[baoha]

I can see you're not from a hot job market for software engineer.

Here (Bay Area) people usually don't apply for jobs, specially jobs at startups, unless they're really into the products/team/tech/... Even old-school walking-dead companies like Cisco/IBM/HPE pay way better than most startups in term of cash compensation. And given the high risk of failure, startup should sell itself hard to attract talents.

I also found those questions are normal, far from being arrogant.

[Avalaxy]

I must say that I am indeed not in the SV bubble. I come from a CS background and I now find myself in a position where I'm hiring people for my own company. This means I totally understand both sides. I'm mostly recruiting in the Amsterdam area though, and software engineers are not seen as rockstars here so it's a big cultural difference.

[krageon]

In the Amsterdam area the done thing is to treat software engineers as disposable trash, unworthy of a proper salary. This is an important piece of context when considering your attitude towards them, which to me personally doesn't speak of a large capacity for patience when it comes to the kind of questions meant to give people peace of mind.

[b_t_s]

Yea this is a location thing. Im no rockstar ninja wizard, nor have I ever lived in a 1st tier tech hub like SV. I'm a competent professional with 2 decades of experience, but not particularly remarkable in any way. Here in the US there is a good market for competent professional software developers, and not just in the SV bubble. Any competent professional with 5 or 10 years experience can get 100k USD or more a year job with a 40 hour work week at a stable(non-startup) company in almost any medium or large city in the US. It may not be their very first job offer, but with a little work they can definitely find one. Thats one reason why maybe 10 to 15% of my US based coworkers are Europeans who have come here in large part for the better job opportunities.