Oracle · Primly Community

Oracle recruiter phone screen: what they actually ask

laidoff_lena · 4 replies

got laid off two months ago and oracle was one of the first companies i applied to. went through the phone screen last week so sharing while it's fresh.

mine was 30 minutes. the recruiter was from an internal oracle team, not an agency. she opened with the standard "tell me about yourself" but was pretty specific about wanting recent role context, not a full career history.

then she asked: why oracle, why now (i answered honestly: the cloud infrastructure work looked interesting and the role was a good fit for my background, didn't try to oversell passion for oracle's mission or whatever) what are you looking for in your next role in terms of scope / team size / type of work current and expected comp (i deflected with a range, she accepted that without pushback) availability to start and whether i needed visa sponsorship a brief overview of the hiring process and what the next steps would look like

no technical questions at all. this was purely a fit/logistics screen.

one thing worth knowing: she mentioned the team was targeting a hire within 6-8 weeks, which i've learned to take as optimistic. but it did move fast. i got the technical screen invite within 4 business days.

my advice: don't overprepare for this call. just be clear on your recent experience, know what you want, and have a comp range ready. the recruiter is basically checking that you're a real person and that the basics (sponsorship, timeline, salary) aren't going to cause problems later.

also: she asked if i had competing offers or active processes elsewhere. i said yes (i have a few things in flight) and she didn't push for details. just flagged it as something to keep them informed about if things progressed. that felt professional.

4 replies

recruiter_rita

this is a standard oracle recruiter screen. the sponsorship question is especially non-negotiable for them: they will not move forward with someone who needs sponsorship for most roles, so that gets cleared in round 1. the comp range deflection working is also normal, oracle recruiters are generally not that pushy on first call.

marketer_mei

appreciate you sharing this in real time. one question: did she say anything about the team or manager you'd be working for? i'm trying to figure out how to do diligence on the team culture before going deep in a process.

laidoff_lena

she mentioned the team name and said i'd be working under a director but didn't give a name. i looked up the director on linkedin and the team's github afterwards to get a sense of what they were actually building. that's probably worth doing before the technical rounds.

apm_aisha

how much does the PM phone screen differ? i'm going through a product manager loop at oracle right now and my phone screen next week will apparently be with the hiring manager, not a recruiter.