Hi, i am a fresh phd (eng degree, not maritime) graduate and I applied for a manager/snr manager position at mpa.
I completed the interview and was asked to provide details of my referee.
After providing details of the referee, i talked to the hr and found out the salary range was about 3.5k to 4k.
I was shocked because it was below what i expected.

Is this normal or did I get lowballed?

I really like this job and would prefer to take it but it is disheartening when i have other jobs offerering me more than 5k?

Do I have any chances of being able to negotiate for a better package?