This interview process was honestly a mess from start to finish. The job was posted as fully remote, but right off the bat, the interviewer started asking about my location and claimed the role really needed to be based in New York. Then the conversation about money got weird. Instead of asking for my salary expectations, they asked what I currently make, and then tried to lock me into a rigid $120K budget. When we talked about it, they straight up, the interviewer admitted that they didn't even had a budget for the role, and he was just speculating it. On top of the shifting requirements, the interviewer seemed to have a massive bias. They kept asking the same repetitive questions, clearly trying to dig for gaps or flaws in my background. I answered everything clearly and knocked down all their objections. By the end, after a solid month of ghosting, I just got a generic, automated template rejection saying I was "over budget." Citing a hypothetical budget to reject someone just doesn't add up, especially since the actual market rate for this position in New York is between $240K and $400K. Huge red flags all around.