Society for Neuroscience interview questions

It started with a screening call with a SfN employee. The job announcement requested my salary requirement, which I provided in the first paragraph of my cover letter. Despite this, the employee asked my requirement, which I verbally restated. She then told me the salary would be 25-30 percent less than I specified. SfN saw my numbers right there in the letter, at the top. *Why* did they waste my time and theirs with a screening interview???

I applied through Indeed, HR reached out to me and we had a 30-minute call. Later, I had to talk with the hiring manager and mostly he was the one who talked. I was surprised that he barely asked me anything. Later, there was supposed to be another interview step but in 2 weeks they wrote me an email saying that they have decided to pursue another candidate. The pay was was low, from 48k to 52k annually, benefits are unknown.