Being in the friend zone is roughly the equivalent of a guy going to a job interview and being told, “You have a great resume, you have all the qualifications we are looking for, but we’re not going to hire you. We will, however, use your resume as the basis for comparison for all other applicants. But, we’re going to hire somebody who is far less qualified and is probably an alcoholic. And if he doesn’t work out, we’ll hire someone else, but still not you. In fact, we will never hire you. But we will call you from time to time to complain about the person we hired.