You missed the subtle comment. I was replying to the fact that the OP had years to try to find a job at that company.
If they really wanted to work there and they had been that close in the interview process, another round would have likely gotten them in.
This is a common issue that I've seen in the tech world over the years. People fail one time and never try again.
Oddly, my wife interviewed with Facebook (~7 years ago), got the “no, but we’ll reach out to you if something comes up“, and 2-3 months later they did. She’s been working there ever since.
So well 99% of the time I would say don’t expect to hear back… my n=1 experience says it’s not impossible.
It seems like something an ATS startup could fix, though it also seems hard to address, since your customer would need to be an enterprise which is a hard first-niche for a product.
I also want to argue with the framing of pursuing a job at a company just to work at a company. When I interviewed with startups and I wanted to join, it was not just the company but also where they were at. The same company will change drastically when it goes from 10->100->500->1000 employees etc. The problems they need to solve are different, and so on.
Basically it may not be the same company that originally excited you.
I didn't just assume it was because the OP just gave up, even though they admitted so above.
hey Vagrant! How are you doing? How's life? You got around to launching that project? We were so intrigued by it...blah blah blah
It just felt...patronizing. Maybe it's made worse by the fact that the city is tight knit and you're bound to bump into people from the industry. But I can't stand it.
Some people take this as an opportunity to grow a thicker skin and change their game so they have more chances for success.
Of course rejection hurts. Some people shrug and let it roll off never to think about it again. Some people get mad. Some people use it as motivation to do bigger things.