alt Hacker NewsI will repost a comment I made here a while ago on a similar discussion. Salary non-disclosure is a dealbreaker for me since being through the situation described below:
A few years back I wanted to get out of the work situation I was in. I looked around, had some interviews, had some offers. None of the postings had salary ranges, as is common where I live.
My eyes, however, were set on a specific small company because I liked their product. The process was long and involved multiple meetings, a take-home problem, and stretched over 2 or so months. I was upfront about what my salary expectations were (wasn't looking for a raise, just a lateral move). They said we discuss salary when you meet the founders, i.e. the last step before getting hired, but they also didn't tell me that my range was way off.
Turns out I had played this 9 week game and turned down other offers just to be severely low-balled by them. Maybe they saw that I really wanted the position and thought they could get away with a low offer.
Obviously, I rejected their offer on the spot. I also promised myself to never, _ever_, be fooled like that again. We talk money before I invest any significant amount of time or I walk.
EDIT: fixed wording.
Replies
> small company
> Stretched over two months
These companies aren't Google. There is no valid reason why it should take so long to decide on candidates for a position. It is not necessary to have more than two interview sessions. I bail on any company that subjects people to this garbage.
A friend that works as a manager told me that companies stretch the interview process on purpose so that at the end you will accept a lower offer that you normally would because you are exhausted by the process.
I always assumed that kind of tactic was a way of hiding other decisions, e.g. protected class discrimination or some such.
I’ve similarly had 6-round interviews where at the end I either receive a lowball offer or am rejected because of something disclosed up-front.
I always get a range up front from the recruiter (and later confirm with the hiring manager).
Similar experience, multiple tech rounds all completed with excellent feedback from a company which approached me. Mentioned my ask and no indication of the range being a problem (but no firm approval either).
Based on that, assumption was the budget would be adequate. Final response was that they would not even mention the salary because it was too far away.
Following week they posted the job advert for same staff engineer role but at under average eu minimum wage.
It's risky if no salary is listed but do not ever proceed if they don't openly accept your ask without any doubt.
yep - never interview - if salary range is not disclosed by the hiring manager or recruiter. if hiring manager can't discuss salary - the hiring manager is a lame duck and won't push anything but just take orders.
with regards to uk tech companies - they have salary ranges like 60k-75k - where someone might have spent time in a role at 63k e.g if the average tenure within a certain position is 3 years, 63k - then when you join they will say new joiners start at 60k.
Perchance you mean: "non disclosure of salary is a dealbreaker"?
This is very common with small software shops (which don't have the budget) and startups (which are running on private equity fumes).
There should be a Yelp for shitty businesses like this and half of linkedin would get listed in the hall of shame
Do you still like their product or do you now understand your bias?
I would never consider a company that's making me wait that long unless I'm desperate to put food on my table and I have no other choice.
Had a similar experience, vowed to never do take home assignments ever again.
If i was good enough to get hired as a faang with just interviews and no take home stuff i see no reason to do that for a smaller company.
I've done worse than that. I've taken the job on a lower salary, being told I'd get a promotion and pay rise in 6 months. That didn't happen. And then when it didn't happen at 18 months they dangled the carrot of a promotion up two levels. After a few weeks of not hearing about it I popped a resignation letter in the post one morning, went into the office and had an email to say the promotion had "gone away".
Then they went legal trying to prevent me working for a competitor.
I actually got what I needed from the role anyway, but it was a lesson to heed the red flags. I've not heeded that lesson a couple of times recently, just because the market seems to be toast, but it's not been worth it.