I applied for the position on LinkedIn. Got reached out by recruiter to have a screening call. Due to extremely poor reviews of the company in Europe, much worse than average, I opted not to share my expected salary to avoid the risk of being used for comparison with other cheaper candidates when they know they couldn't meet my expectations. Some companies actually do this. I asked the recruiter for budget for the position, as that is independent of candidate's performance but I didn't get it. She suggested to discuss it a bit later. We scheduled a call with Indian hiring manager who is based in US, while the team is based in Europe. It went well, she asked a couple of problems to solve using Agentic AI and I answered them to her satisfaction. She explained to me what are Gen's plans with Agentic AI and from the problems she asked it was clear she understands limitations of the technology. She told me we would move forward. I asked about budget for the position, but she didn't have figure in local currency so I asked her to communicate it to the recruiter. Recruiter called me to ask for my availability. We again discussed the issue of role budget and agreed she would get back to me before technical round. I got invite for day earlier than what we discussed without any information on salary. I declined the invite as it wasn't what we agreed to. She communicated general statement about being happy to discuss compensation after technical round. It wasn't what I asked for - I asked for role budget which is independent of candidate's performance on interview. It was clear the recruiter wasn't honest with me, she had no intention of sharing the role budget with me from the very beginning, just tried to get me through as many rounds as possible. I have seen this behavior in the past and prefer to do meaningful interviews where we both have serious interest. She also shared they are in hurry to fill the position, probably something is on fire due to poor planning or lack of skill. Overall my experience matches rating of the company on Glassdoor. I expected more honesty, if you can't share budget, state so openly.