Delta T, with absolutely no interest in defending The HR luvvies it could well be more complicated than that. I don’t know how old you are but if your a more mature gentleman HR might have some bias or expectation that your leadership would stand out more amongst younger candidates. I don’t know what your recent experience is but I know people who were rejected based on the fact they hadn’t flown for a little while or not enough. Could be many other things. I too know many good people rejected and others that were given a gig even with some fairly obvious foibles.