<human>: Some quick background: I graduated in May with a BS in mechanical engineering. My GPA was bad (2.7) but I worked for a good paid research project and led a student organization.

On Monday my specific department's job board posted a listing for a nebulous "consulting" job with top notch benefits. I spent 2-3 hours making a tailored resume and a good cover letter. I felt like my whole application was a total slam dunk. So much so, I was pretty much expecting a call back of some sort pretty quickly.

My feeling was justified, and on Wednesday the number listed on the application called. 

The HR rep thanked me for my resume, and asked me my GPA to just get that out of the way immediately. At this point I knew my shot was over, so I politely explained due to personal medical issues I had a 2.7. She said that unfortunately there was a 3.5 cutoff for the position (lol). I should point out that this was not listed anywhere on the website's job listing or in the 4 page Word document attached to the listing.

Here's where it gets weird. I said what amounted to "thanks anyway", and got ready to hang up. But she then proceeded to ask me if "I knew any friends that *did* meet the minimum requirements". I was kind of flustered at this point, and said that even my friends who did well graduated below a 3.5 since it's a pretty competitive program. She kept pressing. She said that they could make an exception for a few points under 3.5. I said "Look, those friends have jobs in the industry they went to school for". She said "OK, well just keep us in mind if you hear from any friends that meet the requirements".

What the hell? If things are so bad that you're asking your rejects to point you to good candidates, why are your standards so high?  I mean, now that I know this is how they treat applicants I'm glad I didn't go further in the process. But the whole situation was just surreal.

Does anyone else have so-bad-it's-funny interview stories?

____

Can you give me a shortened version of the text?
<bot>: Was rejected in a next-day callback (for reasons I'm used to), but was then asked if I knew any candidates that were more qualified then myself.