Awhile back I left my first software job (they did have systematic hiring of new grads) at a very large corporation because I was moving to another city. As it happened, that company also had an office in the city I was moving to. I applied for a position at the new location and they gave me an offer. But their offer was something like 15-20k lower than just about all the other offers I had. Apparently there was some limit on how much you could increase someone's compensation that was preventing them from offering me more. I heard a rumor that my previous boss (one of only two level 6 software engineers in the company's whole eastern region) made some noise about how ridiculous it was given that hiring me was way less risky than hiring someone else since my track record at the company was well established. But it was all to no avail. He couldn't move the bureaucracy. So of course I took the highest paying offer with another company.