My pool for drawing personal conclusions about hiring is not deep, but in my limited experience (both in hiring and being hired) there are two things that seem

My pool for drawing personal conclusions about hiring is not deep, but in my limited experience (both in hiring and being hired) there are two things that seem to matter above all others: 1) How personably the candidate is. Do you want to work with this person? Does he/she have basic social skills? 2) Do they have a coding-related passion project? It almost doesn't matter what it is, as long as they have one.