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Critical Thinking Skills for Resume: Definition, Importance Examples

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 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 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.

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.

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.

Elena runs content operations at Freesumes since 2017. She works closely with copywriters, designers, and invited career experts to ensure that all content meets our highest editorial standards. Up to date, she wrote over 200 career-related pieces around resume writing, career advice... more

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How to Highlight Critical Thinking Skills on Your Resume

Avoid Listing Critical Thinking as a Skill

Skills related to critical thinking, highlight your ability to perform critical analysis, feature your communication skills, when to mention critical thinking on your resume.

Hiring managers are drawn to candidates with a strong capacity for critical thinking. Organizations want applicants who can identify creative solutions to complex problems quickly and independently. The question is, how do you highlight critical thinking skills on your resume?

Simply listing it as a skill doesn’t carry much weight if you can’t provide tangible examples, so you’ll need to leverage your professional experience to highlight this attribute. Throughout this guide, we’ll provide insights to help you showcase your critical thinking skills using a variety of different strategies:

Although this may seem surprising, you should avoid listing critical thinking as a skill when building your resume. The term itself is broad and won’t help the hiring manager to gain a better understanding of what your qualifications are. Instead, you should provide examples of solving complex problems quickly and efficiently. You can also incorporate key terms and skills that draw attention to your capacity for critical thinking without needing to use the word specifically. The resume’s goal is to highlight why you’re qualified for the role you’re applying for, and you won’t be able to separate yourself as a candidate if your content is generic.

There are many ways to highlight your capacity for critical thinking by featuring more specific types of skills on your resume. For instance, data analysis and data-driven decision-making skills draw attention to your ability to analyze and interpret findings critically. By featuring skill sets that are more grounded in your field, you’ll be able to highlight your critical thinking capabilities and industry expertise simultaneously. Below, you’ll find a list of skills you can use to emphasize critical thinking on your resume:

Business Strategy
Communication
Content Strategy
Continuous Improvement
Change Management
Creative Problem Solving
Creative Thinking
Cross-Functional Leadership
Data Analysis
Data-Driven Decision Making
Forecasting
Marketing Strategy
Process Improvement
Risk Management
Qualitative Analysis
Quantitative Analysis
Solution Development
Strategic Planning
Strategy Development
Technical Leadership
Technical Solutions
Trend Analysis

To highlight your critical thinking skills, you’ll want to draw attention to complex problems you’ve solved over the course of your career. For instance, if you were a project manager within the software industry, you may want to mention a time when you had to create a solution for a critical issue during the software development lifecycle. This paints a much clearer picture of your qualifications for the hiring manager while also drawing attention to your capacity for critical thinking in high-pressure situations. Below, you’ll find an example of how to showcase this attribute in your work experience:

Managed the development of new software products for an industry-leading education technology company and coordinated with software developers and learning specialists to define product vision and create roadmaps based on customer data
Identified the ideal solution to a critical issue during the development of a new software solution, utilized cloud technology to streamline user authentication while maintaining security standards, and prevented a three-month delay in product launch
Interfaced with enterprise customers and project stakeholders to field concerns, resolve project roadblocks, and ensure alignment with overarching product vision

Notice how the candidate never uses the term critical thinking once in any of these bullet points. Although it isn’t stated directly, these accomplishments emphasize the project manager’s ability to devise practical solutions and analyze data critically, which is extremely valuable to prospective employers. Critical thinking extends far beyond the technology field, as you’ll see in the following example:

Led rebranding initiatives to transform brand messaging based on customer data, collaborated with the marketing to develop new advertising solutions, and successfully re-established the brand as a trusted industry leader in the financial services space
Developed PR strategy and communicated with media outlets to schedule a press release and drafted a response to major controversy related to a data security breach
Successfully retained 80% of existing client base by attending meetings with executive leadership and fielding concerns to regain client trust

Here, the candidate highlights their critical thinking skills by detailing a situation where they needed to develop marketing solutions for an underperforming brand. Only some of the problems you encounter during your career will always be purely technical. In this case, the job seeker showcases critical thinking in the form of strategy development. The important thing to emphasize is your ability to use objective reasoning to assess problems and determine the ideal solution. Providing tangible examples of this from your career will always carry more weight than simply listing “critical thinking” will in your skills section.

