They are not likely to give you top of the grade scale - they don't usually give it to people fresh to an organisation. It is designed for established employees so they have somewhere to go on the payscale and can be given yearly increments depending on their peformance. If they give you top of the pay scale, what will you say in 1 to 2 years when you want an increase and the HR dept say to you 'but you are already top of the scale, we can't give you any more' and I am sure you will be aggravated then, hence you will be a difficult employee to manage in terms of on going pay expectations.