The candidate applied for a role with a posted salary of $110,000 to $150,000. What followed was an eight-stage process: multiple technical interviews, a take-home project, and five separate 90-minute panel sessions. Roughly thirty different people cycled through the process. After each round, the recruiter called it "the final stage" — and then scheduled another.
When the last interview ended, the recruiter phoned with unexpected news: the salary range, they explained, had been a "mistake." The real ceiling was $90,000. Not a negotiation tactic. Not a budget adjustment. A clerical error that nobody caught through eight rounds and thirty conversations.
The candidate withdrew. The job was reposted a week later with the same original salary range. As one commenter on Reddit put it: "I have a hard time believing any of these companies these days. Trust is at an all-time low."