you are high maintenance and full of yourself

A reader writes:

I was asked what my salary range was and researched and sent an email to my prospective employer. He sent me back an email stating that it was too high, so I sent him a email back just asking him what was an acceptable range. At that point, he sent me back three paragraphs bashing me, stating that I was high maintenance and full of myself. How do I respond to that email??

By telling him that you're sorry you couldn't term to terms and wishing him the best of luck and then running far, far away, and counting your blessings that you didn't end up working for him.

Even if you were off-base in your salary range, his response was totally unacceptable. Telling you that you're high maintenance and full of yourself?! If he treats a job candidate like this, imagine how he treats employees who ask for a raise. Seriously, you do not want to work for this man.

The proper response when a candidate names a range that the employer feels is too high is: "That's higher than the range we've budgeted for this position, which is ____, and which we settled on for the following reasons. Is our range prohibitive for you?"

This guy is an ass. Good riddance to him. And if you were inclined to post the full text of his email here, I think we would all enjoy seeing it.