HR called 2 months ago asking security clearance questions like how long have you been working in Canada. What's my expected salary range. Reply with low six figure and HR disappeared, so I didn't take them seriously. Then I got a call a month ago and were told the software architect position were taken by an internal candidate and see if I would be ok with a Sr Software Engineer role. It's a step down and were told high five figure was a stretch and see what they can do. I agreed to an interview just to see what kinds of cool projects they have. Interview went smoothly with lots of questions regarding past experience. The engineering team members appeared to be quite organized with a set of prepared questions. A whiteboard problem solving session with one of the hiring manager to simulate working together to solve a problem. Much better than regular coding or syntax questions. HR called and said they were ready to make an offer. This is where the fun began. Surprise, surprise, it's a low ball "Back to the Future" offer. I was told in order to "speed up" the process, they need 2 references for quick question. I provided 3 for completeness (a 360 view) Big mistakes. I was both surprised and embarrassed to hear that they were being asked in-depth behavioural questions. I am grateful for the help from my old collages. HR left voice mail and asked me to call back over the weekend. After 4 calls going directly into the voice mail and another call to the office to the voice mail. I felt something sketch was going on. A little Google-Fu indicated that the architect position was repeatedly re-post for more than 6 months. And it's re-posted again. It turned out to be a "bait and switch" posting which is commonly used by HR agency. It made me wonder about the ethnic and professionalism of the organization. HR finally called back after 5 day asking for 2 extra references. At this point, I can pretty much conclude that they were just dragging it on waiting for the lowest bidder. While I was a little upset but I was glad I got a feel of the organization before investing time in the company. One good thing coming from this experience was that I managed to re-connect with a lot of past connections. It opened up many opportunities along the way.

The first thing they wanted to discuss were my salary expectations. After some discussion it was clear that the top end of their salary range was far below the average salary in Canada for a position of this type in this industry. On top of this, Vancouver has the highest real estate prices in Canada. When it became clear that there was no flexibility on salary I indicated that I would be pursuing other opportunities, and terminated the interview.