His application was rejected before anyone read it. The reason given: his salary expectations did not align with their budget.
The budget was never advertised. Nor was a range. He had been asked, in effect, to guess a number he had never been shown, and then assessed on how close the guess came.
“If there’s a budget, why not just tell us?” he wrote. “Some of us are trying to build a future here, not compete on The Price is Right.”
There was no negotiation and no question. Just a rejection for missing a figure that existed only inside the company. He was not asking for a fortune — a life, bills, and maybe the occasional holiday. The mystery salary was the test. He failed it by not being psychic.