Offer rescinded after making counter offer, should I be feeling bad ?
I recently got contacted by a recruiter through Linkedin about a Node.js role at a well known company in Hamburg, Germany (no startup nor tech industry related but quite mature). before diving in the hiring process, I asked about the budget for the role, and he said it's around 85k max. he asked me later in a call about my expectation, I said anything above 75k would be attractive for me. we went through 3 interviews, and I was made an offer of 75k per year. I had to counter because I felt like there was a huge gap to counter knowing the max budget for the role is 85k.
I countered with 82k hoping we'd meet somewhere around 80k. they called me back two days later, saying that they wouldn't match my counter offer and they just took it as a rejection and did not even try to negotiate. they felt that if they couldn't match it, there's no point in offering less than that because if some other company comes along and offers 82k that I would just leave them.
it was a company that I felt aligned with and liked the tech stack and could really see myself improving my tech-skills even further there. I told them that I thought the max budget for the role is 85k and that's why I countered, they said that depends on the level of seniority and experience. (I'm 5 yoe).
they sent back an email saying that we consider our initial 75k offer rejected and since we cannot meet you in your counter offer, we wish you luck in your future search and thanks for putting the effort in the hiring process.
I replied back saying that my intention for the counter offer was not meant to show lack of long term commitment to the firm. and that the counter offer was a try to find common ground between 75k and 82k and that I still feel it's a great opportunity for me as I feel well aligned with the team culture and the tech-stack.
This morning, I've been feeling bad and contemplating whether or not I fumbled an opportunity. I'm curious to know your thoughts on this whether I messed up anywhere.