I received a screening call. The person didn’t reach out to schedule it or tell me ahead of time that they would be calling, so I felt really caught off guard and found myself tripping over my words. Their tone with me was sharp and I felt as though they were annoyed to be on the phone with me from the start. They asked my expected salary and told me it was out of their budget. When I asked their budget, they told me somewhere around $50-62k. I said I would be willing to go lower because I was really interested in the position. Unfortunately, from that point forward, I got the sense they weren’t even listening to me, as if I’d been quickly written off. They said someone would call me by the end of the week to let me know if I’d be moving forward with an interview. Several weeks later, I received an email saying they’d chosen another candidate.