I have had similar challenges but just the reverse.  I started in SQL Server 7 and had to work in Oracle 8i.  I have been burnt several times by the limited tools which Oracle provides and get frustrated with how much longer it takes to do the same things in Oracle.  I have been burnt by Oracle DBA Studio to change a password which never happened and looking up a constraint which Oracle DBA Studio displayed the incorrect fields which the constraint was on.  Oracles tools take forever to load, if they do load, as they have been written in Java.

Oracle seems to work best if you do everything through SQL Plus but who has the time or the budget?  I really don't wish to bash Oracle and many people swear by it. I wish I could be one of them but I find myself swearing at it most of the time.

I am glad you were able to turn your situation around and have a positive outcome.  It is helpful for an individual to work with more than one vendors database product.  You know more about the challenges and advantages of using one database over the other.

Good Luck