I had a recruiter call, followed by a technical and a non-technical interview. While I successfully passed both the technical and non-technical stages, the recruiter later asked about my previous income in a dismissive manner, seemingly to confirm if I fell within the salary range for senior ML Engineers. It made me wonder—if their interviewers were unable to accurately assess a candidate’s level, were they relying on previous income as a benchmark instead? What a shame to see such a flawed approach in evaluating talent.