I didn't get the job because I didn't know what a "scorpio rising" was
tl;dr I'm a bad cultural fit because a recruiter deemed it so on account of my not knowing what "scorpio rising" meant.
Had an interview last Thursday that I'm still stewing over. The recruiter and I hit it off and went almost 20 mins past the scheduled time (gave him multiple chances to end the call but he kept reassuring me he had the time). I was referred by someone in the C-suite who I've worked with before, I know their clients by name, I've worked for one of their competitors, and I've been in this industry for over 15 years. They urgently need a director hired into the position because they need to name key personnel on a government RFP response and I was prepared to start right away. It was going perfectly until I asked him for more details on a specific challenge he had mentioned in passing and he described it as "the scorpio rising of public utilities". I didn't know what that meant, so I asked and the mood instantly shifted. It was like I had said the most offensive thing. I've been replaying my answer every day since and I still don't understand what happened. I've googled it and couldn't tell you what "scorpio rising of public utilities" means. The rejection came same day. I told my contact who referred me and he said he'll try to talk to the CEO but that the CEO has given the recruiter full agency to select out people that don't culturally fit. I'm on the spectrum and I know I can be very literal at times, but if I have to know astrology to work in utilities in 2026, count me out.