re: Getting turned down for a job position.. anything feel worse?

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Coming home after working a job overseas for over two years, making a respectful six-figure income, to zero money and twice the amount of debt before you left.....and a wife who's decided not she don't wanna be your wife no more.

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Damn that’s oddly specific. sorry for your loss

After searching for entry-level jobs for a long time, I've learned that most companies like to go with the cheaper, less qualified candidates

About six months after I left a PhD program, I was living with my parents feeling miserable and knowing full and well that my wife was miserable too. The thought was crossing my mind that my wife was probably going to leave me and my future prospects were grim.

Except one bit of hope: I was adjuncting at a local community college.

Having won multiple awards in my time in grad school and having had a paper published in an academic journal, I felt good about myself as a college-level teacher. After being observed teaching a class at this community college, the department head asked me to lead a professional development session for the rest of the department faculty. My life may have sucked arse at the moment but I at least knew that academia was a place I could thrive.

Then the job opening posted and then another and another - this community college had THREE openings for my subject area.

I thought I was a shoe in. My department head did too.

I went through three rounds of interviews and got all the way to the college president. Knocked it out of the park. He even said, “You’re pretty much exactly what we’re looking for for the composition program” in the interview.

I didn’t get the job. Any of them. The HR guy only told me that they decided to go in a different direction.

I was CRUSHED. It’s probably the lowest moment in my life. Found out later that the president felt my one semester of teaching community college courses wasn’t enough experience but was really impressed by me.

So yeah. It’s the worst feeling ever especially when you’re pretty much unemployed living with you’re parents at thirty and barely supporting your wife and kids.

It sucks when it's one that you wanted but don't take it personally. When it's a tough decision between multiple qualified candidates it can come down to some really stupid variables. I doubt it has any reflection on your ability to do the job or who you are as a person.

Then again, it may have been that one answer where you thought you nailed it but you really flubbed it and blew the deal.

I’m gonna go with those who say laid off. Because when you get laid off, the boss is too chicken shite to call it terminated, so he calls it a “lay off”. The way I see it is that if you’re going to put me in a bad spot, at least have the decency to look me in the eyes and shoot me straight on what is going on, rather than dancing around the subject.

I failed my thesis defense (LSU) on a Monday and BOMBED an 8 hour interview at Intel (Portland) on that Friday. Things have gotten better since.

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I failed my thesis defense (LSU) 

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for real? How did that happen?

My fault. I was effectively doing two experiments, machining Teflon with soft xrays and exposing wafers that had metal deposited on Teflon, where we were trying to use the metal lines as a mask. The latter never worked, the xrays penetrated the metal lines, if they were made thicker they wouldn’t stick.

I said too much in my intro. My grad professor couldn’t really speak or read English that well, so he didn’t catch it. No big deal, I presented the research that worked, then just deleted all the irrelevant stuff. Took one more semester, got a job in Si valley instead.

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machining Teflon with soft xrays and exposing wafers that had metal deposited on Teflon, where we were trying to use the metal lines as a mask. The latter never worked, the xrays penetrated the metal lines, if they were made thicker they wouldn’t stick. 

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rookie mistake.