> That's an incredibly cynical take. As a hiring manager, I want to stack my team with the best employees we can convince to join our company. > Usually, when

> That's an incredibly cynical take. As a hiring manager, I want to stack my team with the best employees we can convince to join our company. > Usually, when a junior candidate starts requesting senior level compensation, I just give up and hire a senior candidate instead. I think the cynical thing here is not the take but the company you're working at. You use the weasel phrase of "the company doesn't have infinite money to pay candidates" but that just papers over the real elephant in the room: the correlation between what you pay candidates and how much value they generate for the company. If ICs are a cost center, then of course you'll treat them like commodities and try for min-risk rather than max-upside. And then you'll lose those great junior candidates to companies like those I've worked at where they rocket up from junior -> mid level -> senior -> manager -> director in the time it might take for junior -> mid level at your company. Now if you were that junior candidate, is it a good idea to work at your company or should I assume that your company frankly isn't that compelling and as a savvy candidate I should bet on a better horse and a better jockey? There's nothing cynical about saying that. But it will look cynical from your perspective.