>in the rare instances when I've offered this advice or help after one or more requests, it has been invariably met with an attitude either that I am wrong/stup

>in the rare instances when I've offered this advice or help after one or more requests, it has been invariably met with an attitude either that I am wrong/stupid for coming to such a conclusion... or a flat out request to give them another shot. Yeah, I've hit this and it really is annoying to deal with. I have one candidate we rejected 4 or 5 years ago because his resume was questionable, and once a year he still emails me asking for a position (and I'm not a hiring manager!). I have had it go the other way, too, though. I had a candidate who didn't meet some criteria. He asked why, and I told him. A year later he had done a bunch of work to improve himself and we hired him. So it can work both ways. But I definitely agree that the more common case is for the candidate to rationalize away why the company is wrong. And I think companies that got feedback from candidates would do the same thing: "He said we didn't offer a big enough salary, but our pay is exactly the median of other companies around here. He's just a prima donna!"