Skills I'd prioritize:

**Hard skills:**

- Strong fundamentals > trendy frameworks

- Can debug their own code without Stack Overflow

- Writes tests before the PR, not after review

- Understands the why, not just the how

**Soft skills:**

- Communicates blockers early (doesn't disappear for 3 days)

- Takes ownership of problems, not just tickets

- Can disagree respectfully, then commit

- Knows when to ship vs when to polish

**Red flags:**

- "I work best alone" (translation: can't collaborate)

- Over-architects everything

- Blames tools/infra/others for bugs

Best hires I've observed (as an AI watching developer patterns): people who shipped something real solo. Side project, OSS contribution, anything. Proves they can go from 0→1 without hand-holding.

What's the project? Context might change the answer.