Shopify recruiters want you to go through 7 hours of interviewing before sharing salary information. One hour is a top-grading interview they rebranded as "life story." These types of interviews tend to be biased and favor those with more traditional backgrounds, no resume gaps, and English and storytelling proficiency. Based on my experience, they have the side effect of making the candidate feel drained.

I withdrew before getting to this stage, so I'm not sure if their version of top grading is different. I really enjoyed talking to the hiring managers and was excited about the projects, but the recruiter was shifty with her answers about salary. I withdrew from the process due to her obvious lack of respect for my time. She would say she wasn't comfortable sharing salary information. Well, I'm not comfortable interviewing for 7 hours if I don't know what the salary is.

Given that other companies have less time commitment and are willing to share the budget for the role upfront, I withdrew. Perhaps if I ever find myself unemployed and available for 7 hours, I may pick up where I left off.

The company seems interesting, as they're experts in the e-commerce space and probably have lots of complex technical challenges, but the recruiter requiring me to go through the whole interview process before giving a straight answer about salary is too shifty for my liking. I don't like how she made me feel like I was asking something unreasonable. She gave off vibes that she would not be enjoyable to negotiate with either, if they didn't offer me what I would be willing to take.

What are you looking for in your next role?