I was initially contacted by a recruiter for a security engineer position at Rackspace. He screened me with an initial list of about 20 technical questions which I answered correctly. He then said he would forward my resume and screening results to the HR person at Rackspace. He asked me what I was making at my last position and I told him. He did not tell me the salary of what the position paid. I was then contacted by the Rackspace HR person and a technical phone screen was set up.
I was technically screened by two engineers. It lasted about 45 minutes and I would rate it as fairly difficult. They said I did well and the next step would be to go to San Antonio and go through another tech screen in their lab configuring firewall scenarios. I would also go through a panel interview. At this point, I was thinking the job must pay pretty well because clearly they wanted someone experienced.
After ending the tech screen, the Rackspace HR person immediately called me. We started discussing the next interview step and then she mentioned the pay. She had the salary from my last job in front of her, supplied by the initial recruiter. She then told me that the maximum salary the position paid was 20k LESS than my last position. Needless to say I declined interviewing any further with Rackspace. To put this in perspective a bit, the salary from my last job was also in Texas, not somewhere where the cost of living is substantially higher.
In closing, Rackspace really needs to run their pay by perspective candidates before interviewing them. I was fairly annoyed to have wasted the time going through a long tech screen just to find out the pay was not something I could consider. Also, the amount of experience they want compared to the pay they are offering is delusional. Since then I have accepted another position in Texas - making 5k more than my last job. Not less than, more. Take note, Rackspace.