"What sets a candidate apart?" - this is a question I often get from junior engineers who are going through interviews and recruiting process.

Is it Leetcode solving? StackOverflow points or GitHub stars? Those may be some kind of indicator, but beyond the technologies, here are my other key criteria when comes to assessing a candidate

👉 problem solving thought process - I don't mean solving Leetcode problems, I mean how the candidate approaches practical ones related to a product or existing system

👉 humility vs arrogance - how they react to negative feedback or criticism, and how they portray their own knowledge and experience

👉 big picture thinking - do they think of edge cases, external impact, do they ask meaningful follow up questions

👉 curiosity vs apathy - do they try to understand the reasons behind why they do the things they do, or why certain practices or patterns are in place, or do they just go through the motions without asking questions

👉 improvement mindset - whether they think about how to better themselves, their code, and their knowledge

👉 clarity of communication - how clearly they can explain concepts, how well they can explain their own thought process

👉 collaborative nature - when I give problems I try to phrase it as something we are trying to solve together, not me against them. how they generally react to those situations, and handle back and forth's.

These can be a huge boost for the candidate's profile and can complement their tech skills, or even overcome shortcomings thereof.