Agreed. And the reason I chose to bring this up today was, I was contacted by a recruiter at a company that is very small and in a space that I was very interes

Agreed. And the reason I chose to bring this up today was, I was contacted by a recruiter at a company that is very small and in a space that I was very interested in. However, after a rather positive reception, I was called back by their recruiter and told that they didn't feel that I could be a "viable" candidate because of my background. There was no explanation. I contacted the company's CEO directly for an explanation, going over the 3rd party recruiter. I have not heard back from him, though I don't expect to. I know he doesn't "owe" me an explanation. However, all I can do is work harder to better my skills and make myself an invaluable asset. And yes - it's something of a "selfish" motivation, vanity as well. The same way I proved that I was capable of not only graduating from school after being expelled but getting a technical degree, and being a functional citizen despite of coming from a background that predisposed me to this (physical and mentally abusive childhood household, single parent home, suicide, etc.) It's easy to hold yourself to a "different standard" than the money. Also sometimes I feel like "start-ups" have a tendency to clamor for engineers whom have a Google or a Facebook on their resume as they might not know about hiring, and assume these companies have 'vetted' this person for skills - it makes you stand out.