> Referring someone for an interview and watching them get turned down was, for me at least, about 80% of the psychic cost of applying myself and getting turned down.

Wow it actually makes a lot of sense. Especially since you seemed to handpick candidates and vouch for them from a technical point of view.

I wonder if classic recruiters have this problem as they (most of the time) just bet on the number and are not invested personally.