Fair enough, I just wish you guys didn't beat around the bush so much about salary in early discussions. I really wanted to take the offer but the salary was a non starter, wasted both of our time.
Interviews aren't perfect. Actually, they are awful, but everything else is worse. An interview is largely what determines the level at which an offer is made. Giving a salary isn't simple when you don't know if a person would be a junior-level person or a senior-level person. Some people interview badly.
Even if value is correctly determined, it is important to realize that your value is specific to the job you are being considered for. Picture a world-famous brain surgeon deciding to become a stock trader: it may be that stock traders can be paid well and that the brain surgeon has great skills, but the skills are likely a poor fit for the task at hand. Switching to a different role can make you a beginner again.
Most people got large raises in October. If I remember right, 25% was normal. I don't know when you were offered 115K, but that matters. The market finds a price you see. We made the required adjustment.
I recently checked starting pay for new college grads at Silicon Valley companies, and 115K seemed to be in the middle of the pack. This is however just the raw number. It's more like 200K if you adjust for cost of living in a place like Florida.
