was my old kind of thing played, you know, men's league, beer league, hockey, and once or twice a week and you know same kind of thing. After had fun playing but it was the camaraderie hanging with the guys and afterwards having some beers and whatever.
Speaker 1So yeah, and there's a lot of people that listen to this, that are looking. That's why we're asking these questions were changing upright. There's you know you're talking. I can see the smile on your face and it's every Tuesday night. There's this league within our community, that that other people can join, and there's probably multiple, but how we get the word out and how we highlight that we'd love to know.
Speaker 3That's just. You know, those are my things that I did, but there's a lot of things I think just getting involved in and finding something that you can find other people who enjoy whatever that is, whatever the activity is and I've met some great people from it and enjoy.
Speaker 1You know you look forward to it right, yeah, and what, what else in In our area, in the Sacramento Rockland area, or even in youth sports, is their direction that you like, hey, this is a really good program, or?
Speaker 3So you know what my kids, my I have four children, three boys and one girl. My daughter wasn't. She did you know sports through school Growing up, but she's not. She was never an athlete and big into sports. She, she tried a lot of them. I just wasn't her thing as much. But my boys, all you know, played baseball, basketball, football. So we did all the, from Rockland Lily 8 to Rockland Junior Thunder to Hot shots and then high school and all that. So I love it. My youngest is still playing you know his football, basketball, baseball. So I love doing that with him. I think it's great. It's a great. That's one of the things I love about Rockland as a community. It's there's a lot of People really support the youth sports aspects and there's a lot there to offer for the kids.
Speaker 1Yeah, we moved here just about ten years ago when, when the youngest on of him was in sixth or seventh grade and my middle Boy was a sophomore. And for those who are looking for great school systems for support, just Still see a lot of people in the community from watching them grow like this is a great area to raise a family. It really is. Yeah, yeah, there's. And then when you start to look at the surrounding areas is when the mall is, and then the different places you can go, the eateries this is just a really good community and then where we're doing on podcast now we're at the rising zone and you know, yvonne, to put this together, there's just so many different connections that once you start having these type of conversations, you realize what a great community it is.
Speaker 3It really is. I feel like you know you live in this little bubble of Rockland and you don't venture that far off. You know you don't have to maybe a little bit in a Roseville or Granite Bay or wherever that may be, but yeah it's, it's a great spot, especially for me coming from the Bay area. Shoot man, how many years ago 18 years ago it's it was a great movement. Primarily it was work, but also it was more motivated by just being in a great family area Good, good place to raise the kids.
Speaker 1And so we're coming up on close to an hour now. So what? Anything else you want to share with this, or any questions that you have, oh?
Family and Life in Northern California
Speaker 2Put me on the spot. No, I'll let you any. That's what I was just gonna say. Any other things as far as I guess actually you're, I was wondering if your children so you said you're one still in high school. But yeah, you think the other ones branch out like you. Do they move across the country, or are they still here? You think they'll, you know what. So my oldest.
Speaker 3He. He's been in California. He went to school in University of Nevada. He went to rock on high school in Nevada, went down. I got a master's down at ASU. But he's been working in Sacramento area. But he's actually gonna In January relocate down to San Diego With some friends and get you know good buddies of his, so that's exciting for him. My daughter she's the probably most adventurous in terms of just moving away yeah, out of California. She went to school, she went to college at Xavier University in Cincinnati and she decided to stay there. Got a job, works at a local TV station there and you know, since I had it, so you know we miss her, she's you know, she's very independent and likes to do her thing.
Speaker 3and then my middle son is a Junior at UNR studying engineering, so he's still around, but even though he spends most his time up there, yeah. And then my youngest is a sophomore in high school, so yeah good, so good mix, it's a great.
Speaker 1Good for you for having a sophomore in high school. 59.
Speaker 3Yeah, that was about six months or even just with my wife and I won't. We actually found out she was pregnant. We were down visiting my parents, my mom and dad I talked about. We used to sail in the summer, so my mom and dad, when my dad retired or they retired, I should say, because my mom worked you know, even though it was at home.
