The engineering manager who interviewed me was surprisingly sharp, asking good and in-depth questions.

Then an HR person called me to find out about my salary expectation and asked me: "Is this number what you really want, or are you just throwing around numbers? Because that's what some people do. They throw around a ridiculous number so that they can negotiate."

The weird part came when three men called me to negotiate a possible salary offer. Not only did they not want to give me a raise or match what I was getting, but they were talking about offering me about 30% less for the privilege of working with Siemens.

They were talking at the same time. It got weird. I found the process insulting. I felt ganged up by them!

I cut the interview short.