Once you clear all rounds, they’ll keep buying time until they find a lower budget candidate I had set the salary expectations straight during the first screening round itself, even before the interview process started. Had 3 rounds of discussions - 1 technical, 1 managerial & 1 HR. HR round was basically salary discussion wherein recruiter explained the compensation breakup they were planning to offer me (we discussed this number during the first screening call itself). The recruiter asked for 2-3 business days time for higher management approval post which they were supposed to roll out the offer letter. However, 2-3 weeks passed but there was no sign of it. On reaching out to the recruiter I was informed the position went on hold, even though the same wasn’t communicated to me. Another couple of weeks and the recruiter called up to check if I was still available to join and that they were anticipating a new role to come up. Crazy isn’t it?