Speaker 3But they had a sailboat and they would live, you know, four or five months in the British Virgin Islands on their sailboat. So we go down and visit them and we were down there and my wife was not feeling good and we were, I forget. We were at one of these islands and she went into the local, the little ship just what do you call it? Little store at a resort and found a pregnancy, pregnancy, yeah, thanks.
Speaker 2So you're still a child Pregnant test. Kid Denial To the test.
Speaker 3Right On the boat she shows it to me and I'm like you've got to be kidding me.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 3And I kind of had a sense, because the way she felt, the only time she ever felt yeah, that's right, you would think, okay, you're on a sailboat, maybe you're seasick, but the way she felt was the only time she felt like that was really when she was pregnant before. And it was funny because my oldest I forget he was 10 or 11 at the time, 10 years old maybe and he saw the positive test thing and he's like grand was pregnant.
Speaker 1It was kind of funny yeah it was hilarious oh my gosh what a story.
Speaker 3But yeah, so yeah that was kind of a surprise. It took us about six months. We'd just look at each other and go I can't believe we're having another baby.
Speaker 1Yeah, you're due for some grand babies now, yeah that's a long way off.
Speaker 3Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2I don't see that in my future. Not like you know.
Speaker 3you're lucky, that's one thing where we're like all right kids, you know, go out there maybe start dating someone or something.
Speaker 2They're me time those breaks that they need.
Speaker 3Like the younger two, we can wait.
Speaker 2But the older two. You know they can start, you know any?
Speaker 3time moving that direction.
Speaker 1This has been a fantastic conversation, john, anything you want to share with anyone that's listening about you or the family. Northern California.
Speaker 3Well, shoot, man. I mean, my family is everything. I love my family, whether it's my family back east, my immediate family or my wife and kids. They're kind of my everything right, especially my wife, you know we've been together so long. It's sometimes it feels like, you know, we're buddies, we've known each other so long, but she's really. You know, my inspiration pushes me to be better and always be trying to be the best that I am, because I can stray and fall down every once in a while.
Speaker 3But no, I mean, family is everything. I think that's really important. I was raised that way. Family is important value those times, in those relationships. You can't beat Northern California in terms of the weather. It's beautiful, just the opportunities. You know you hear a lot about people leaving California but at the end of the day it's still. You know, at least this area, I think this area where we live is is. You know, let's not tell too many people how great it is right.
Speaker 2Yeah, just start flooding.
Speaker 3Because it is a great spot. But no, I. And then I think just overall, maybe from a work perspective, it's just kind of take advantage, learn from people the more you learn, take chances right, Take opportunities. Don't say no to an opportunity.
Networking's Importance in Career Progression
Speaker 1Yeah, Always take it Always take it. Someone offers you something.
Speaker 3You know, there was a couple of times in my career I you know, as I progressed throughout my career, I was at Oracle and three months later my immediate manager, who was the product manager for this new product that we just launched, says, oh, I'm leaving, I'm going somewhere, and they're like tag, you're it. And you know, our VP said, hey, do you want the job? And I'm like, well, yeah, I did. And you know, I walk out of there. I don't know what the hell I'm doing, right. But there were times when I kind of hesitated and wasn't sure later in my career that you know, I don't know if I'm ready for that, right. And I learned pretty quick well, if you're not ready, we're going to find somebody else.
Speaker 1Yeah, take the risk.
Speaker 2Take the risk.
Speaker 3So you know value network I would tell you. You know you talk about. I try to tell my kids, at least the ones that are working hey, network, go out and meet people take chances, do different things, right.
Speaker 3You never know where that career is going to take you Like I didn't have a set path, yeah, and I think a lot of people don't. Right, so be open and but always keep that network. You never know who you meet or what you may learn was going to. You know, somehow open a door down the road for you, right.
Speaker 1Yeah, and there's the old saying is don't burn any bridges, and oh, for sure. You'd be amazed at how many people I've talked to are in my career that you know you're working with someone and they end up being your boss at some point, and maybe it's for a short stint, maybe it's for a long stint, but you don't know how things are going to work at work. They end up being a partner that you have a good relationship with or a bad relationship. Those relationships are all very, very important.
Speaker 3Yeah, no, that's for sure.
Speaker 2Thank you so much, thanks for having me.
