Stop Hiring for Skills. Start Hiring for Thinking.

We've all been there. You hire someone with an incredible resume. The right degree, the right certifications, years of experience at well-known companies. On paper, they're perfect. Then three months in, you realise they can't solve a problem they haven't seen before. They follow instructions fine, but the moment something unexpected comes up, they freeze.

This is one of the most common frustrations we hear from hiring managers. And the root cause is almost always the same: the hiring process screened for skills and experience but completely missed whether the person can actually think.

What We Mean by “Thinking”

This isn't about IQ or being “smart.” It's about a handful of practical qualities that separate people who just do tasks from people who actually move things forward:

• Common sense. Can they look at a situation and figure out what matters without being told? Do they ask the right questions or just wait for instructions? You'd think this is universal, but it's surprisingly rare when you start paying attention.
• Critical thinking. When someone presents them with information, do they accept it at face value or do they poke at it? Can they spot when something doesn't add up? Can they weigh tradeoffs instead of just going with the first idea?
• Resourcefulness. When they hit a wall, do they sit there or do they find a way around it? The best people we've placed are the ones who don't need everything spelled out. They figure it out. They Google it, they ask the right person, they try something and learn from what happens.
• Awareness. Do they understand how their work connects to the bigger picture? Can they anticipate what's going to break, who's going to be affected, what the second-order consequences are? Or do they operate in a bubble?

Why Resumes Don't Tell You This

A resume tells you what someone has done. It doesn't tell you how they thought about it. Two people can hold the exact same title at the exact same company and be completely different in terms of how they approach problems. One might have been the person everyone went to when things got complicated. The other might have been following a playbook someone else wrote.

Interviews aren't much better, honestly. Most interview questions test whether someone can talk about their experience in a structured way. That's a useful skill, but it's not the same as critical thinking. The people who are best at interviewing and the people who are best at the actual job are often very different groups.

How to Actually Screen for This

There's no magic question that reveals whether someone has common sense. But there are approaches that get you closer:

• Give them a real problem. Not a textbook case study. Something messy, with incomplete information, the kind of thing they'd actually face on the job. Watch how they break it down. Do they ask clarifying questions? Do they make reasonable assumptions? Do they think about edge cases?
• Ask “what would you do if” questions. Hypothetical scenarios where there's no clear right answer. You're not looking for a specific response. You're watching their thought process. How do they reason through ambiguity?
• Dig into their past decisions. Don't just ask what they did. Ask why. Ask what they considered and rejected. Ask what they'd do differently now. People who think critically can walk you through their reasoning. People who don't just describe what happened.
• Pay attention to the questions they ask you. This is one of the most underrated signals. Smart, thoughtful people ask good questions. They want to understand context. They're curious about how things work and why things are the way they are.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Hiring for thinking is harder than hiring for skills. Skills are easy to check. You either know Python or you don't. You either have a CA or you don't. But whether someone can think clearly under pressure, connect dots that others miss, and apply good judgment in new situations? That takes a more thoughtful evaluation process.

Most companies don't do this because it takes more time and effort. But the ones that do end up with people who can grow into bigger roles, handle whatever comes their way, and make everyone around them better.

You can teach someone a new tool in a week. You can't teach them to think.