During the course of the interview, it was revealed that during her previous employment with us, she completed a graduate degree from a pricey private school that was paid for through company tuition reimbursement. Immediately upon graduation, she resigned and took a better job with that very university.
Now, five years later, she wanted to come back. I did not hire her though she was otherwise competitively qualified. The scuttlebutt in the office was that I rejected her for sexual orientation. That wasn't it. I rejected her because she showed poor ethics in having the company pay for her education then immediately parlaying it into a job elsewhere. The company expected to benefit from the $40,000 it invested in her. It didn't seem to dawn on her that what she did wasn't right.
She asked how she could have interviewed differently to get the job. I was noncommital as you can get sued for saying anything these days. I wonder if she still believes it was because she was homosexual and not poor ethics.
Oh, and the rules have changed on tuition reimbursement. Now if you resign within a year, you have to pay it all back; within two years, 50%; within three years, 25%.