[rt2016]

It depends on the type of company you're talking with. In my experience the recruiters at large, established companies will be very professional and positive - they're looking to make the company attractive to you as much as you want to seem attractive to them. On the other hand my experience with smaller, less-well known, companies (including many startups) is very variable. The recruiters there have significantly less training (if any) and aren't given clear requirements from management on what candidates to look for. More specific to your questions, it's not uncommon for this type of recruiter to pull a bait-and-switch on things like salary, title, etc. To me that's a warning signal that they're trying to get you to commit and then pull a fast one. By the time you get hired you'll be demoted to junior engineer with low salary, given that the recruiter was talking about their team so highly and will say that you're less experienced in comparison. It's happened to me several times, but that doesn't make it right. You're absolutely right in thinking it was crazy and out of line. My personal advice to you would be to walk away, their behavior is not a good sign of things to come.