DAI interview questions

DAI is going out of its way to hire as cheap as possible although they advertise their positions with "competitive salary" lines. They not only ask about your current salary, but actually require that you disclose the contract that confirms the number you are getting paid. They say they use it to calculate your salary at their company (if hired) by adding 5 percent to your current compensation. When I disclosed my salary (shouldn't have done that), they told me that they can offer me a salary which is around 30 percent less than my current pay because my current contract is constructed in a different way than normally. They could not answer me why I would agree to a 30 percent salary cut to my current market level pay to join them. Funny thing is they told me I have an offer even before they could tell me what salary they offer for the job. DAI is a contractor mainly for USAID and their business model is simple - the more they save from the USAID contracts, the more profit they make. So, it's their savings and not the impact of their work that motivates the hiring (and perhaps) top managers - not a very inspiring place to work at if you look for challenge, growth and motivation.