The rules for sales are... different, but sales (and to a lesser extent, consulting, at least the &quot;make the customer feel special&quot; part of consulting) exists in what most of us consider to be a kind of ethical gray area.  You&#x27;re trying to tell the customer &quot;I&#x27;m one of you&quot;<p>Most technical jobs are not like that.  Most have pretty minimal social requirements.    If you can&#x27;t work with a programmer who doesn&#x27;t look like you, I&#x27;d argue that the problem is with you, not with the person who looks different.<p>Every time I argue that competency should be more important than &#x27;cultural fit&#x27; people bring up the example of the asshole.  But the asshole isn&#x27;t usually the one rejected for &#x27;cultural fit&#x27;  -  assholes usually do fairly well during the interview.