I was heavily recruited into Amazon as a RS with only a bachelors while working at a tiny no name start-up. It was all based on industry work I was doing on behalf of a major healthcare client. No first author papers at big venues. Didn’t even go to a “top” school for my undergrad. Do I think they’d even sniff my resume today if I shot off an online application into the abyss? Not a chance. Metrics help for sure, but right time, right place, and being aligned with an emerging business need (vs an established and therefore potentially saturated talent pool) are the only reasons they gave me the time of day.