OK, explain to me this one.

[Berry Cool]

A couple of months ago, I interviewed with an employer (if this helps, it was a Big Four accounting firm) for a professional but non-accounting position that was one of only a handful of positions the employer has for folks in my city under the same job title (which I learned during interviewing). I had a series of interviews that I felt very comfortable with, and waited to hear the firm's decision.

A few weeks ago, I received a call informing me I had not been selected for an offer. I said thank you very much for letting me know, I hope you will keep me in mind for any future openings, etc., very politely, and we ended the call.

Well, I was just checking a career board today--don't know why this didn't come up before, maybe I didn't enter the exact right word or something to call it up--but what should I see on it but a posting advertising the very same job I interviewed and was rejected for. The listing said it was first posted 29 days ago, which is actually longer ago than I received my rejection call.

What's up with this? Maybe another opening under this same job title appeared in my city (as in, they had only one position open under that name when I interviewed, and now maybe they have another?). And maybe, despite the polite way they rejected me, they didn't really want me, no way, no how. But they also didn't want anyone ELSE they interviewed as intensely as they did me?

Although I don't know exactly how many, I can only assume that when I made it through the round of interviews I made it through, I was one of a chosen few. Assuming one of us was made the offer and accepted, that would still leave at least a few good people left so that if another opening popped up in that position, it would make sense to extend an offer to one of us. If not me, someone else (and it's highly likely we'd all have other jobs by now, or say no for other reasons).

I guess what I'm asking is this: Why would an employer that has just undergone the process of winnowing out candidates for a particular job title--or is actually still IN that process--choose to reopen an identical search and start all over if another opening popped up for that job title, rather than give first consideration to those already interviewed but not chosen for the first opening? Did we all somehow present "deal-breaker" information in our final interviews that caused us to be rejected not just this time around, but for all time?

I can see starting all over if, even, six months had gone by since they'd last conducted a search to fill the position. A lot can happen in six months to change the makeup of the candidate pool. But is this company seriously thinking that by advertising for the same position in late November, they would find better candidates for it than the ones they interviewed in October and didn't pick?

Or--despite what they told me about having decided to make the offer to someone else--did the employer, after doing lots interviewing and of dithering, just reject us ALL as inadequate and decide to start over? And, if so, do they really think they're going to find better candidates now than they did a few months ago?

Is that how picky employers have become?

Just curious.