I am writing about this interview process to warn others.

First, a recruiter from Agoda contacted me a while ago. I asked her about the salary, but received no response. She simply stated that it depended on the hiring manager and that I needed to discuss it with them. I told her I'd like to talk to the hiring manager, but she gave various excuses not to arrange a meeting or interview.

Later, I was contacted by a third-party recruiter. I asked about the salary range, and she asked for my expected salary. I told her what I was expecting, and she said it was okay and within their budget. This is important because my expected salary was a six-figure amount per month in USD. I asked this because I've seen positions advertised for similar amounts by other third-party recruiters hiring for Agoda.

She submitted my resume, and Agoda approved it for interviews. At that time, the recruiter also asked me to submit my salary requirement in an email. I assumed they had accepted my salary requirement by proceeding further.

I had a phone interview scheduled with engineers, which I passed. Then, I had another interview scheduled with the hiring manager.

This is where things get interesting. The hiring manager asked about my salary expectation during this interview. I reiterated my salary expectation range, the same I had told the third-party recruiter. He said I was asking above their range. I asked what the range was, and he told me 100-170k THB per month. He said he would talk to HR and see if they could make an exception for me. I agreed.

Then, I received the response that HR refused the exception and they would be sticking with the 100-170k THB range.

I understand this range is exceptionally good for the Bangkok market. However, there are alternative locations where the cost of living is similar or cheaper than Bangkok, yet you can still earn this salary or greater. Therefore, I strongly recommend everyone to schedule their first interview with the hiring manager to sort out the expected salary before anything else.

I also discussed this with the third-party recruiter regarding why they initially said okay to my expected salary range. The answer was that it was the third-party recruiter's misunderstanding of the salary range (I don't know how that's possible). But there you have it. So, if you have any recruiter advertising for more than 170k THB, make sure to ask them if they know of anyone they've helped hire at that rate. If not, just walk away (or accept that the salary range will be 100-170k THB).

I also give a thumbs up for the overall interview process, purely because all the interviewers, engineers and hiring managers, were really nice people.