<p>There are positions where personality doesn’t matter as much,where technical skills and such are the value (quants, or quantitative analysts, the gurus who figure out risk formulas and trading strategies for wall st hedge funds and the like, come to mind), but an additional thought is when does that kick in. Internships are like first jobs, you don’t hire into a company as a full blown quant, or actuary (least as far as I understand it, not my area of expertise) or Systems Analyst or what not, you hire into an entry level position and move up. Quite honestly, the first jobs/internships can be the hardest ones, because a candidate is coming in with relatively little background generally (even with all the EC’s, etc), and as an interviewer I or anyone else doing it has to discern a lot, from a resume, some questions in an interview and then generally making consensus. Believe it or not, it is just as hard on the other side to try and figure out what makes someone tick and such…</p>
<p>And entry level jobs means learning a whole new skill set, and means interacting with people to get answers and support them and such. Down the road it is possible that certain positions (like Quants on Wall St) aren’t as personality based, but by then the person may not have to interact much with others and since they have already proven themselves that they can do the work, that is fine.</p>