[logandavis]

Great thread, great answers!

Follow-on question: OK, so how does your company's interview process test for these traits?

It's mind-boggling to me how many organizations understand that the most important traits of a great engineer are "soft skills" (how many answers here are about really understanding big-O complexity or pointer math?)... and yet are content to interview candidates with whiteboard algorithms problems.

Interview for greatness, not for having-brushed-up-on-Djikstra's-ness!