"Cultural" fit > Skills?

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/woman-says-she-was-fired-because-she-wasn-t-a-culture-fit-sparking-debate-on-how-personality-trumps-skills-in-the-workforce/ar-AA194rJk?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=c0f2108d7c264cbb972aaf47dc218a14&ei=15

This does not bode well for those who are introverted, or have no way to instinctively know what the "culture" is without it being explained to them.

The article does state something employers look for is positive attitude. I find this will go a long way in working well with others. The types that don't fit well within a company culture are the toxic negative types and generally unpleasant individuals. Good employers cannot afford to ignore what goes on inside their workplace and toxic negativity will only hurt the morale of a workplace. Likewise, if one is pleasant, they may see "pleasure to work with" on their annual reviews even if the review says you need improvement.

In another article, it mentioned a bank who only hired lacrosse players. The article I posted mentioned someone who was let go due to not contributing to the "gossiping and drinking" culture of her company, despite being very productive and delivering results.

In other words, people can be rejected or let go for things unrelated to the actual job, and not because of violating policies.

Yep, been there, done that. Worked in the sciences, but had to leave companies in a hurry because the company culture, really the ND cliques were not a good fit.

Pre-1990: I lost one job for not being a condescending liberal.  I lost another job for not being a nationalistic conservative.  I lost yet another job for spurning the advances of a gay manager.  Finally, I lost a job because I would not support the union in a "Right to Work" state.  No complaints were lodged against the quality of my work.

Post-1990: No one seemed to care much about my 'attitude' at the last two places I worked but were more impressed with my work-ethic and the quality of my work.

I suspect I may have fallen victim to this at my last job.

Are there ways to work around these things?

On top of all this, Texas is an at-will state, so I have that against me as well.

PA is an at-will state also, but that doesn't seem to mean employers aren't still very cautious and concerned about being sued. I have dealt with situations where I've had to collect and compile tons of documentation over an extended period of time, "coach" people through corrective action plans and give them multiple opportunities for formal discussion and improvement before HR would even entertain the idea of terminating an employee. Perhaps the company I work for is outside the norm, but I think many others (especially larger organizations) are similarly cautious.

Re: thread title, yeah, sadly fit and soft skills seem to trump other qualifications often. I think some fields might be a little better than others and remote work evens the playing field slightly, but generally that is the case.

https://www.generation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Meeting-the-Worlds-Midcareer-Moment-July-2021.pdf

I am 43 and the part about "poor skills and low adaptability" is not true about me at all.

But then again, you are not 45 or older, are you.

I lost my job with a financial services company during the global economic downturn. At that time, there wasn't much opportunity in private industry but a lot of openings in government contracting. This one recruiter I worked with seemed to specialize in placing people with companies that did classified work and they would sign "contingent contracts" saying that the day you obtained a security clearance you would start work. I suppose one attraction to that is that you can't just go and apply for a clearance on your own, somebody with a government contract has to sponsor it and it's expensive. Of course until the clearance comes through you would have to find something temporary to tide you over and a clearance can take a very long time, also if you are denied a clearance it can be sort of a black mark on your record, worse than never having applied to begin with.

So the two companies the recruiter had me interview with, whom she promoted as highly desirable employers, had a handful of interviewers like there was typically a younger person who was more technical and maybe somebody who represented management, and in both cases there was an interviewer who I would describe as the "culture interviewer". The two such interviewers I encountered appeared so similar they could have been the same person. They were both overweight white guys who reminded me of a walrus and although they didn't flat-out ask me about my personal beliefs it was clear they were vetting on that basis. I can recall one of them walked into the room and announced "I have no patience with political correctness!" or something to that effect. Both those companies rejected me on the basis I was not a cultural fit. No other company did that at least not directly. Although in government contracting I think they usually don't care quite so much about cultural fit when hiring programmers as in some other industries. In my experience, living in a area close to where a great deal of classified work is carried out, people with high-level clearances tend to have very right-wing political beliefs and tend to be either religious or outspoken Libertarians.

Here are my skills:

BS in Geography/Urban Planning
ArcGIS
ChatGPT
Python + data science extensions (sci-kit, NumPy, TensorFlow, etc)
Java
Tableau
C++
Oracle SQL

Also, finding full-time, permanent work is almost impossible, because nearly everything is contract with no benefits.

I have had two contract jobs, and was let go after two weeks, both times due to "structural dynamics", whatever that means. I had previously worked 5 years in city government before going back to college.