I agree, but still, you could tell a couple of these candidates had been affected by layoffs and were willing to sign for $100k less than what they were previously making.

As a hiring manager, I definitely felt the shift. It was a complete opposite from my hiring experience pre-pandemic.

> were willing to sign for $100k less than what they were previously making

My point is that after tech stocks dropped, they probably weren't making that much money anymore. They were likely already making $100k less, or would have been if they were still employed there, because their equity is no longer as valuable.

I see, that is a fair point, people will report their compensation at peak. Nevertheless, I was still seeing 50+ candidates per job opening. Just by ranking resumes and discarding those to whom we couldn't give an interview due to time constrains, I was eliminating some amazing candidates to whom I'd have given an interview in a different situation.