I thought I nailed my interview yesterday, but my friend (who works at the company) told me they're going with someone else.
Apparently the hiring manager didn't like that I've been doing freelance work to support myself after losing my salaried position at the start of the pandemic. To him, that meant I “had an established customer base and a secondary income stream”; hiring me meant there was a risk that I could simply leave this job “when the going got tough” and “go back to freelancing full time”. He wanted “someone who is hungrier”.
For the record, I am hungry as fuck. My “established freelance business” hasn't covered my monthly bills even once. I have depleted my entire savings account and racked up $8000 in credit card debt just sheltering/feeding myself. I fucking needed this job, man.