This is likely what's going on. Public pools are often the very last stop on the search for candidates. The precedence is almost always 1) internal hires (obvi

This is likely what's going on. Public pools are often the very last stop on the search for candidates. The precedence is almost always 1) internal hires (obviously not as possible at a start-up) 2) referrals 3) direct engagement from a recruiter 4) talent pools curated by online services like LinkedIn or Indeed 5) forum pools, like those here in HN 6) applications from the Careers page Almost all my jobs have come from referrals or directly from recruiters. I've gotten calls back from four-and-beyond, but have never made it through the process, despite being overqualified in those cases. On the flipside, I've been underqualified for jobs I got via referral. The power of having someone inside can't be overstated.