What kind of social skills does that require?
Not much -- the usual ones for holding a corporate job (wear business casual, look neat, don't smell, don't be a weirdo). Quants are expected to be nerdy/geeky.
My impression is that this is the modern equivalent of court astrologer
Not at all. Finance has the advantage of providing rapid and unambiguous feedback for your actions.
Finance has the advantage of providing rapid and unambiguous feedback for your actions.
If you're trading yes, although the feedback is extremely noisy. If you're designing models not so much. Incidentally a lot of the quants I know are also good at doing Tarot readings, whether they believe the cards have power or not.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.