This isn't the worst though, I recently went through an interview with another startup company, and …

You're not changing the world either way, you would just be working for a more demanding guy. Fuck em.

> Concerns that should have been handled in the initial call, somehow get pushed back till after I've wasted monumental amount of time. Honestly these "reasons" they give are usually BS excuses when it basically amounts to they don't like your personality or looks.

A generic rejection is more than I got for feedback; I never heard back. Still, I thought the process of writing the materials was great. I don’t usually take the time to think about the arc of my experience in a holistic way. Do it for yourself if you do it at all; don’t go into it with high expectations for feedback and you won’t be disappointed.

If you went through multiple rounds it likely means they were seriously considering you but ultimately they didn’t get to a yes. If it’s any comfort that means you did pretty well. The short stints on a resume is likely not the only reason you didn’t get to 100%, but unfortunately you should know that it’s seen as a pretty bad signal. The general expectation is 2 years minimum at a gig. If you have multiple short non-contract jobs it raises the concern that a candidate doesn’t commit to their jobs, or that they don’t do well at their jobs and are getting let go.

Don't underestimate the importance of timing, for both the company you're applying at and the industry/economy as a whole. As they say, you can't get blood from a turnip. Writing this comment reminded me of a personal experience, story time: Many moons ago I interviewed at a mature startup in silicon valley, they shipped a tiered storage appliance and were in the process of pivoting to a new storage medium (think transitioning from spinning rust to SSDs, something like that). This was in-person, and everything went swimmingly well, before departing they stated an intention to make an offer and I should expect an email w/offer attached within a week. I got an offer letter, and accepted immediately, as I was super excited about the stack I'd be playing with. A week before the start date I get a call from a founder, they said I couldn't start because their funding round didn't come through.…

Usually the stated reason is not actually the real reason. They just state something generic that isn’t illegal to admit. The real reason might be “they didn’t like your vibes” or something like that

So basically you wanted to have it easy - joining a company with a certain prestige and be over the recruitment process in 30 minutes or less.