After five interviews, one ambiguous and hastily put together test project, and four weeks of my time, I was presented a verbal offer by recruiter. The offer was 10k below where I said I was comfortable with in our first conversation. Recruiter was not happy about my countering and lamented how this was now making him even more late to his holiday weekend (despite the fact that he waited to call me at 4:30pm the Friday of said holiday weekend, but I digress). I value honesty and integrity in a potential employer, so I hold myself to the same standards. I shared that I had another employer interested in me, and while I was definitely interested in this other role, I was still very interested in the Danaher role, should the salary be able to come up to where our initial discussion was. Recruiter told me he would go back to hiring manager and HR to see what could be done. Two weeks later, I still hadn't heard anything from the recruiter. I call him, he doesn't pick up nor return my call. I decide to reach out to the hiring manager explaining the situation and that I was and still am interested in the role, and am unsure if there's been a miscommunication. An hour after sending that email, I get a call from the recruiter. In this call he shares that my counter was above and beyond what they felt comfortable paying me, and the highest they could go was xx, 10k higher than their verbal offer, and still 15k away from the max salary range listed in the JD. Just so happens that xx was the initial number I shared when we first had our call! AKA the number that I would have accepted! He said they went with an internal candidate instead (aka someone cheaper). I asked the recruiter if he was ever planning on sharing this update with me, or if he was going to essentially just ghost me and hope I never followed up. He said, verbatim: "I wouldn't say it was a mistake not letting you know, but yeah, I guess I should have reached out. You just seemed interested in that other role." Wouldn't call letting your alleged number one choice know their standing or present them with a counter offer that they would have accepted a mistake? He took away the opportunity for me to make a decision on what I was willing to accept for a role because I "seemed" more interested in something else. So he made the decision for me and then didn't tell me. I was shocked. I was so impressed with Danaher in my first calls and interviews for this role. I should have known it was too good to be true and that they are just like every other company out there. They have no respect for the hours applicants put into their interviews, let alone the surprise project that came along with no warning and required immediate turnaround. Shame on the recruiter and Danaher for supporting this behavior.