# Posted at $110K. After Five Rounds and Six Hours of Work, the Offer Was $75K.

**[TRUE STORY]** — by Candidate · via r/jobs

Four weeks, five rounds, for a senior operations role. The listing had been explicit about pay: $110,000 to $130,000.

He cleared the recruiter screen, two technical panels, and a culture-fit conversation with a vice-president. Then a six-hour assignment — a strategic workflow presentation, delivered before any offer existed.

The HR director called the next day to extend a verbal offer. There was, he wrote, a theatrical congratulations speech and a dramatic pause. Then the number: a starting base of $75,000.

He went silent. When he raised the posted floor, she told him the $110,000 figure had included “total potential compensation” — the value of health insurance and annual performance incentives.

He told her that dressing entry-level pay in a total-reward package was predatory, that it had cost him twenty hours, and he withdrew on the spot. She was still talking when he hung up.

*Source: [r/jobs · new post](https://www.reddit.com/r/jobs/comments/1wuze8b/after_5_interview_rounds_and_a_takehome_project/)*
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