Ettiquette regarding post interview?

I applied for a job at a major steel manufacturer. I was interviewed rather thoroughly for an hour by the HR person and 4 managers. At the end they told me the compensation pkg and asked for my references. Frankly the pay is not enough. It's a union position and there's no chance for negotiation, so I am no longer interested.

In my opinion,  the right thing to do would be to contact them, thank them for the interview and let them know I'm no longer interested so they don't spend any more time on it. Does that seem right or am I out to lunch on this?

It's what I'd want you to do.

I'd go ahead and contact them.

Agreed with the above. If they ask why, tell them. If they negotiate after that, wonderful. But as you said, union, so they won't.

Suprf1y said:In my opinion,  the right thing to do would be to contact them, thank them for the interview and let them know I'm no longer interested so they don't spend any more time on it. Does that seem right or am I out to lunch on this?

You are correct.  That's the right thing to do.  Happily, in this case the right thing to do isn't even difficult.

Can't hurt.  You never know, you might run into one of them in the future, it will be good to have left a good impression.

mtn said:

Agreed with the above. If they ask why, tell them. If they negotiate after that, wonderful. But as you said, union, so they won't.

This.

Absolutely tell  them, you never know when you might cross paths again. 

Yes, contact them. AND, quickly so they're not wasting time discussing how you compare with other applicants.

imgon said:

Absolutely tell  them, you never know when you might cross paths again. 

This. I actually turned down a further interviews (and likely a job offer) with a company. A few years later I ended up interviewing with them again, the manager still had my previous resume, and I ended up taking the job. 

The first time a few years earlier was the same deal, they were offering me salary. And my job at the time was hourly (at the same rate) but we were getting ton's of OT.

Thanks guys. I took your advice and responded via email with a thank you note, and told them that the opportunity just won't work for me at this time.

The reason I was looking was primarily money. My current employer (20 years) has not kept up with the market and what used to be a good paying gig had been slipping over the last 10 years. Though I had my review recently I had no expectation of more than a few percent increase like the rest of the plant got in January. That's how it normally goes. Yesterday I was presented with a "market correction" increase of close to 10%. So that puts us back in the top range and it looks like I'll be riding it out here til retirement.

In reply to Suprf1y :

Great! Top management is finally coming to the realization they can’t keep all the profits for themselves.  No doubt realizing it only after they lost enough critical people for it to hurt their profit.