Employer: "You're So Smart And You Got An Impressive Background, So We've Decided To Hire Someone Else..." Me: "Que?"

So as far as my career goes this year, I have been trying acquire employment with a Physiotherapy climic; I have had 4 interviews, with zero success thus far, despite being told I have a great skill set, and that I am a really nice guy.  I try to get constructive feedback, but they either skirt the question, or they have ignored me completely.

This begs the question:  Are employers getting so afraid of hurting the feelings of people, that even constructive criticism is now off the menu?

How are you supposed to improve your hard/soft job skills, when you can't get the crucial perspective of an outsider?  No matter how honest you are about your strengths and shortcomings, you are inherently biased about certain aspects of your character; these are things that only another person can pick up on.

I guess I'll have to make some blind guesses about where I'm coming up short, and see if it changes anything, but if there's any advice I would have for hiring managers/business owners out there, it would be this:  Don't mistake being assertive with being aggressive.  Offering up contructive criticism of somebody's skills isn't equal to berating or bullying them (especially if they are asking for it explicitly!)