[geoelectric]

Mentioned in a comment or two, but want to highlight. Be up front with salary ranges, especially if you want people to come in and pair, etc.

I had a great initial process with a promising startup who wanted to graduate to a "we'll pay you contract rates to work with us a couple of days" sort of evaluation.

Since I was a FTE elsewhere and would have had to take PTO, I asked for a comp talk first. While I had no expectation to make the same salary I already was, I discovered their high end was way under what I'd calculated as a max pay cut I could take and still pay bills. It probably would've gone above water a round or two of funding later, but I would potentially have drained my savings waiting around. Unless I were founding, that would've been unacceptable.

I'm glad I forced the talk first or else that would've been a frustrating end to the process. My basic take is the more you ask as part of your evaluation process, the more you need to make sure it's even a possibility for both sides.