This was the worst interview experience I have ever had. I was up for two different positions at Barnes and got offered a final round interview for both. The recruiter that I was working with asked my minimum salary requirement, which I told her. She responded by saying that position A won’t be able to meet that requirement, and that position B would be a better fit for that reason.
With that knowledge from the recruiter, I dropped out of interviews for position A and went to the last round interview with position B. They told me during the interview that they would like to verbally offer me the job, and to look out for a formal offer. The formal offer took 9 weeks to arrive. I went multiple weeks at a time without hearing an update from anyone about where in the process the offer was.
The worst part, though, was that when I got the offer, the recruiter called me to tell me that the salary they were offering was significantly lower ( by 10k+) than the minimum salary I told them (a minimum that she said was within range for that position when she encouraged me to move forward with this interview over the other position I was interviewing for). She was very condescending and kept saying things like “I know you gave us your minimum salary requirement but what’s your REAL minimum?” Another disappointing thing was that the salary they offered was less than the salary range listed for position A (which is the one she told me could never meet my minimum).
I probably would’ve considered accepting this offer (even with the salary below my minimum) if I had gotten it under better circumstances. But I just felt manipulated by the time this whole ordeal was over, and I was angry about several other opportunities with other companies that I had turned down after I had gotten my verbal offer from BJC, since the process had taken 9 weeks. BJC should really work on making sure their recruiters are relating accurate information to their interviewees. It was disappointing to waste so much time and give up another opportunity at BJC, and others outside BJC, based on false information from HR.