It’s no secret that employers want adaptable people, who can solve problems, and contribute to the organization’s success. The difference between an employee who can do these things and one who can’t comes down to one simple thing: they have strong critical thinking skills.
So of course you’d want to tout these on your resume and all over your job application materials too. There’s one problem, though. Critical skills aren’t always easy to put on paper. But there are a few ‘workarounds’ this post will show you!
What Are Critical Thinking Skills?
Critical thinking skills stand for your ability to rationally process information, find connections between ideas, reflect, and draw conclusions. You use critical thinking skills in the workplace to solve problems, collaborate with others, resolve conflicts, and complete many other everyday tasks.
To give you a better idea, here are several critical thinking skills examples:
- Analysis of information for relevancy and accuracy. Strong fact-checking abilities.
- Critical self-reflection and introspection to eliminate bias or flawed assumptions.
- Using available data to formulate effective, empathetic, and rational solutions to problems.
- Integrating different information sources and perspectives to form a coherent understanding of an issue.
- Recognition of fallacies: Ability to spot and eliminate flaws in arguments, assessments, and suggested solutions.
- Brainstorming multiple approaches to a problem and evaluating their potential effectiveness.
Generally, critical thinking falls into the broader category of conceptual skills — your cognitive abilities to transform abstract problems into concrete solutions. Critical thinking skills also form the base of your analytical skills — a broader range of abilities to perceive, process, and assimilate information.
Why Are Critical Thinking Skills In Demand By Employers
Employers find ‘soft skills’ like critical thinking in short supply: 78% of employers rank
critical thinking/analytic reasoning is the most important workplace competency, but only 34% of college graduates they interview are well-prepared in this department.
At the same time, 93% of employers state that they value strong critical thinking skills over the candidate’s undergraduate degree. Why so?
Put simply, critical thinking indicates your ability to make good decisions — a competency required for almost every role.
Critical thinkers can effectively assess the available information and synthesize the best plan of action, based on analyzed data and personal experience. On the other hand, people with poor critical-thinking skills may be more prone to drawing fast conclusions on incomplete or unreliable data, and rely on ‘hunches’ or personal biases.
The knowledge economy, we now operate in, also puts a premium on human capital. Simple menial work can be done by algorithms and smart manufacturing equipment. However, we still need humans to supervise, develop, and oversee the execution. Another study also argues that people with strong critical thinking skills are less likely to get displaced from their jobs by emerging technologies.
The bottom line: Critical thinking is 81% of employers already highly valued today and one that prepares you well for the future of work.
List Of Critical Thinking Skills For Your Resume
Let’s be real: you won’t convince hiring managers by simply stating, ‘I have strong critical thinking skills’ in your cover letter. It’s a fact you need to demonstrate via your duties and accomplishments. The best way to do so is to share specific critical thinking skills examples on your resume.
Analysis
Analysis stands for your ability to effectively deal with incoming information and translate it into insights. To analyze things properly, you must know how to source information, verify that it is valid, determine which data is relevant, and take an objective approach to draw conclusions based on that information.
How to demonstrate this critical thinking skill on a resume:
From a project coordinator resume example:
Employed a Checklist-Oriented Requirement Analysis (CORA) framework to analyze project requirements, map dependencies, identify possible constraints, and develop contingency plans.
Observation
Observation involves having a heightened awareness of your surroundings, understanding what you observe, and knowing the appropriate action to take. For example, they may notice a downward trend in productivity, and take action to address potential staffing issues.
How to add this critical thinking skill to a resume:
From a teacher’s resume example:
Observed students’ performance on standardized English language tests versus creating assignments to better understand the impact of each on information retention and improve my teaching strategies.
Inference
Inference indicates your ability to draw conclusions based on a limited set of data. For example, the manager of a community pool may infer that an unseasonably hot day will mean that more people will order cold drinks from the concession stand. Combined with business acumen, interference often helps bring more creative ideas and accelerate innovation.
How to demonstrate such critical thinking skills on a resume
From a digital marketing manager resume example:
Increase the ROAS from digital out-of-home ad campaigns by 25%, by a new customer cohort of ‘eco-conscious consumers” and adjusting the messaging for them in key locations.
