Applied on-line (as all companies now require). Was contacted by their internal recruiter who inquired about my availability, why i left previous position, and salary requirements. I was very up front and clear about salary. He called next day to setup a phone screen with technical people in the department a few days hence. They fired a succession of technical Unix, Windows and troubleshooting scenarios at me. Seemed to go well, they seemed pleased with the answers.
Recruiter called the next day, related that the tech interview went well, and they would like me to come in for an in person interview with those same tech people plus the hiring manager. Techs mainly sat and observerd while I had a very wide-ranging, conversational interview with the manager. We discussed future projects, challenges, the team, what my role would be, geographic location of the team and other company stake-holders. They need a senior player to design and implement significant enterprise critical systems. In the end, it seemed more like we weren't interviewing anymore, we were planning on how to get started. Excellent feeling on both sides coming out of the interview. Manager took me on a brief tour of the floor, then recruiter took over, took me on a tour of the whole facility, which is beautiful, BTW. Then he debriefed me on how I felt about the interview which I related very positively.
Next day, recruiter called, they would like to extend an offer. Great! Their method is to present the offer in person and give a full briefing on all compensation and benefits so that all questions can be answered. Cool - none of this "go look at our website and figure it out for yourself" nonsense. So I drove back again, and listened through an hour long, pretty standard for a top tier company, benefits presentation nothing tricky there. Then saw *part* of a video explaining their rather complex bonus structure. Nothing I could study and digest, mind you. Then after all of that they brought out the actual offer. $20K below my stated salary requirement. I kept the poker face, but though . . . . WTH!
Basically they decided to interpret *salary* as "total compensation" But the 20K difference is made up of bonus in various forms (which are all dependent on company performance, and management declarable "fudge factor" not under my control) and stock purchase discounts (which are not vested for three years) So the plus-up is structured to maybe not happen and isn't even liquid. To me _salary_ is just that. Any bonus that may (or might NOT happen) I treat purely as gravy -- but not to be depended upon.
So I thought it over, and next day called the recruiter and politely declined. I explained why and we parted on courteous terms.
In hind sight, it seems to me they new the offer was a low-ball hence the long build up FIRST before presenting me with the offer. I would still like to work at UPS, but I'll be paid what I'm worth.