The job market is pretty tough these days, and there’s no doubt that a lot of companies don’t want to pay people what they’re worth.

In today’s story, a worker explained what they dealt with when they received a job offer that was anything but satisfactory.

Read on and get all the details below.

Companies needing “top-level talent” while offering mediocre pay.

“Why does every other recruiter or job application want some technical wizard (or unicorn/guru/sage; pick your term du jour) that can magically do the work of an entire team by themselves?

I’ve been looking for a new job these past few months, and I was recently contacted by a recruiter asking if I would be interested in a phone screen for an “urgent job opening” (which already was a red flag) for a senior engineering manager.

The recruiter basically said, “we need the best of the best for the position with elite technical and managerial skills to hit the ground running day 1 with the engineering teams.”

They gave it a shot…

Still I was curious, so I took the call, until I found out the salary they were offering was significantly below market value. Even for a mid-level position it was a bit underpaid, let alone for the “technical expert” they were looking for.

On top of that, it would be a non-equity level position, so I would be excluded from the partner / managerial range of compensation. And it would be a full-time in office position (another hard pass for me).

Here’s the deal…

I just straight up told him, “That salary is way too low for this job description. You’re not going to find anyone qualified enough for that job at that pay level.”

The recruiter got all flustered and started slinging excuses about “economy uncertain” and “job market conditions”.

I’ve been around long enough to hear all the excuses from recruiters, so I let him know I wasn’t interested, and let him know you’re about $60k off of what the salary should be. Anyone qualified for that position isn’t going to take that low level of pay.

This was nearly a month ago now, and Indeed still shows this “urgent job opening” is still open, with the same salary range.

Just goes to show how out-of-touch recruiters, especially foreign ones, are with the current job market.”

Reddit users shared their thoughts.

This person weighed in.

Another reader spoke up.

This person had a lot to say.

Another Reddit user shared a story.

And this reader nailed it.

This person wasn’t about to sell themself short.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.