YMMV, because some people value technologies & frameworks, and some people value actual things that last (yeah, cheap shot). I prefer the candidate who can com

YMMV, because some people value technologies & frameworks, and some people value actual things that last (yeah, cheap shot). I prefer the candidate who can comfortably talk about algorithms, data structures, algorithmic analysis, theories of programming language, and theory of computation, and then discuss how they implemented the areas of interest to them. I have no need for someone who can't write code to implement the theory they know. Part of this focus is my belief that software engineering is not teachable in college; the projects are too small and the social dynamics don't carry over to the work environment. I am fine bringing an intern or new grad along and teaching them configuration management, practice & theory of testing, code reviews, etc. These things can be taught to someone of reasonable social capability who has already learned coding and algorithms, something I am not really willing to teach new grads.