The Most Important Curiosity Skills (With Examples)

Most people imagine the perfect employee as an individual who already possesses all the skills and knowledge in their industry to put out the best work.

In reality, the most successful professionals are often the people who consistently demonstrate curiosity and a willingness to learn more. Curiosity drives a person towards always improving themselves, their work, and learning more about their field.

Fostering your own professional curiosity can have incredibly positive repercussions in your career.

What Is Curiosity?

Curiosity is defined as the desire for learning more. This urge to attain more knowledge grows organically from a person and is not the result of hoping to gain some type of reward. They’re just genuinely interested in the subject matter at hand.

To better understand what counts as being curious, and what doesn’t, consider the example of a college student.

The work that they’re doing for the classes on their schedule isn’t born from curiosity because they’re completing the tasks for the reason of receiving a grade, and eventually graduating. However, the additional books they read in their spare time about a lecture topic that especially interested them is considered an act of curiosity.

Curiosity is a mindset of embracing knowledge, which can be developed to boost success in your career.

3 Ways Curiosity Can Help Your Career

Companies dread the realization that they’ve brought an employee on their team who simply comes in to cash a paycheck. While this type of individual might cruise by undetected for a bit, their professional stagnation will eventually be noticed. That’s why employers look for curious candidates when they’re hiring for an open position.

Getting hired is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to positive aspects of curiosity in your professional life. Below are a few more examples of the ways curiosity can help your career.

1. More knowledge strengthens your work skills. Curious people are constantly seeking more knowledge about every facet of their careers. This inadvertently strengthens their professional skills and makes them better employees.

   Once a supervisor notices this habit of constantly improving performance, you’ll be in line for more leadership opportunities.

2. It inspires innovative ideas. Since curiosity leads to being a walking bank of knowledge, there’s a likely chance that you’ll also have strong creative thinking and innovative ideas. Taking these concepts to your job could result in making the company more efficient, jump-starting a new project, or making another sort of positive impact.

3. Your learning capabilities improve. After getting into the flow of being curious and constantly taking in more knowledge, you’ll eventually start to sharpen your learning skills altogether.

   The ability to learn information is a skill just like any other. Improving upon it can have excellent outcomes for your work performance, creative thinking skills, and knowledge retention.

Tips for Demonstrating Curiosity on a Resume

Now that you understand how valuable curiosity can be to an employer, you’re probably wondering how you can demonstrate this quality on your resume. Look no further. Below are three helpful tips for displaying your curiosity on a resume.

1. Use alternative forms of pointing out curiosity in a resume skills section. You can simply state that you’re a curious person in your resume, but it comes off as a little bit childish. As an alternative, use more professional phrases that convey the same thirst for knowledge in the skills section of your resume.

   Instead of listing curiosity as a skill, use:

   • Willingness to learn

   • Always seeking improvement

   • Adaptability

   • Inquisitive

2. Include a section about your interests and hobbies. Since curiosity often has to do with an employee’s outside interests and willingness to learn about them, this can be a great way to demonstrate this quality on your resume.

   Simply add a section about your hobbies and interests to demonstrate your curious mind. However, make sure these activities are work-appropriate. You don’t want to list your passion for sports betting as a hobby on your resume.

3. Mention any additional certifications you have. Most professional positions have a certain level of education they require, but having additional certifications can make you stand out as a curious applicant. Going out of your way to earning extra skill certificates to your repertoire shows a distinct curiosity and determination to learn more.

Example Resume Demonstrating Curiosity

Interview Questions to Measure a Candidate’s Curiosity

It can be difficult to understand a candidate’s curiosity skills by reading their resume alone. A hiring manager has to speak with them face-to-face to evaluate their potential as an employee and their curiosity. When you go in for an interview, expect to receive some questions that test your curiosity. Below are a few examples.

1. What do you like to do for fun? Similar to how you can showcase curiosity on a resume by including information about your hobbies, a hiring manager might ask you what you like to do for fun to gather insight. Your response shows them the activities you care about and how you put effort into them.

2. When was the last time you learned something new? This question puts a lot of candidates on the spot by asking them to recall the last new thing they learned. An interviewer asks it to assess an applicant’s curiosity and drive to improve themselves.

   Choose a piece of knowledge or skill that is somewhat relevant to the job, but not directly required.

3. Have you taught yourself any skills? Being self-taught in a skill demonstrates a massive amount of curiosity and determination.

   Nobody told you to do it or even helped you in accomplishing the knowledge, which paints you as independently curious. When answering ‘yes’ to this question follow it up with an explanation of the skill and how you taught yourself.

5 Tips for Being More Curious at Work

If you’re starting to consider your curiosity at work and are coming up short, there’s hope for you yet. While many people are naturally curious about subjects that interest them, the mindset can be fostered in other ways. Start by reading through the following 5 tips for being more curious at work.

1. Ask lots of questions. Think about how many of the questions that run through your inner monologue are vocalized out loud. If you only make your questions known about half the time, kick that average up to 95%.

   Ask every question that comes to you without the fear that it’ll be received as stupid. You may be surprised at the wonders that asking questions can do for your curiosity.

2. Listen to your co-workers and supervisors. There are dozens of brilliant insights you could be overlooking from your co-workers and supervisors. If you want to enhance your curious mind start listening more to the people in your professional circle. They could spark interests or prompt research into areas that you never even thought of before.

3. Don’t look at learning as a chore. The easiest way to get more acquainted with curiosity is by altering your mindset about learning. Start viewing the pursuit of knowledge as an enjoyable and fun activity, that also happens to better you as a person. Once you change the way you look at learning, your curiosity has the space to bloom.

4. Read more books. Within the pages of a book, there’s a whole world of information and knowledge. A simple way to enhance your curiosity and knowledge is by picking up a new book and spending an afternoon of your free time with it. You might be surprised at how much knowledge you can absorb from reading.

5. Analyze the world around you. Part of being a curious person, and employee, is not taking the world around you at face value. This means that you don’t just accept things the way they are, you analyze the situation.

   Thinking analytically about your professional and personal environment can help promote curious thinking about how things could be improved.

Author

Sky Ariella

Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York. She has been featured on websites and online magazines covering topics in career, travel, and lifestyle. She received her BA in psychology from Hunter College.