[umvi]

A similar thing happened to my uncle. He applied for a university position for which he was qualified (military history/strategy)- but there were a few odd requirements like needing to speak Italian (luckily he had gone to high school in Italy and spoke fluently). He also did his post-grad at MIT so it would be very unlikely someone would be more qualified than him. Yet, he was rejected and they informed him that they were closing the position and not hiring anyone for it after all because they didn't have the budget. Later he saw it up again with even more obscure and stringent requirements... they were obviously just going through the motions in order to justify hiring someone they already had in mind and he had thrown a wrench in their plans.