> Just Google "recruiter won't proceed without desired salary" and you'll understand how many folks dislike that question.

It's incredible how mileages vary. I recently had to strike companies off my list which demanded to know my last salary.

I offered them my salary expectations, but they would absolutely not accept that, and preferred to take the fact that I would not tell them the exact salary at my last position as a reason to decline to immediately stop the interview (with half an hour left in the call).

This wasn't a one-off either, I would say about 5% of companies (biased sample) try and get away with shit like this.

(This was German-speaking Europe)