A friend of mine got knocked back and his father was an old coleague of the interviewers, so he found out why.
"Your son is still a bit immature. That'll change with time!"
I reckoned he was pretty mature myself so, we must appear different to different people.
The lad landed up getting into a better carrier in the next twelve months and is sitting pretty. He wanted to get into the one that knocked him back because many of the pilots were people he knew all his life and that was the tribe he felt was his.
He now is one happy pilot and has been for a few years... as someone else said. One door closes and another opens.