回憶史上最有爭議的CEO 拉里·埃裏森與我的一次面試

I don’t remember a lot of details. It was November 1986. I had just finished a graduate degree in computer science at Stanford University, where I had specialized in software development. I was looking for a job.

具體細節我已經記不清了。那是1986年的11月份。我剛剛在斯坦福大學（Stanford University）完成計算機科學研究生學位。帶着軟件開發的特長，我開始尋找工作。

There was no LinkedIn back then. Though the Web would not become popular for almost another decade, the computer science department on campus had Internet access. And the place to look for tech jobs was the Usenet, an early online bulletin board that organized posts along nine major categories like “rec.” (for recreation and entertainment) and “sci.” (for scientific topics). Each category had scores of subcategories. was the place to look for computer science gigs.

當時還沒有LinkedIn。雖然網絡要等到十年後纔會普及，但學校的計算機科學系已經能夠連接互聯網。當時找科技類工作的地方是Usenet，一款早期網絡布告欄。其中包括9個主要類別的帖子，如“rec.”（代表休閒娛樂）和“sci.”（代表科學類主題）。每一類都有許多子分類。在專欄可以尋找計算機科學類的工作。

I found two jobs that seemed to match my qualifications, and I got interviews at both companies. One was a little-known firm specializing in relational databases that had gone public a few months earlier and had a few hundred employees. It was called Oracle, and I knew next to nothing about it.

我找到兩份與我條件相符的工作，並參加了這兩家公司的面試。其中一家當時的知名度較小，主要業務是關聯式數據庫，在幾個月前剛剛上市，有幾百名員工。那家公司的名字叫甲骨文（Oracle），但我對它一無所知。

Back then, Oracle had not yet moved to its massive complex of green-tinged, glass towers in Redwood City, Calif., often called the emerald city. It was just up the hill from there, in a nondescript white building on Davis Drive in Belmont. But the company already had plenty of the flash it would later become famous for. I met with several well-dressed execs, including some in sales. The salesmen—they were mostly men—seemed to have the run of the place. One of them took me to lunch in his sports car. We went to a restaurant that overlooked the San Francisco Bay that was, without doubt, meant to impress a kid on a grad-school budget. After several interviews, the recruiting manager told me that every new engineering recruit had to meet the CEO. That was fine with me.

當時，甲骨文還沒有搬到位於加州雷德伍德的綠玻璃大樓，即衆所周知的 “翡翠城”。那時候甲骨文的總部在一座小山坡上，位於貝爾蒙特戴維斯大街一棟普通的白色大樓裏面。不過，公司當時已經擁有許多了不起的想法，在後來爲其打出了知名度。我見到了幾位衣着得體的高管，包括銷售部門高管。銷售人員以男性爲主，他們在公司有很大的自由。其中一位高管開着跑車帶我去吃午飯。我們來到一家俯瞰舊金山灣區的餐廳，這給我這個囊中羞澀的研究生留下了深刻印象。經過幾輪面試之後，招聘經理告訴我，每一位新工程師都要見一下CEO。我當然沒有問題。

I was ushered into Larry Ellison’s office. He was sitting at a desk in front of a large window that overlooked the Bay. He was casual and easygoing, and for the next 15 minutes, we talked about this and that. What did I learn in school? What did I want to do? Which of the many positions we had discussed was most interesting to me? Then he stood up and that was it.

我被領進拉里o埃裏森的辦公室。他坐在桌子前面，透過一扇大窗戶可以俯瞰灣區。他很隨和，接下來15分鐘，我們談論了許多話題。我從學校裏學到了什麼？我想要做什麼？在已經談論過的崗位中，有哪一個最令我感興趣？然後他站了起來，談話到此結束。

I had no way to know back then that Ellison would go on to become one of the most celebrated, colorful, and controversial CEOs of all time. Or that Oracle shares would end up climbing nearly 90,000% from the price of the company’s initial public offering. In those days, Ellison was just a startup guy in his early forties. His net worth was not worth mentioning.

我當時並不知道，埃裏森會成爲史上最著名、最有趣、最有爭議的CEO之一。也從來沒有想過，甲骨文的股票會比公司首次公開募股時的價格上漲接近90,000%。當時的埃裏森剛四十出頭，纔剛剛創業。他的資產淨值根本不值一提。

I was offered the job at Oracle, but I ended up taking the other job. It was at another company that had just gone public, Sun Microsystems, and it had a distinctly different feel. (I didn’t know enough about business to think of it as “culture.”) It was driven by engineers, many of them with . Salespeople were nowhere in sight during my interviews. The intense tech focus seemed like a better fit for me.

我收到了甲骨文的工作邀請，但最終還是選擇了另外一份工作。那是另外一家上市公司——太陽微系統公司（Sun Microsystems），它與甲骨文給我的感覺截然不同。（當時我對商業的瞭解不多，還想不到“文化”層面。）這家公司的主力是工程師，許多人都擁有博士學位。我在面試的時候沒有看到銷售人員的影子。這種特別注重技術開發的模式，似乎更適合我。

I didn’t see Larry Ellison again until years later, after I had left engineering to become a journalist. It was during a talk at the University of California, Berkeley in 1999 where he was interviewed by the dean of the journalism school, Orville Schell. Ellison spent most of his time bashing Microsoft. He had become brash, cocky, and a billionaire. Like him or hate him, he was far more memorable than the affable guy I had met back on Davis Drive.

再次見到拉里o埃裏森已是多年之後，當時我已經離開工程領域，成爲一名記者。那次見面是在1999年，加州大學伯克利分校（University of California, Berkeley）舉辦的一次演講，他在接受新聞學院院長奧威爾o斯科勒採訪的時候，用了大部分時間抨擊微軟（Microsoft）。他已經成爲一位傲慢、自大的億萬富翁。不論喜歡他還是討厭他，他肯定比我在戴維斯大道見到的那個和藹可親的傢伙更加令人印象深刻。

On Thursday, Oracle announced that Ellison was stepping down as CEO after 37 years. Though some say it’s more of a formality than a true change, it’s a moment of significance for one of the industry’s most prominent leaders.

上週四，甲骨文宣佈埃裏森將辭去已擔任37年的CEO一職。雖然有人認爲這只是形式，並非真正的變化，但對於業內最傑出的領導者之一，這將是一個有着重要意義的時刻。