First spoke with HR on the phone and discussed meeting with the Hiring Manager and the team in person quickly. My resume had caught the Hiring Manager's eye and he wanted to bring me in for a position that had not been posted yet.
I had a full day, in person interview with over 5 employees from various departments asking me about my experience. I killed it. I was very much appreciated and welcomed, although I understood the job would be demanding (at times 80 hrs/week and no working from home until a few months in with the commute across town). HR also went over benefits during the interview and was open to answering any questions I had. I was then asked to take a Leadership Personality Test. My last interview was with the Partner who had barely confirmed a time to interview before asking to speak. Nonetheless, HR and the team had made me feel quite competent, so I proceeded.
HR called to get a "preliminary" salary expectation, which I was shocked to hear would be 36% of the market rate that they attributed to a "Pay for Performance" structure. They negated all the exceptional experience I had and made me feel unqualified all of a sudden. I had been offered a Senior Consultant role in interviews, which then became Entry Level (two steps down). This went down from 4 weeks vacation to 2 and barely any of the benefits they had mentioned initially.
I gave it a shot and expected to negotiate pretty strongly. However, even after negotiating to increase the salary by 15K and start at an Associate Consultant level, the salary was still 20K less than Glassdoor's estimate for an "ENTRY LEVEL CONSULTANT WITH 0-2 YEARS EXPERIENCE," derived from the exact job that HR posted after offering me the role. They were not open to negotiating anywhere close to what I should have earned. At 80 hours/week and still 50% of the market rate, I could not consider the job seriously. Their loss.
As background, I had a prior interview with the same company for an Entry Level Consultant position, which I did not get because I was overqualified. And somehow that's the box they wanted to place me in with less pay than that previous position?
At first, I felt very appreciated, but throughout the process I quickly understood that I looked like a cheap deal to them. Very confusing process, very misleading and I felt quite disrespected. As great as their reputation is, this treatment of their current and potential employees is not going to work long term.