What are the most important qualities to convey about yourself in a job interview? Duncan Wardle, former head of innovation and creativity at The Walt Disney Company, says he keeps an eye out for one trait in particular.
Wardle, now the founder of creative consulting company ID8, spoke with CNBC Make It from WOBI’s World Business Forum in New York City on Nov. 6.
“I look for curiosity first,” he says. “I want to know that people are curious, that’s probably the biggest one.”
Wardle points to the natural curiosity of young children.
“What is the one word a small child asks you again and again and again? ‘Why?'” he says. “Then we go to school and we’re told to stop asking ‘Why?’ because there’s only one right answer.”
But the people who keep asking are after “the core consumer truth” and “the insight for innovation,” Wardle says.
Be a lifelong learner
Many business leaders and executives also value curiosity in job candidates and employees.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has said curiosity is the top trait his company looks for in job candidates.
“To innovate, you have to be very curious and you have to ask a lot of questions,” he previously told CNBC Make It. “You can’t presume you know the answer, and if you think you do, you have to constantly reevaluate.”
Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates has credited his curiosity with his success and said he’s “always encouraging people to learn a broad set of things.”
Mark Cuban has said curiosity is one of the most important soft skills for job applicants to have.
And Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has said he’s “gotten unbelievably lucky” in his career because he’s “very, very open to anything.”
“Be curious about meeting new people, be curious about interests that are outside of your immediate field of education … and that curiosity will open you up to the world and open you up to opportunity,” Khosrowshahi said during a fireside chat at Brown University in April.
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