A tech professional’s account of a job interview has drawn attention online after he claimed that a salary-related issue came up only after he had gone through the interview process.
The hiring process continued despite the company knowing what he currently earned. He claimed the company presented its own size and stability as a reason for him to accept the lower salary.
The candidate said he had to prepare for the interview, take time off work and travel to the company’s office before meeting the client. It was only after this that the candidate said the company told him it did not have the budget for the role. The company then began negotiating his salary down to an amount lower than what he currently earns, according to the post. The candidate said the reason given was that he works at a startup. “Apparently startups can shut down at any time,” he wrote. “HCL is a large, stable company, so I should be willing to take a lower salary in exchange for that ‘stability’,” he said. The candidate said he would have understood if the company had been upfront about its budget at the start. “If you had told me at the beginning, ‘This is our maximum budget and it’s below what you’re currently earning,’ absolutely no problem,” he wrote, adding that he would have “politely declined” and moved on. Instead, he said what frustrated him was the time and effort he had already invested in the process. “What irritates me is that they already knew my current remuneration and still made me spend time preparing, travelling to their office and attending the client interview,” he wrote.
