Since I work for SAS I'm probably a bit biased here, but here are my thoughts based on working as a software developer (in many technologies) over the years.
Domain knowledge is paramount, and experience with applying that domain knowledge in technology (code-based, in this case) is important. If the candidate has strong Python or R experience, that's great --they can easily translate that to SAS capabilities. But it needs to be clear that "in this job, we use SAS", and no fair pining for a syntax or library that you're already comfortable with. All of the features and capabilities are there in SAS too, but you do have to invest some time in getting to know where they are.
In SAS Viya, you can actually leverage Python knowledge in the system -- but again, that's not necessarily an invitation to lean on a familiar Python package when SAS is your standard. However, it may help with the learning process.
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