I interviewed once with Microsoft right after graduation. My interview was scheduled with a guy on campus right at 12:00. When I entered the room, completely prepared to code, he frowned and said "They scheduled someone on my lunch time?!" ... Needless to say I completely lost my confidence and messed up the rest of the interview. He didn't even look up at me while asking questions.
I ended up deciding not to work for Microsoft. For two years I worked at other places until I felt the need to be at a purely tech company. The next time I applied, I lined up 10 interviews on the phone. These were through agencies, but working directly for a Microsoft team. The technical questions were similar, and I was as prepared; but I was more confident with my knowledge and less under the control of one interview. In retrospect, I failed seven of those ten interviews, but nobody has ever asked me about those. I got three offers and accepted one.
The third time around was when I was done with my contract, went on a backpacking trip in Europe, and came back in the middle of the recession. I had no intention of working at a large company again, but startups were cash poor. I ended up looking for another opportunity at Microsoft. While they were contemplating on laying off 15000 people, they hired me. And I accepted.
I've also worked at Google, but never actually applied; they asked me to interview. During the interview they took me to a fancy team lunch. I couldn't help but remember the first guy who interviewed me at his lunch time. Somehow I felt like I needed to thank him for the course that he gave my life.
When you start your career, by merit or not, your fate is controlled by someone else. They can be an asshole, or a great person. In your interviews and mine, we've seen the full spectrum of humanity.
But what the status quo cannot control is the degree with which you get better, interview after interview. In the first act you have sweaty palms and expect fair assistance. In the second act you're maximizing interview opportunities to improve the odds. In the third act, you're in control, and they're just asking you difficult questions because they're trying to impress you so you won't work somewhere else.
Keep on learning. Ignore unfairness and keep on trying. You'll find with every interview that they're in less control. And eventually one day, you'll be sitting in their seat, interviewing people. On that day, you'll know why you're going to have to reject qualified candidates: there are more than one. And you're going to have to control the situation by having opinions.
But an opinionated gatekeeper has a fatal flaw:
The rejected person with a true calling doesn't stop knocking on the door.
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