[PopeDotNinja]

Developer and former recruiter here. You cannot trust the reason you have been rejected to be honest. You can only believe that they were clear about rejecting you.

For example, "it was a close call" could mean:

- you were late to the interview, and we didn't like that

- we closed the job and stopped recruiting everyone

- you had mustard on your shirt, and we didn't like that

- an interviewer was late to an interview, insisted you proceeds anyway, and you could not possibly have received a vote of confidence for the questions asked in the time allotted

And so on and so on. The only things you can really trust are got hired, didn't get hired, and never heard back. That's it.