CosmicRose - Just wanted to say sorry that you didn't get the position that you wanted (but good job on listening to your intuition on that first interview - it definitely sounded creepy!).

Interviewing is so hard. You can do everything right, and even click well with the interviewers, but not get the position. Sometimes they already have somebody else in mind, but need to interview people to make it look fair (!). Sometimes, it's not about you. Sometimes, you might just not have some particular skill that they need, but it won't be obvious. I've helped interview people at my job, and we've had really wonderful people that we all loved and wanted to bring on, but there was some key skill that they didn't have - it wasn't their fault in most cases, they were great at what they did, it was just, not quite a match with our needs.

I'm sorry. You just have to keep reminding yourself - it's likely not anything you're doing wrong. There's a lot of competition, and you have to keep trying!

You can totally do this! You've already shown all of us that you're smart, tenacious, and serious about finding a job and getting some independence! I have 10000000% faith in you! If you were local and my company had any openings that you'd be a good fit for, I'd recommend you in a heartbeat.

Good luck, and hang in there!