The interview process with this department was bad. I had a manager from the department reach out to me through email. Another department I had applied for a position for did not accept me, but they thought I’d be a good fit for the position he was trying to fill and referred me. We talked over email, and there was no salary range listed for the position. When I asked, he wouldn’t give a clear answer and asked what my expectations were for the position. I said 70-80k, which is industry standard for an entry level position for someone with my bachelor’s degree in Econ. I would’ve been willing to take a position for something close to my salary equivalent, 66k. He tried to low ball me and said that paying me that amount would mess up the department’s internal equity and would probably only be able to pay 50k-60k and kept progressively trying to go lower as we kept discussing salary. If someone asking for industry standard for an entry level position messes up your department’s internal equity, then you need to pay your employees a higher salary. We scheduled 2 zoom interviews during business hours. The first interview went well, and I got to learn more about the department. They asked for a second interview to meet the manager in the New Orleans department. He kept on making a point that the position was “sink or swim” like if I couldn’t learn the ropes they would let me go. It sounded condescending, like professors in college who brag about how many people fail a class. It made me think that they don’t have good teaching processes to train employees to do their audits. Multiple managers mentioned how they were having trouble recruiting people, and then they ghosted me without even giving an official decline after we had been talking about the position for a month. The interview process was unprofessional, and they wasted a lot of my time. They really shouldn’t be trying to hire new employees if they don’t have the budget to pay them a living salary. I would not recommend that anyone else apply to this department, they need to get it together.