Terrible graduate recruitment process and lied to about salary! - Graduate Environmental Consultant Arcadis Employee Review

ABSOLUTELY AWFUL! After going through a very vigorous recruitment process, I was delighted to have been offered a place for the Graduate Environmental Consultant Programme in Manchester. I was given a verbal offer stating my starting salary would be £25k with NO follow up email. After waiting three weeks and receiving the follow up documents including my contract, only after I prompted them, I was horrified to find out my starting salary was stated as £20k! To say that I was upset is an understatement. I had been looking forward so much to starting a career with Arcadis. It had been my ambition since completing my masters to be an environmental consultant and it is what I had worked so hard for! Fortunately, I had not resigned from my present job at the time (which I was just about to do that week!) My present salary was 25000 with the promise of a far higher salary one year later. I was also short listed (five of us) for a graduate scheme with United Utilities' and the starting salary was 27000. I find it absolutely shocking that Arcadis can call themselves a socially responsible company and only offer their talented and hard working graduates £20k a year! Most admin jobs pay more than that! Not to mention, the way the HR department handled the situation. I would ADVISE AGAINST any graduate from applying to this company because you will be played a fool before you even start! (salary advertised as "competitive" during the recruitment process!). Quite frankly, it is an insult and us graduates deserve better!