Problem-Solving
The ability to strategize and evaluate a solution after it has been implemented is the essence of problem-solving skills. Problem-solving requires that you can look at a problem objectively, and think through potential solutions in a methodical manner.
Although employers are the most likely to assess this skill with problem-solving interview questions, it’s still worth including a short mention on your resume too, especially for roles that require quick thinking.
How to demonstrate problem-solving skills on a resume:
From an administrative assistant resume example:
Helped organize a 1,000 sales rep conference on a 3-week deadline, despite facing venue cancelations and two last-moment speaker cancellations.
Communication
The ability to effectively collaborate with others, discuss problems, give and receive feedback are critical skills for every hire. Show the employer that you can hold productive exchanges with people who don’t always agree with you, be persuasive, and critically process all the information others are sharing with you.
How to demonstrate strong communication skills on a resume:
From a program manager resume example:
Successfully led change management efforts, helping transition over 500 employees to a new EHR system. Addressed initial cultural resistance among staff via a series of workshops, personalized demo sessions, and group training, as well as ‘employee advocate’ initiatives.
Strategic Thinking
Strategic thinkers can draw data from the past and present to anticipate future implications of their actions and engineer effective plans to achieve targeted goals. This critical-thinking skill is especially important for anyone in managerial or executive roles as you’d be primarily expected to formulate and oversee different corporate objectives.
How to demonstrate strategic thinking on a resume
From a Chief Financial Officer resume example:
Spreadheded the effort to re-engineer the procurement function. Developed and executed a strategy, aimed at improving supplier assessments, onboarding, and payments, as well as the general purchase order cycle. Reduced the average purchase time for new materials by 25% and achieved bottom-line improvements of $250k annually.
Critical Evaluation
Critical evaluation indicates your ability to assess the accuracy, validity, and relevancy of information available to you. Much of the information today is accessed online and often comes from questionable sources.
It takes a combination of digital literacy and critical thinking skills for workers to discern which information is reliable, and what can be dismissed as pseudo-science, fake news, marketing talk, propaganda, or highly speculative thinking.
How to demonstrate this critical thinking skill on a resume
From a personal banker resume example:
Educate customers on the risks associated with investments in so-called “hyped” stocks, as well as penny-stock trading. Suggest more sustainable, value-oriented investment strategies, based on their financial goals.
Continuous Learning
Continuous learning indicates your commitment to self-improvement. Although it’s a less direct demonstration of strong critical-thinking skills, it is still a valid indicator of your ability to effectively navigate the available information, identify emerging themes on the market, and translate these into new professional knowledge.
How to demonstrate this critical thinking skill on a resume
From a personal trainer resume example:
Completed Precision Nutrition Certification Level 1 certification in 2023 to help clients develop appropriate dietary regiments to ensure faster muscle gain naturally.
How To Improve Critical Thinking Skills
Critical thinking is a “muscle” you can train by being more deliberate about how you process information, build logical arguments, and catch some biases in your thinking. If you need some training, start building the following habits:
- Practice information analysis: When trying to solve a problem, focus on getting all the necessary data first. Then, evaluate which ‘intel’ is accurate, important, and fit for purpose. Toss other findings and work with what’s left.
- Learn to give recommendations: Recommendations are synthesized findings — a feasible, data- or experience-based solution. Learn to formulate all your recommendations based on the above.
- Challenge your biases: Everyone is prone to preconceived notions and assumptions. Unfortunately, these get in the way of critical thinking. Learn to recognize your own biases, and make a dedicated effort to put those aside when you innovate and solve problems.
- Cultivate media literacy skills. When reading your favorite publishers, pay attention to how they make different claims. Are they guilty of exaggerating the problem by citing super-bold, but underrepresenative claims? What do other sources about the same topic? What types of sources do they cite? Are these credible and reliable? Learning to analyze how information is presented helps you develop sharper critical thinking skills.
Conclusion
Critical thinking skills are key for effective decision-making, smooth collaboration, and personal efficiency — a triumvirate of in-demand skills among employers. Today, these skills are crucial for working with data, solving emerging market problems, and discerning truth from a growing volume of unproven information, circulating online. Tomorrow, critical thinking will become even more important as the future workforce will be primarily focused on knowledge work.
