now thats a great idea , but i think the mods wont love it to much , they'll feel attacked :p

Huh, interesting. Outside Vandy in TN, I never hear too much from Ed in the SE. Anywho, back to working out.

These sorts of things happen quite a lot.
For example, when we want to have someone move from a two-year contract to a permanent contract, we have to hold interviews, despite knowing who we are going to hire. It's a bit mad, and quite unfair. Mind you, anyone who performs well at those interviews gets noted for future available jobs (and on one occasion, we managed to squeeze some money from somewhere for a temporary contract).

I... wuh...?
Damn, I can't agree with that.
No, I guess some (lots!) of us do the same. :)

While this would probably serve to derail the thread further, I'm so fucking glad I'm not working in the US.
When I interviewed for my current job, which is a high-level technological / research position in a small hi-tech company, I thankfully did not have to go through any of these loops I've been reading about.
There were no personality tests. Instead, the intervieweres relied on actually being able to judge the overall personality and suitedness of their applicant by actually, you know, talking to them. There was a big part of the interview basically earmarked small talk. Other than that, we did have some lengthy talks about technology issues pertaining to the company and of course a few quizzes and such as well to get a certain grasp of my level of understanding of the subject matter and how well I would fit in to their technological vision.
In my opinion, the use of personality tests in particular in the job application process is grossly overrated, and in many cases grossly misunderstood and even abused. Psychologists will tell you that the many years of research that has gone into some of the "best" tests on the market makes them very "secure" and trustworthy with respect to pinpointing personality traits. This is a truth with modifications at best.
However, they are almost all extremely easy to manipulate. If you have some experience taking such tests beforehand, you can pretty much place yourself anywhere from a cozy pre-school uncle to murderous psychopath by anticipating the way your answers are pooled.
If you're like me and took a few psychology classes as part of your education as well this is even easier as you're much more aware of the most common tricks. Or you could read one of many available books that basically blow all but the most rigorous personality tests wide open.
All in all it really makes me glad I'm a scientist and that knowledge and ability far outweighs personality in the jobs I apply for. As long as I don't turn up at the interview in my underwear, unwashed, and scream a lot I can be pretty sure my personality won't really have a negative effect on the overall process.
The problem is probably largest with positions and companies where the education level isn't really that great, which opens for hilarious misinterpretations and WTFs of the entire process.
And of course, every once in a while you'll be interviewed by a complete jerkoff.

"Uhm... sir?... You're spilling that all over my clothes!"

:)

I like interacting with other people. The more, the better. At least in theory. In reality I mostly find it tiresome and uncomfortable, if not plain scary.
I recognise the need to get away from other people, but I'm no introvert. I need other people just as much as I need oxygen. It's simply that interacting with most people makes me feel like a hen in a fox house.
In my very own, highly reliable opinion, I'm not the one lacking in social skills. Other people are. But it would seem the world in general disagrees. I've tried to indulge the world and do something about my social skills in various ways. Generally with funny-in-hindsight results, but little else.
I wish I knew what the problem is, but I don't. I think perhaps there's a gaping maw of awkwardness between my expectations of people and vice versa. But that's about as exact as I know how to get. Possibly I should have studied behavioural psychology instead of mathematics.
The closest I've come to coping with it, has been working abroad. Which I've done more than half my life for just that reason.
Still, it might be some small consolation for Aliasalpha to hear that it hasn't prevented me from getting married, to a geophysicist who's a great deal smarter than I am ;)

Ooh a geophysicist, not only someone to get your rocks off but someone who can explain what sort of rocks they are!

From what I believe, people get together because of a commonness in something. Whoever says opposites attract is an ignorant ignoramus. I often feel the same way as you do. I can interact with people. I had a whopping 21st birthday party, with most of my better acquainted friends, about 30 in total, turning up. The problem is, out of these "friends", I really only trust about 5 of them, and I'm convinced it's something to do with people having natural masks on them that really hide their true colours.
I have a good sense of people's appearances. While one would say "judge not a book by its cover", that's precisely what I'm good at doing, and often am accurate in it too. By a person's smile, voice and facial features, I can predict what kind of person he is - backstabber, badmouther, manipulator, good friend, introvert etc. And more often than not, most of the people I see have their own agenda. Some tend to follow the crowd, going where the wind blows. Then there are some who have their own hidden intents on being your friend - as malicious as this statement may sound, it may not actually be; but that doesn't cover the fact that there's more than just the surface.
It's also for this very reason that I'm very wary of trusting people too much, and therefore sometimes prefer to seclude myself from congregations. There's no sense of belonging to a group of people whom I feel are better suited as potential business clients than mountain-climbing buddies. I can talk to them, make them interested in what I have to say; I can make them laugh with me, make the girls start hitting me; but, as a group, I just don't have the sense of connection that I really feel with my true friends whom I've known for a decade already.
Therefore, you are right and I agree with the part about "I'm not the one lacking in social skills. Other people are." I am a friendly, welcoming person by nature, though I sometimes look fierce. What compels me to distance myself from others is that already, the mask is up on everybody's faces, so that puts me on my guard. And, my sixth sense instincts tell me that nothing good's going to come out when the masks are let down. It's not my fault that people behave like weirdos, like acting playful but going a bit too overboard or striking a wrong chord with me. I know they are trying to create a rapport between both of us, but it's not my fault that they are failing hard, and causing myself to want to create distance.
That's one of the main explanations I have for accounting for my preference to isolate myself at times. I'm not sure if you feel the same way, but yeah...
Man this group therapy session is awesome.

90% as effective as a psychiatrist but without the option of prescribing drugs.
Then again there's at least one chemist here...

Anyone read Putt's Law? OMG, great book for the IT folks. Think Dilbert Principle, but more academic, and tailored to IT. Key to gaming the system.
@Disconnected - never too late to start with Behavioral Psych. Read Skinner. I adore him. I use behavioral shaping on people all the time.

I once contemplated doing psychology at uni but then I realised that the main career path from that degree would have involved sitting and listening to other people complain, no WAY I'd have the patience for that
or the empathy now I come to think of it

i have a very good empathy but i would suck at being a shrink.
I'd adapt to the same vibration of the patient resulting in me getting depressed or angry as well. Hell i think i even would help them kill themselves after they said it during sessions for the107th time.

You could keep a gun in your desk and give it to them when they got annoying. Then if they were scared out of it by the reality of the situation you could claim is a form of psychological wish fulfillment shock therapy
If they blow their brains out, you can say "my god, he had a gun!!"