I was at AWS for 4 years and spent A LOT of time interviewing. We couldn’t find and interview qualified candidates fast enough. Lots of engineers doing the interviewing; few charlatans.

At AWS, however, it’s important to look at the well-roundedness of the candidate. It doesn’t matter how much code you’ve delivered if you’re an asshole in meetings.

Being a self-starter, earning the trust of your peers, and being highly-focused on customer experience are all soft skills, but are critical to ensuring success in the role. Hiring the wrong person is costly, and even then, many people at AWS wash-out in the first 2 years.

Soft skills and collaborative working habits are MORE important than writing code. Code can be taught. Being collaborative and thinking-like-an-owner is much harder to teach.