Wow, that's really disheartening and resonates with me personally. I think it is a disgusting inefficiency of our economy that hiring is still a high-school pop

Wow, that's really disheartening and resonates with me personally. I think it is a disgusting inefficiency of our economy that hiring is still a high-school popularity contest rather than a judgment of merit. I worked a sales job for 5 years that I acquired through a University career fare. After 5 years, my team and I were fired for political reasons, because another manager and his team wanted to assume ownership of our customer base and product line (large corporations do this). Over the next 9 months of sales interviews, I was denied from about 20 face to face interviews with absolutely no explanation as to what I was doing wrong. It wasn't a failed background check or anything blatant-- middle managers repeatedly denied me round after round. It wasn't until I took an interview with the Founder/CEO of a 5 person firm that I was immediately hired on the spot and praised for my sales acumen and personality. Wtf?? My point here is that it's not the fault of your candidate-- it's the fault of the people you are putting him in front of. Barrage him with simulated behavioral interviews. Coach him on how to be more "likable and normal" (yuck). But ultimately, once you've optimized for those things... get him in front of better people who are deliberately and specifically looking for talent, not sociability.