As a similar but "dual" experience: I am a very desirable candidate in my specialty. My resume is really really good looking, to the point where jobs have commented that they were worried I was fake. I've never been turned down for an interview, and only turned down for a job or internship once.
Having been offered positions at a number of companies who "really need" someone with my skillset, a lot of these places are shockingly inflexible on pay. I make 3-4x what (I infer) they normally pay people in nominally similar positions, and they seem absolutely unable to match that for procedural reasons, even though based on their description that seems like a reasonable investment for a specialist they really really need. The companies I end up working for are typically outsize successful, and I attribute a lot of that to their willingness to fork over some extra cash when it makes rational sense, and shockingly few companies in SV fit this description.
There are reasons to be inflexible on pay. I imagine it works enough of the time, and a candidate will accept the lower pay. I hypothesize also that inflexible pay policies make it more difficult to be accused of discriminatory pay practices.
Having been offered positions at a number of companies who "really need" someone with my skillset, a lot of these places are shockingly inflexible on pay. I make 3-4x what (I infer) they normally pay people in nominally similar positions, and they seem absolutely unable to match that for procedural reasons, even though based on their description that seems like a reasonable investment for a specialist they really really need. The companies I end up working for are typically outsize successful, and I attribute a lot of that to their willingness to fork over some extra cash when it makes rational sense, and shockingly few companies in SV fit this description.