Banking industry where I had four or five offers and one of them wouldn't meet the final $2k of difference. That would have been the most interesting opportunity but I followed the money and was young and foolish.
I was interviewing with Canonical in 2020, and I aced all interviews. The hiring manager began the salary discussion. He said he could offer 80k USD. He asked how much I wanted. I said 110k USD but was negotiable (I'm based in India), He agreed and said it was fair and said he could make that offer. Just had to get back to me. I got a form rejection letter a day later. I later discovered Canonical hates candidates who ask for more money. I learnt very early on that you never accept the first offer made to you. Ask for a little more than you'd have accepted, and see what move they make. I felt shitty since I would have taken 80k too, back then. But I'm glad I asked for what I felt I was worth. But yeah, steer clear of all roles with Canonical.
Interesting, this reddit thread from a number of years back says something very different about Canonical and salary negotiation. Who knows what happened in the background in your case:
"all coworkers i've talked to who are comfortable with talking about salaries have said canonical is their highest paying gig to date. each employee salary is negotiated and some have a lot more perks than others. without going into any detail canonical provided a significant salary bump over my previous position."
Exploding offers suck. Not much you could do about it aside from knowing the culture beforehand and having a number you're not willing to go below. Even the recruiter didn't give you any hints, that's on them.
I once took an 8% drop in pay to have stock options worth more than that. Suffice it to say, the stock options never materialized. I should have stuck to my guns and asked for what I was asking for with the stock options on top.
