>There are some folks that I have to admit, probably did best by not accepting us.
Yeah, I hear that. I remember interviewing someone who was _good_, but not at this narrow thing that we were hiring for. She seemed SO hopeful that we would give her an offer, I wanted to tell her directly "this job is going to waste 6 mo of your life and offer you nothing I return"
My most fond recollection was a young chap that was a "second choice." The first declined, and this guy had very little of the exact skills we needed, but he had a real eagerness.
He turned out to be an amazing hire. I think that he far outstripped the first choice, and he has gone on to do quite well, after leaving our company.
I like to think that I ran a fairly good shop. We kept people for decades.
When they finally rolled up our shop (after 27 years), the person with the least seniority had ten years.
The only one that made me sad, was a chap who used to show up on the Adobe Photoshop splash page. We offered, he declined.
In the aggregate, I think things turned out OK for all of us. There are some folks that I have to admit, probably did best by not accepting us.