No problem, I'm enjoying writing and hopefully it's not too much rambling. I used to have a similar perspective on interviewing and I've learned so much since then - about how much I was totally unaware of. In general, the job search is frustrating and discouraging, even if you're fluent. Not getting calls returned and long delays between phone calls are commonplace. It could be that there are multiple positions open, one of which gets filled, and then you get called for the next round of interviews several weeks later. Or the HR department is just disorganized and bad at communicating with their candidates. Or it's a competitive position and there are just too many. It's also standard to not know why you weren't hired. At best you get a generic email about how there were many qualified applicants and that you should apply to other positions. Despite all of the above I will say that "we have other candidates" is extremely impolite for an interviewer or any spokesperson representing the company. Maybe that's worth writing back about to a recruiter and asking for another phone interview? If not, or if that doesn't work, you have to move on. It doesn't sound like there was much to learn from the experience, and your next phone interview will be with a different person and a different set of circumstances, so look forward to that and forget that 2-question dismissal ever happened. As for acknowledging the stutter- or advertising it, as we say in NSA meetings, unless you're applying to be a radio talk show host there's no way a fair interviewer would dock points for saying "I'm a person who stutters, so please be patient." That in itself demonstrates your ability to handle situations with tact which is a useful skill. If you happen to be relatively fluent that day such that it's barely noticeable, then it will probably be taken as typical nervousness if you don't mention it. But then you might be trying too hard to make it through the interview not 'screwing up' and stuttering, when you could have impressed them with better, more thought-out answers if you weren't as focused on being able to speak. The point of advertising the stutter is to remove that pressure. I equate it to how much easier it is to speak to a friend than a stranger who has no idea you stutter. A side effect is that if you start wanting to be open about your stutter, you tend to be more fluent. Usually you have to split your focus between what your saying and how you're saying it, but when your speaking about your speech those two things are closer to the same thing and it's one less obstacle in the way of fluency. I once had a difficult phone call - business-related, not an interview, but long and complex - that I started with "Before we get into it I should say that I'm a person who stutters, so I may take some time with my sentences. Hope that's okay," which was met with an enthusiastic "Sure" and I didn't know if the other person already knew what stuttering was or if he was just accommodating. Either way, I surprised myself because that was very easy to say, and I barely stuttered at all for the rest of the hour-long conversation. It's an inconvienent Catch-22: apart from my explanation there was no way to tell that I stuttered, but if I omitted it I'd have felt way more pressure to be fluent and probably caused myself to stutter. It's the first thing some people notice when they join support groups. Remove the expectation to be fluent and suddenly it's much easier to speak.