I received a LinkedIn message from the CEO of the company saying that I'd be a great fit for the Editor-in-Chief position that was opening up for their new Los Angeles publication. The company sounded like a great fit for me, so I was eager to hear more, and when I spoke with them on our first (of 8 or 10) call, the call went great and I asked what the pay range would be like. Being a Spanish company, they said they had a flexible budget but weren't sure exactly how much to allocate to this position. They asked me how much I wanted, and I told them upfront. They told me the amount I was asking for seemed reasonable then led me through a very long and unpaid process consisting of several interviews with different people, sample articles, and most surprising to me, a 1.5-hour long aptitude test (math, verbal, patterns) reminiscent of SAT or GRE exams. The kicker is that I passed these all with flying colors, got the job, and when it came time for them to give me the offer ... it was 30% lower than what I told them I was comfortable with. When I told them I felt like I'd been misled, they offered to pay for the time I spent on the test. I invoiced them over 6 weeks ago and still haven't received anything or heard back.
