As AI rapidly transforms the workplace, many employers are rethinking the qualities they prioritize in candidates.
Anne Tse, CEO of Asia Pacific Foods at PepsiCo, said the food and drinks company, which owns brands like Poppi and Lay’s, is increasingly scanning for curiosity, especially in entry-level applicants. It’s also looking for those who show adaptability and learning agility, as AI and new technologies rapidly reshape work.
“It’s all about the aptitude, the speed, the agility to learn,” Tse, who oversees PepsiCo’s businesses across Asia Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, and Greater China, told Business Insider.
Given that daily tasks are changing, coming in “with a whole package of experience” isn’t as much of a priority as being able to adapt and learn quickly, she said.
Employees nowadays need to learn, unlearn, and relearn as technology evolves and the company responds to fast-changing consumer demands.
“When people are curious, they want to learn. When they’re curious, they also are willing to unlearn,” Tse said.
Tse said curiosity is a skill she’s cultivated throughout her career.
She said one piece of advice from a mentor that has stayed with her is that workers should take ownership in shaping their roles. That mindset, she said, enables people to reinvent how work gets done at a time when careers are becoming increasingly non-linear, especially as new technologies create opportunities to reinvent jobs and ways of working.
Evaluating curiosity
Many leaders have said that soft skills are becoming increasingly important in the AI era, and LinkedIn has ranked them among the most in-demand qualities employers seek. The challenge, however, is determining how to assess those skills effectively.
It’s not easy to gauge curiosity, the CEO said.
That’s why the company looks beyond traditional credentials to assess for this trait, not just in junior employees but more generally as well, Tse said. She said they work closely with HR to identify how specific behaviors and traits correlate with aptitude, leadership potential, and future success.
The company also spends time discussing candidates’ past experiences, exploring the decisions they made throughout their careers, and the reasoning behind those choices.
The choices a person makes in their career, “also gives a good sense of their nature,” she said. For example, you can tell how someone explains their decisions, whether they took risks, or were exploratory, she said.
There are often other telltale signs of curiosity and problem-solving capabilities, such as the industry a person came from. Consulting, for example, notoriously focuses on aptitude rather than experience. Tse, who previously worked as an associate partner at McKinsey, said people in consulting develop that skillset through case interviews.
She added that workers coming from startup environments, innovation roles, cross-functional projects, or experiences working across markets may also possess these qualities.
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