You’re left wondering: What do they want?

The best prospect I had in a while for a full-time job fell through today when the form e-mail — “personalized” with my name and address — informed me that I would not be getting a job offer.

Now, for this job you couldn’t even be called in for an initial interview unless you had a minimum college GPA. I exceeded the minimum, and I used my graduate school, which was not required, transcript to qualify.

Along with many others, I was invited to take a written test that was related to the kind of work I’d be doing. I didn’t get the highest score but I was well within the allowable range.

The next step was another interview. This was in two-parts. The first was creation of a memo based on supplied information.

The second part involved talking to two interviewers. I presented them each with a folder containing several letters of recommendation received over a period of years. I believed this showed my consistent record of professional performance.

Indeed, one of the letters involved work I had done for a medical story. It was from a doctor. Great, I thought, since the job would involve gathering and processing medical information and dealing with doctors.

I received an e-mail last week that, good news, I had passed both sections of the second interview. I was “in the pool” of applicants who could be offered a position.

Then today’s e-mail.

And this was the second time I applied for this position.

I can’t give up, of course, and I won’t. But I think Al Pacino, in this scene from Scent of a Woman, sums up what I’m thinking right now: