Just wasted 6 hours of my life on an interview process for a company that listed "competitive salary" on the job posting. Phone screen, technical assessment, two rounds with different managers. I took PTO for this. Prepared for hours. Did everything right.
Finally get to the offer stage. They hit me with a number that is $20k below market rate for this role in my area. Twenty thousand dollars. I literally laughed and asked if they meant to say a different number.
The recruiter had the audacity to say "well, we feel this is competitive given our benefits package." Ma'am, your benefits package is standard. Health insurance exists at every company. That's not a perk, that's baseline.
I told her I couldn't accept anything below $X and she acted shocked, like I was being unreasonable. Said she'd "see what she could do" and came back with an extra $3k. Still $17k under market. I declined.
Here's what kills me. They KNOW what market rate is. They're not stupid. They just hope you're desperate enough or uninformed enough to take it. They use "competitive" because it sounds good and means nothing. Competitive with what? A McDonald's cashier? A 2015 salary?
If your salary is actually competitive, you'd post the range. The fact that you won't tells me everything I need to know.
I'm so tired of companies treating the interview process like a free lottery ticket where they might get lucky and find someone willing to be underpaid. Wasting hours of candidates' time only to lowball them at the end should be illegal. At minimum, salary ranges should be required on every job posting.
Anyway. Back to the job boards. Again.