I was excited to read this as someone trying to get into the UX world, however, with my time in HR, Ive seen how hiring like this goes. You won’t find that perfect candidate with so many expectations, going into nitty grittys and judging the candidate based on - what exactly? Im confused because you didn’t prefer the person who spoke a-lot about herself (maybe she did it enthusiastically and you didn’t mention it/notice?) yet you noticed those candidates who were weak in conversing? So Im questioning post reading, what are you looking for exactly?

From my experience, people learn and grow into roles, learn about the culture and company, they don’t come molded or tailored according to the role 100% - never have, never will.

Side note: the idea of the delivery guys wearing costumes? Isn’t UX about empathy? Not just for the customers but the internal stakeholders - would the delivery people be happy to wear costumes to deliver, what about the temperature of the region, would they feel comfortable doing that - the idea and execution are 2 different things. Your acceptance of ideas like this may make it hard for you to decide on a candidate.

Interesting read however, I still wish you all the best in your search.