This happened a while ago, but still baffles me. I was interviewing for a new job in IT and got recommended to a company very close to where I live. There were multiple interviews that went really well and it was looking promising. Two issues came up early though: they were hesitant to talk pay and the main guy who was interviewing me was really obnoxious. He was young, not much older than me, and sounded very full of himself. After my final interview, the finally gave me an offer along with my starting salary, which was less than what I had made at my previous job by a lot. I tried to negotiate with them, but they refused to budge. The interviewer told me “you’re probably used to working those fancy jobs in the city. Out here in the county, you can’t expect us to pay as much as they do.” Keep in mind, the “county” he was referring to was a high-end office campus. I told him I wanted to think about the offer and he seemed convinced I would take it.
Cut to three days later when I had a call with him to give him my answer. To my surprise, his boss was also on the phone, I can only assume to evaluate his own results after I accepted his offer. He was as smug as usual and clearly expected me to accept, so imagine his surprise when I turned him down. This man sounded like I had just broken up with him. He started by asking if I was sure. Then he got mad. He said I would never find a job as good as what they were offering. After he was done, he took a breath and said if I was sure, he would respect my decision, but he wanted to know one thing. He then straight up asked me, “was it me? Did I do something wrong?” This whole time his boss was sitting on the call in silence. I told him I couldn’t accept the pay they were offering and that was that. The guy seemed torn up, but after how pushy and smug he had been through the interview process, I honestly thought it was kinda funny.
Anyone else ever deal with a weirdly pushy interviewer of recruiter like this?