I was unable to persuade a selection group to accept a candidate who had done some brilliant work on pyroxenes for his PhD for a mineralogist position. The reason the committee declined his application was his Southern accent.
I was on a search committee that rejected a guy because of his Southern accent.
The California surfer dude that was hired turned out to be a slick-talking, dishonest train wreck.
As a Texan living in Canada, working full time, and going to York University in the evenings, I stood out among my classmates not by accent alone.
On the evening just before going to take my final exam in economics, my wife asked over dinner how economics was derived. I began a long exposition on the laws of supply and demand, diminishing returns and all that.
When I got to class, the major question on the exam was to explain the derivation of economics. Since it was so fresh in my mind, the words spilled out onto the paper like a gusher.
The next week, the professor handed back our graded exams and said loudly to me in front of the class, “You know, you talk real slow. But you sure do write fast!”
I aced the exam and the course.