"Not a good company fit"...

[Kevlarhead]

...is this just HR speak for "We couldn't stand the thought of being stuck in a room with you for eight hours a day."?

more or less

or 'we don't think you could stand the line manager for more than a week without stabbing easch other'

Unless it was a job in HR it will either be what Mrs Badger said or it might be a sense that the way the organisation works/is run is different from your background and/or will possibly be a frustration or a problem for you.

Since there wasn't a background issue, and it wasn't an HR role, I'll conclude they couldn't thole sharing a room with me.

Does anyone have any tips on making yourself less repellant during interviews?

Oh poor you. Yes that is the cop-out answer when people are too wimpy/lazy to give constructive criticism. You're probably absolutely fine. But they weren't.

Tips for being less repellant? Well not having met you it's hard to say but my pet hates are:

Bad breath

Dirty hair

Scruffy clothes

Lipstick on teeth (you're probably ok on that one though)

Brown suit

Bling jewellery (I employ customer/client facing staff so image is quite important)

Mumbling

One word answers

Not answering the questions fully

Discriminatory attitudes (have terminated an interview before now after a candidate launched into a racist rant against Asian women. Not clever when my co-interviewer was an Asian woman)

People who take about their own needs "I want this job because I need XXXX" very off putting.

People who use slang

People who swear

People who smell.

Otherwise I am extremely tolerant

It maybe lazy, or maybe true...sometimes your style of working just wouldn't gel with the company's style of working - look on it as a lucky escape! (I can think of jobs that have driven me crazy because I didn't 'fit' and I wanted to stab my manager/co-workers/entire staff...)

Bummer, though isn't it, when you want/need a job!

The one time I heard this I'm pretty sure it meant, 'we wanted the agency to send a man.'

It could mean that they already have a team with a lot of a certain type of person in and want to balance the types of people out a bit more.

Or it could just mean what it says, I have seen some people really struggle with the culture of the company where I used to work and it often didn't have a happy ending (person moving on, accusations of bullying etc) although sometimes did cause change for the better.

I wouldn't dwell on it too much.