I’ll try to keep it short.
I like the job I have now and wasn’t looking. It’s a niche role working in legal and IT. A recruiter contacted me with an amazing opportunity for £40k. I was interested as this would be a significant pay rise that would make leaving my current job a little easier. Went through the interview process successfully. The same day the company called me directly asking me certain questions including salary. I’m always told to lie about this but they caught me off guard and I hate lying about it anyway. Now they’ve offered me the job but far lower than advertised (£33k) and the only thing that’s changed is learning my current salary. They had no doubts about my experience in interview. I don’t need the job but it would be a good opportunity. But this seems a huge red flag to be lowballed like this and for then to call me directly (not going through the recruiter) and it makes me doubt what I should do. I think the recruiter messed up telling me a too high salary but I’m just not sure. So I don’t know what to do. Accept a low ball offer knowing this is how they treat employees or walk away?