In hindsight, yeah. Had I been offered the job I might have taken it and I'm much better off than I would have been.

Applied for an "executive" position with an internet company back during the internet boom. It was in the San Fran / Silicon Valley area.

Housing prices were sky high even then.

Was offered $50k more per year... plus stock options.

Declined the offer (don't really like Cali).

6 months later, the company went bankrupt...

---whew--- that was close ...

Would have moved and given up a good stable job here for 6 months of higher pay and worthless stock options.

James

Yep. In 2016 I was working at my first police department, a 15 officer outfit in a shitty town or 10k people an hour away from anything worthwhile, including my wife’s job.

I applied for a job with the campus police department in the city that borders where we both grew up. This is a police department in name only with an active discouragement for actual police work. They would rather the cops play ping pong with students at the Rec center than arrest drunk drivers.

In any event, it was a chance to move, and I needed that, so I applied. I thought I had a really good shot, interviews went well and all that. Got a rejection letter in the mail and was absolutely crushed. My disappointment was second only to my wife’s. The next day, I got a text from a friend that the city PD in my actual hometown that they had just canned someone and were hoping to hire a certified candidate. I applied, tested, and got hired and had opportunities for growth and specialization with that city that I never would have had with my first gig or the campus police.

Not getting the campus PD job was probably the best thing that ever happened to me...and the guy they hired instead of me was fired for a blatant 4th Amendment violation so...

Late 2007 I phone interviewed for a parts manager position in a GM Commercial Truck dealership. They did the dance, said that they would get back to me as my salary requirements were higher than they anticipated. One added factor was my drive would have increased from sixty miles round trip daily to about 110 miles a day across metro Detroit.

Early 2008 I accepted an offer at another dealership as a counterman, a bit more than I told the above mentioned dealer, that one was twenty five miles less round trip than the one I was working at when all this started.

The truck dealer kept calling and wanting to meet with me again, I declined the second chance. By 2010 while they were still in business as an independent truck repair shop GM discontinued the Medium Duty line so where would I have been at that point? All my experience was in dealer parts, not aftermarket.

Oh lord yes.

Before my current job, I applied for St. Louis City Police Department.

Despite having significantly higher education than the requirements, significantly higher test scores for the position, and significantly more work experience than the position required, I was rejected.

I have had multiple city officers I know tell me the reasons why, and while none of that is official, it probably isn't that far from the truth.

I thank my lucky stars I was not hired.

There is no part of that shit show I am interested in.

Despite having to save up money, pay off my own debt, and save tuition for the academy on my own dime, support myself throught the academy on my own dime, and then pay back the debt accumulated from that... (while had i actually gotten into the city academy I would have gotten a paycheck and been able to pay my debt off faster) it was A MUCH BETTER DECISION to not be a city officer.

And don't take this wrong, this IS NOT a critique of the city officers, just their administration, city government, and overally voter population. Those guys go in with both hands behind their backs, as opposed to us with one hand tied...

While it was a much longer road, and some of it on my own dime, I'm MUCH better off NOT getting the job there.

It will take a miracle for St. Louis City to get back on it's feet, and a few of them for the police department to recover. (again, not because of the rank and file, but because of the powers that be in the city management/government)

Does the reverse count?

Many years ago I was working for a large computer company. I was attending college on the GI bill at the same time. (4 classes per semester). I was just finishing the next to last semester, and my manager tells me they want me to go to Poughkeepsie, NY for a job interview. Told him that I had been in Poughkeepsie before (attending a company school) and had no desire to return.

He convinced me that I should go, that there was nothing binding about the interview, yada yada.

Went, got a job offer. Turned it down because I did not desire having to take another 2 or 3 semesters to get my degree from a school up there.

Long story short. . . I was informed that the job offer I had received was binding! I.e. no choice, they would wait until I finished my last semester, but then I had to go.

Spent 8 years there and the shit finally got so deep I wangled a transfer to a company facility here in N. Virginia.

Up there in Poughkeepsie, a 60 hour week was a short week for me.

That was one job I would have cheerfully passed up, had I had a choice. And quitting the company at that point was not financially possible!

Yes. Several times. I am happy with what I got

I wasn't passed up for the job, but left. Shortly after leaving, two of the airplanes I had been flying lost their wings in flight, killing all aboard. Both incidents happened within a few weeks of each other.

Had I stayed, I'd have been in one of those two airplanes.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Air Aces out of Hooks Airport???