reown a job?
 

If im running something like a compile in the background and then accidentally disown it, is there any way to get it back?

how do you mean "disown"
if you put a process in the background using ctrl+z then you can get it back by typing ' fg ' at the prompt.

by pressing CTRL-Z and then typing 'disown' that will disconnect the job from the shell or something, that way if you type 'jobs' it's no longer listed