This one stung...alot. They seem like a great company and everyone that I interviewed with was nice, intelligent, and well-educated. The process itself wasn't so grueling until I got to the end interview with one of the co-founders.
He asked the typical tough questions but the one that apparently sunk me was, "What would you do if you don't get this job?"
I replied that I would probably go back into public education and maintain my exposure to the Internet Marketing industry via consulting clients and teaching night classes on the subject at the local university. Apparently, when talking about teaching, my face lit up. This was later reinforced by the group that interviewed me: they all agreed with the owner (during a group meeting on my potential hire) that I had a real passion for teaching...and apparently having a passion so deep for education was the principle reason.
They still want to partner with me (my night class on Internet Marketing could produce interns for them and they could help swell my class rolls) so they left the door open for the future. I was told all of this by the co-founder himself. That speaks volumes about this company; the co-founder himself called me...to let me know I wasn't getting hired.
This was easily the most difficult interview I've ever had to go through. I'm left questioning everything I've done. I had always prided myself on clear career goals (teach for 5-10 years, get back into tech for 5-10 years, then late-in-life graduate degree in educational technology or language acquisition/ use).
I even thought my passions lined up well with theirs. To be told that my internal compass isn't as well calibrated as I thought leaves me in a state of self-doubt.