1. Take a high quality multi-vitamin every day. 2. Take one day off every week without fail. 3. Spend 10 minutes every day writing down what you are thankful for. 4. Spend 10 minutes every day reading the Bible starting with the New Testament, reading a version that you can understand. Write down any questions you have and at the end of 6 months find someone who can answer your questions.

Do this for 6 months and this will lead you to a better place than you are now.

yes/$3 a month.

After she shared with you, did she ask your forgiveness?

Depending on the issue, it may not be something that it’s appropriate to ask forgiveness for. For instance, “I made a porn video with my high school boyfriend and it leaked to the internet” is a mistake, not an injury done to the now-husband. Same with “I got pregnant in college and had an abortion.” Or “I was addicted to painkillers long before we met and stole money from friends and family, but I’m 100% clean now.”

I would

I would just say yes, that you are still job hunting and that you would love to resume talking to them about the job. Perhaps, thank them for being honest with you and polite in how they handled turning you down. Tell them that there are no hard feelings. Ask them what the next steps are now and finally explain that you are currently still interviewing with other companies (no need to name names or the stages you are in. You are just stating the obvious).

No need to pressure them in any other way until they tell you what they see as the next step. Do not assume you have any leverage with them. They are probably also still looking. This is a chance to show them that you are a class act.

Don't look at this in any other way except as an opportunity. Yes, you can bring up the fact that another company is interested, but not at this time. Set the hook with class and an obvious interest in their company.

I agree with the above post. The rejection and subsequent reaching out should be viewed by you as though the conversation/process continued unabated.

I'll make an additional comment. From your description, it does not appear that either company has made you an offer yet. At this stage in the game, you don't really have much leverage. Job offers in hand are leverage. Your strategy should be to continue forward in parellel with as many companies as you can. Snagging a job offer from one is the best way to improve you chances with all the others. Having two offers (or more) gives you much, much better chance of optimizing your situation -- when companies are aware that their offer is not the only one on the table, they have more incentive to work to sweeten the package for you. All this to say: the idea of 'buying time' is totally the wrong way to be thinking about this; it pushes things in the wrong direction timeline-wise, since you want to moving things forward on all fronts to secure those job offers. There's no time to buy until you have at least one job offer.

Thank you so much for your advice! It really strikes a balance. No doubt I had a mix of positive and negative feelings about this at first but hey an opportunity is an opportunity. Thanks once again!

Forget the negative feelings because you don’t know enough to justify them.

Maybe they didn’t have the budget to hire you, and the other guy was cheaper. Now the other guy has flaked and the CEO has taken a 10% pay cut to hire you. I have been the CEO taking the cut to stretch for a candidate before.

You don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes, so be classy and polite, they may be stretching for you

Chances are higher that California rises into the sky.

I would corner the market in white flags.

Handling hard, inane, stupid questions (from your perspective) is a part of life. If you can learn to do it with grace and insight you are off to a great start. There are reasons people may be asking these questions. Why assume that the reasons are so obvious? Take a moment and try to answer this question in a positive way without hostility or hubris. Don't take the bait and don't assume that what everybody only wants is your intellect. Most companies want to avoid assholes as much as they want to select the best.

I think that the best way to answer this is with a story. Explain that you (the recruiter) already know a lot about me by way of my (applicant's) application but this (story) is what you don't know about me and that it may be important. Make the story memorable and truthful. Make it something that couldn't have fit into the interview otherwise and end by saying that now you know a little bit more about my character and I hope it helps you remember me.