Romania became a really expensive country to hire and Oracle is desperate to relocate to another country for lower salaries.
HR in EMEA is now hiring in Bulgaria. They are using local job agencies and completely outside of official channels (you won't find job offers on iRecruitment, on linkedin, and Oracle is never mentioned).
They're doing it exactly like they're used to. Clandestine recruitment, clandestine training sessions, while pretending that everything is fine.
Same thing we're experiencing in other "low-cost" support centers: we don't pay enough to attract or retain skilled support engineers. As soon as other companies move in, we can't compete. Our only option is to go look for the next low cost geo. Working at Oracle support is kind of like an internship. The few graduates who still chose to do it are only interested in a check mark on their CV before they go out and find a "real job". Only the absolute lowest skilled people stay for more than 2 years in a support position at Oracle.
I think if you have a few years experience in Romania and your not really stuck to the country then your crazy if you stay, you can make much more money working abroad.
I used to work there but left the country as i am single, have a great sysadmin job now for big bank in London. Pays me 5 times as i was earning in Bucharest i love it here.
It used to be $1200 per month and it was an attractive salary in 2011, but it's low now, considering how 1-2 years of experience can land you a job paying $1800-2200 per month in Bucharest.
Oracle doesn't want to pay that much, so they can't even stem the outflow of good employees to their competition. They were desperately trying to cover this up for several months by hiring way below requirements.
Even at relatively high salaries, Bucharest remains a very attractive place to develop in and hire. Cheap land, great location (center of the Balkans, but more stable, and still a b--cheaper than Greece), and anyone setting up shop in Romania can take advantage of a good job market of experienced and well trained people, assuming you don't try to overextend and treat Romania as your next huge center.
The "countries around Romania" are further up north, particularly Hungary, Austria and even Slovakia, where AT&T set up shop in Bratislava and I'm aware that at least a dozen Romanians took up job offers there between 2012 and 2013.
Romania is considered expensive? What is the average Oracle wage there? $1000 USD per month?
That's SC's word for you, she loves Rumania, she loves not ....
Well, now you know how much SC's loyalty is worth, nothing. Her Rumanian heritage and everything, empty words.