[magduf]

It sounds like it was a good thing you got fired from Oracle. You got a raise in your next job (so Oracle was underpaying you), and you got away from a crappy company. Your only mistake, in hindsight, might be that you didn't leave Oracle sooner.

I stuck around at one company for way too long too, earlier in my career. I finally got pushed out because of a bunch of layoffs. I got a huge raise at my next company, plus a more interesting job too, and better coworkers. I should have looked around earlier, but I was comfortable at that job and afraid of leaving. (That next job ended up not lasting too, again due to mismanagement resulting in laying off my whole team, but the job after also came with another big raise...)

I think the moral here is to not ever get too comfortable at any one job, and don't take things personally if you get laid off: the company is probably being stupid and losing a great asset.