How do you research the salary if all the company says is "competitive salary". In the part of the UK I live in this seems to mean anything from £45k to £150k for roles of similar seniority.
Really if there's a mismatch in salary expectations then it's not that you failed, it's that the company failed to effectively communicate this information and wasted your time on an introductory call.
Re 2: one of my peeves in job listings is when the job description will specify the name of the team using internal labels/codenames that means nothing outside the company.
Bad: “this is a developer for the lookinglass team”
Good: “this is a developer for the team that builds monitoring tool”
A lot of people don't even realize they're doing this. In particular, people who have spent a significant portion of their career in one company (junior devs, long timers). They're used to thinking of these terms as everyday knowledge.
it can also happen if recruiters start thinking that their job is to make things easy for hiring managers rather than making things easy for applicants
Oh hah, I didn't even notice you were talking about job listings instead of candidates. Candidates do this too was my point. But you're 100% correct. Companies are *really* bad about this when interviewing/screening/talking to candidates.
I go out of my way to talk in general terms, but then I'll see a colleague talk in secret code. And it's like, what on earth do they think the candidate took away from that?
1) You are applying to a role you don't meet the minimum requirements for.
2) Didn't take the time to research about the company, salary and benefits, the product/service and the team you'll be working with.
3) Unrealistic expectations about compensation and benefits, which you should have researched above.
The rest is just having a casual conversation with another human being, so if you have communication skills that's another issue you need to resolve.