Years ago I was rejected by Google for a permanent position, then a year later employed at a much better rate as a contractor in the same building I'd interviewed in. I'd built a relatively cool app (full stack, from Linux to Tornado to JavaScript to UX), like Secret or YikYak (but a few years before either).

The people in Creative Lab were impressed with the ride range of knowledge I had, the SRE guys who rejected me got stuck into me for mixing up some VMware terminology.