The interview process began with an initial HR screening, followed by a group technical interview conducted over a conference call.

I called in five minutes ahead of time and waited fifteen minutes. None of the interviewers showed up. I arranged a second attempt with the recruiter.

Again, I called in five minutes early. After ten minutes of dead air, I suspected a connection problem, as the interview was already scheduled to start five minutes prior. I hung up and dialed again. This time, a couple of the interviewers were present, discussing my absence. This was about eight minutes into the scheduled start time. More interviewers joined belatedly, with no apologies offered.

They started with the generic "tell us about yourself." I asked what specific information they were looking for. The manager then interjected with questions about my experience using various technologies.

A technical interviewer asked basic questions on JavaScript closures, which I answered. She then asked, "What are the advantages of jQuery?" I mentioned function chaining and DOM selection. Her response was, "Those aren’t the answers I was looking for... the correct answer is cross-browser programming." She then inquired about my experience with TypeScript, a technology not listed on my resume as I'd only used it twice. I mentioned I had "toyed with it." She then extensively interrogated me on my limited experience, focusing on my use of simple transpiling to ES5, criticizing it as inappropriate for fifteen minutes.

After her lengthy critique, I asked, "What are you really looking for?" The response was, "We’re looking for someone who’s creative—who can solve creative problems." I paused for a few seconds, hoping for an interview question related to this stated requirement, but received none. There were no questions like, "Tell us about a difficult problem and how you faced it," or "Here’s a problem—how might this get solved?" No questions aligned with their claimed desire for creative thinkers.

The experience felt akin to a poor speed-date where a snob claims to desire a partner with emotional integrity and humor but never probes these qualities, making a superficial judgment based on appearance.

My advice to Oracle is to invest time in training interviewers, equipping them with the necessary skills. They should be advised to ask questions that align with the company's stated values (creative thinkers) or to be transparent and admit they are simply seeking "academic code monkeys."

Why would you use TypeScript that way? You make no sense!