Years ago I applied for a trainee programmer position with Control Data in the UK. At the recruitment day (lots of people taking aptitude tests) after testing and interviews I was taken aside with several others by a recruiter and told that though we had passed the interview and aptitude test we hadn't been unemployed long enough. They wouldn't get the government assistance available for employing the long term unemployed.

They invited us to return when we had been unemployed for longer :-)

Nick Mason