Late Stage Capitalism

As cliché as it may seem, you're also interviewing them. You need to know what they expect of you, and what to expect of them. If any of those points are important to you, then you want to know ASAP if you can get them, and if you can't, then you want to get out of there quickly.

If your only goal is getting a job, then sure, make all the compromises you need. If you have any needs besides any job, then you want those needs to be clear.

No, in other words, in the modern workplace you will get not get a job and will be the first laid off if you don't agree that work is the top priority in your life. When they start laying off, they need to make sure those left behind will double their workloads each round until they have no time to do anything outside of work. The goal is to have as few people do all of the jobs and pay them only for the first job they get hired for.

So they can underpay you. If you go through 5 rounds of interviews, you're way more likely to accept a shitty salary so you haven't wasted that time.

Every company that I've interviewed with that's refused to talk salary has been offering ludicrously low pay. Always ask salary in the "do you have any questions" part of round one. If the interviewer says something like "we don't discuss salary in the first round" you are now in a hostile negotiation. Increase whatever you thought the position should pay by at least 50% and say "I need to be in this range (min + 50% to min + 100%) to continue with this interview. Are we in the same ballpark?" They'll generally give you a "oh, our range tops out at $" If it's above your min, say "depending on the total compensation package, I can make that work. What are the next steps." If they still won't tell you, or it's below your minimum, thank them for their time and end the interview.

I don't know how many interviews I've bailed from because I did this. Places in Silicon Valley advertising for something like "senior Devops engineer" and trying to pay $25-50/hr.

Unfortunately some people don't have a choice

Still applies.

You can't park here.