Right after I said my ideal salary, the person said, "Oh, so you're not there yet?" with a very demeaning attitude. Obviously, I'm not at the salary level I want. Why would I say it if I was already there?? In my opinion, it would be a steal for the company if the employee mentioned a much lower salary level than budgeted and they would just keep this to themselves. If it was too high, then the response would be different. Either way, this didn't make any sense to me.