Hiring managers aren't necessarily trying to talk you down when asking for salary information up front. It's waste of time to go through the interview process when parties have grossly mismatched expectations about compensation. To save time I usually ask something like "what number would get you interested in this job?"
>It's waste of time to go through the interview process when parties have grossly mismatched expectations about compensation. To save time I usually ask something like "what number would get you interested in this job?"
If the goal is to save time, why not give the candidate your salary budget up front, instead of putting the onus on them to share information?
That happens reasonably often. If it's close enough and the candidate seems to be a good fit in other ways, I go ahead on the assumption that we can work something out when the time comes.
If they are outside the budget I usually just move on. It's not worth trying to beat candidates down on price. I want excellent people on the team who think they made a great move by joining us. If the goal is just cheap labor, it's way more effective to hire in less expensive markets.
Edit: typo