Two interviews with the company. I really got my hopes up way too high on this one and almost thought the second interview was a formality. Honestly it's quite demoralizing. I guess I haven't figured out what these people need to hear to prove that I'm competent and committed. But per usual they kept me waiting for a response. After a few days I saw that a fresh job posting had gone up on another job board told me what I needed to know. When I finally did reach out for feedback I was given an odd excuse that they were hiring for multiple openings. I'll never know whether my rejection was ultimately by being brash in calling them out for the lack of courtesy or whether the decision had already been made. Regarding the interview, they apparently had a bad experience with another developer which seems to linger in their hiring process. It sounds like (s)he insisted on writing code the way (s)he wanted to do it. Based on their review on here from five years ago you get the impression that maybe this other developer was a reasonable person raising relevant points. The president definitely talks like he believes that he must deliver easily-read code although I have no idea what to picture. (Oddly no employer ever wants to turn the tables and let you critique their work product.) It's also interesting that the president replied and mentioned "high level code" twice. What does that even mean though? While it sounds good you have to wonder what if that idea got taken too far. Just look at Stack Overflow if you want to see millions of examples of a modern developers' unwillingness to exert effort in leaping over their hurdles and coding solutions served up on silver platters catering to those low bars. As for me, I started out as a young, passionate programmer at about the age of twelve. There were unnecessary barriers and as a result I am mostly self-taught, I hate formal schooling, and am quite self-reliant. Sadly I think that works against me in corporate America where indoctrinated sheep are preferred. I started my first true "career" steps in business intelligence because I hadn't matriculated from university with a sacred paper scroll to hang on the wall. But I was good at it and I learned everything I could because curiosity drives me and I enjoy being challenged. In hindsight, that first company was probably the best place I ever worked. The problems were actually interesting and people there truly appreciated me. Even though I got my ambitious foothold in the development team I moved on and back into the BI world for a cushier job with one of America's over-sized banks. Ah, how fondly I remember the interviewer proudly asking me about my knowledge of string functions in DB2 SQL as though that was the pinnacle of achievement. I must have imagined all kinds of sophisticated text parsing algorithms until I actually heard the questions. Alas, those trivial substring operations must have tripped up dozens of applicants before me. That guy was an overpaid buffoon just like most of corporate management but I got the job. When I later applied for application development roles I remember all the recruiters who had typecast me as just a report writer. Oddly enough after I eventually worked in the development world with the big kids and earlier jobs slid down my work history, they'd look at my résumé and tell me they didn't see any relevant experience for their BI role. Such lunacy. Make up your minds. I'm telling you that the real problem is with the intelligence of these hiring idiots who compartmentalize every tiny "skill" as a checkmark. Well something happened four years ago and I simply can't get a job anymore. Perhaps all the year-long contracts make me look like a job hopper (even when the term was predetermined.) Or maybe I did have some life struggles and bounced around a time or two in that mix trying to find a place that wanted to utilize my abilities. Or maybe it's my independent streak that prevents me from sucking up, playing the lame hiring games and talking like a corporate monkey. Or maybe it's age discrimination. I do not know. How much more I appreciate all that money formerly thrown at me now that I've spent the last four years in physical and menial jobs. I would have been unendingly grateful for one of several dozen companies to recognize an overlooked, hard-working guy for a decent chance. In fact I would eagerly jump at the opportunity to take the same job and salary as my first one but that just makes me desperate and risky. None of these employers will ever know the bargain they passed on. You might have decided that I must show up in a cloud of negativity though I don't think that's the case. Maybe my issue is that I just don't have the ability to be fake and oversell all my valuable "skills" that have become second nature after some thirty years of honing. This final attempt has steeled my resolve: I am finished looking for work in software development.