By far the most disappointing rug pull of an interview experience. The process took a month total from my application and started with a behavioral interview with a recruiter, where I discussed my experience and was asked questions about how I’d handle common situations on my team, plus any salary expectations. About two weeks later I advanced to a technical stage where I was asked by two engineers more technically-pointed behavioral questions then was asked to solve a live coding problem, with a choice between Typescript (which I chose) and C#. One week after that, I progressed to a cultural interview where I was asked more behavioral questions for a panel (including VP and two senior engineers) to gauge how my attitude would fit with the company’s values. Overall, York appeared to be searching for a long-term engineer who was passionate about the products which they produced as opposed to a flight risk who valued work-life balance more than anything. Every stakeholder who interviewed me at all stages was wonderful and gave me a positive impression of the people I’d be working with. I received a phone call from the recruiter a day later, where I was given a verbal offer and ask to reaffirm my salary expectations, with the expectation that I’d receive a 15% to 20% pay bump that I’d asked for as my current position underpaid me by that percentage. I provided my current salary to use for negotiation purposes. When I received the written offer, I was only proposed a lowball 3% pay bump with a sign-on bonus that would bring it up to a 7% pay bump, dramatically below what I had asked for although my expectations were both in range with the base range posted and in par with the market-level average salary, which left me disappointed at the end of this process. Up until this point, I was eager to accept the offer and felt valued joining the company. Yet, I ultimately ghosted the offer and let it lapse because I found the proposal unprofessional considering the effort I’d spent throughout the process while interviewing as it denigrated the salary expectations that I’d clearly set.