Why Curiosity Beats Credentials in Today's Hiring Landscape

By Inga Rose, Founder and CEO

Hiring has gotten harder - not because there are fewer qualified candidates, but because it's become harder to tell who's actually the right fit.

Résumés are more polished than they've ever been. AI can help candidates write compelling cover letters, refine interview answers, and even complete portions of technical assignments. At the same time, I've learned that experience alone doesn't always predict who's going to thrive on a team. 

These days, I'm looking for something that's much harder to manufacture: curiosity, authentic thinking, and people who want to learn.

Looking back, some of the hiring decisions I wish I could do over happened because we were busy and needed help quickly. I convinced myself that the safest choice was someone who had already done the job somewhere else. On paper, it seemed like the logical decision, but in reality, experience doesn’t replace adaptability.

One of the clearest examples for me was hiring a very seasoned individual who knew our space extremely well - like, 15+ years well. On paper, they checked every box. They genuinely said they wanted to work differently and recognized the flaws in how some of our competitors, including her previous employers, were operating. But over time, I realized that wanting to use new approaches and actually building the muscles to work differently are two very different things. When pressure hit, they consistently fell back on the same approaches, habits, and assumptions they had always relied on - even when they didn’t fit what we were trying to build. It taught me that experience is only valuable if someone is still willing to question it.

At Reference Medicine, we're not trying to duplicate what everyone else is doing. We want to rethink old processes, solve problems differently, and continue building a company that's willing to innovate. That requires curious people who ask questions, challenge assumptions, and enjoy learning. When I think about the strongest teammates I've worked with throughout my career, these are the characteristics they all seem to share.

I Learn More From Conversations Than Interviews

Traditional interviews still have value, but I don't think they tell the whole story. Candidates have become very good at preparing for behavioral questions, and after a while those answers can start to sound surprisingly similar.

I learn much more by having a conversation than by conducting a formal interview.

Instead of asking someone to tell me about a challenge they solved five years ago, I'll talk about a challenge we're facing today. I'll explain an initiative we're working on or a problem we're trying to solve and see where the conversation goes.

I'm not expecting someone to solve the problem during an interview. I'm paying attention to how they think. Do they ask thoughtful questions before offering solutions? Are they genuinely interested in understanding our business? Can they simply not control themselves, and start spitballing ideas with the kind of energy you can only feel from people who genuinely like solving new problems? Do we then start building on ideas together, collaboratively, instead of the conversation feeling like they’re trying to impress me with their answers?

Those conversations have become one of the best indicators I've found of how someone will contribute once they're on the team.

Trust Your Gut - But Don't Hire Alone

I've also learned to trust my instincts during these conversations. If something feels off, even if I can't immediately explain why, I don't ignore it. The hires I regret most were usually the ones where I convinced myself to overlook that feeling because we needed someone to do the work we hired them to do.

I was reminded of this lesson - again - with another hire who came to us with more than a decade of experience (I guess there is a bit of a trend here?). Something felt off fairly early, but I had a hard time putting my finger on exactly what it was. The work wasn’t clicking, and when we tried to talk through strategy, messaging, or what they wanted to build next, they often couldn’t explain their thinking in a way the broader team could follow.

Eventually, I realized that part of the disconnect was how heavily they were relying on AI to create much of the work itself, rather than using it as a tool to support her own ideas. The outputs could look polished, but there wasn’t always a clear point of view underneath them. That made collaboration incredibly difficult because the team and I weren't really reacting to their thinking - we were reacting to an output.

Looking back, my gut had picked up on that disconnect long before I could articulate it. It reinforced for me that when someone has the right résumé but you can’t quite understand how they think, where their ideas are coming from, or what they’re actually trying to accomplish, that feeling is worth paying attention to.

‍

That said, hiring should never come down to one person's opinion. I like to have candidates meet multiple people across the team because everyone notices something different. When we compare notes, patterns emerge. Sometimes a candidate leaves everyone excited. Other times, someone catches an inconsistency or asks a question that changes the conversation.

The best hiring decisions happen when instinct is supported by multiple perspectives. If one person has a genuine concern, I'd rather keep looking than rush the decision. When the whole team walks away confident, that's usually a strong indicator that we've found the right fit.

The Questions I Keep Coming Back To

People often ask if I have favorite interview questions. I don't know that there's a perfect list, but there are a few I come back to because they almost always lead to authentic conversations instead of rehearsed answers.

• What excites you most about the work you're doing today?
• What motivates you professionally?
• What's something you've learned recently simply because you were curious?
• What are you hoping to learn in your next role?
• Here's a challenge we're working through - what comes to mind for you?
• What does your ideal work environment look like?
• What do you want to be when you grow up?

Yes, I ask that last one even if someone has been in their career for decades.

That last question actually came from an old boss and mentor - from one of the longest chapters of my career. He would ask me, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” and I would usually laugh and say, “I don’t know. Maybe when I grow up, I’ll figure that out.”

What’s funny is that some of my favorite, most successful, and most impressive hires have answered in almost exactly the same way. I don’t think it’s because any of us lack ambition or direction. I think it’s because we don’t want to pigeonhole ourselves into one version of what our career is supposed to be.

I can't imagine myself saying, “I learned this skill, so this is what I am now. This is what I do.”

I want to leave room for the possibility that there are a million things I haven’t discovered yet that could challenge me, excite me, or give me those little life points I hope to get from my days on this Earth.

Maybe that’s why I still ask the question. I’m less interested in whether someone has a perfectly defined destination than whether they’re still curious enough to believe there might be something ahead of them they haven’t imagined yet.

So, generally, I am not looking for a perfect answer - I actually don’t have any specific answers in mind. I'm listening for what energizes people, how they approach unfamiliar problems, and whether they're naturally curious enough to ask questions before jumping to conclusions. Those habits tell me far more than a polished story they've practiced for an interview.

Curiosity Never Stops Paying Off

At the end of the day, technical skills and experience matter. There are plenty of roles where they're essential. But the people who have the greatest long-term impact are the ones who stay curious, keep learning, and aren't afraid to ask better questions.

Curiosity may be the quality I'm looking for most, but I've also learned that great hiring is rarely about one question or one interview. It comes from thoughtful conversations, multiple perspectives, and the patience to wait for the candidate who consistently shows you how they think, not just how well they interview.

In a company that's committed to improving, innovating, and finding better ways to serve our customers, those are the people who help move all of us forward.

‍