The ability to express yourself cogently and effectively is very much an indicator of critical thinking skills. Suppose you’re a sales executive educating a potential client on a service offering. In that case, you’ll need to build a compelling presentation that persuasively outlines the benefits of your product as it relates to the customer’s needs. As a team leader, resolving employee conflicts and collaborating effectively with your direct reports requires strong critical thinking skills. Communication skills are extremely important to hiring managers, and highlighting examples of this on your resume will go a long way in helping you secure your next interview.

While you’ll generally want to avoid simply listing this as a skill on your document, there are situations where you may need to incorporate it as written. If you notice that critical thinking is mentioned multiple times in a job description, this is a strong indicator that the employer is using it as a keyword in the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). This is a situation where it’s safer to list the term directly to achieve ATS compliance, even if it doesn’t paint a compelling picture of your professional experience.

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Frank Hackett

Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW)

Frank Hackett is a professional resume writer and career consultant with over eight years of experience. As the lead editor at a boutique career consulting firm, Frank developed an innovative approach to resume writing that empowers job seekers to tell their professional stories. His approach involves creating accomplishment-driven documents that balance keyword optimization with personal branding. Frank is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) with the Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches (PAWRCC).

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The 6 Best Critical Thinking Skills To Add to Your Resume

3 key takeaways

Why critical thinking is key for all career levels and industries
How to incorporate the six critical thinking skills hiring managers look for into your resume, with real-life examples
How Teal’s AI Resume Builder helps you incorporate critical thinking skills throughout multiple sections of your resume—quickly and easily

Hiring managers value professionals with both hard and soft skills. Strong contributors can assess a situation and make calculated decisions while considering different points of view. That’s where critical thinking comes in.

Having strong critical thinking skills on your resume is a strength and helps you stand out as a candidate capable of making informed decisions, solving complex problems, and contributing to team objectives.

But which skills do employers prioritize?

Below, you’ll learn about the six most important critical thinking skills to highlight, including practical ways to include them on your resume.

What is critical thinking, and why is it important?

The critical thinking process is the ability to think clearly and rationally, connect ideas, and apply logic to situations.

People who develop critical thinking skills and demonstrate them are adept at analyzing facts, identifying biases, and developing rational judgment when dealing with a situation or problem.

For example, a team working on a go-to-market strategy needs to think about the business goal, brainstorm various options, and analyze which has the highest rate of success.

Critical thinking is important for every career stage and every industry. You can analyze different perspectives, develop multiple solutions independently and with colleagues, and practice lifelong learning. Strong critical thinkers can identify biases, be curious, and understand how relevant something is to the situation.

Top 6 critical thinking skills

Here are six common critical thinking skills that hiring managers often look for:

1. Questioning

A questioning mindset is the starting point for critical thinking.

People with a questioning mindset have strong observation skills and can quickly identify new problems and opportunities. Typically, those with a questioning mindset are curious and dive into research as they analyze a situation.

By regularly asking questions like, "How can we do this better?" or, "What can we learn from this?" you contribute to an environment focused on growth and development.

Showcasing your questioning skills on a resume involves more than just listing "Questioning" under the “Skills” section. You'll want to weave it into various parts of your resume alongside qualifications, impact, and hard skills to demonstrate how you've applied it in real-world situations.

For example you can demonstrate critical thinking skills like this:

Work Experience

Questioned existing project management methodologies and initiated a review, leading to a 25% increase in project delivery efficiency
Conducted 12 stakeholder interviews per quarter to understand project requirements, ensuring alignment with organizational goals
Regularly engaged 10+ team members during meetings to foster open communication, resulting in improved collaboration

Add critical thinking skills to your work experience with Teal

Your resume soft skills , like critical thinking, should be highlighted alongside hard skills, qualifications, and impact to show how you used them for success.

With the Teal AI Resume Builder , you can showcase these key skills in your "Work Experience" section, as part of your awards, in a dedicated "Projects" section, and more. Teal provides customizable sections with built-in guidance so you can create a comprehensive overview of your career—without forgetting any important sections or details.

Where to showcase critical thinking skills on a resume

2. Creativity

Creativity and critical thinking are usually considered two opposite ends of the skills spectrum—but in reality, the two are deeply interconnected.

Creativity critical thinking can help you break free from established thought processes, patterns, and biases, which is crucial for evaluating information objectively and making rational decisions.

A creative mindset encourages challenging existing norms and assumptions. This helps foster a growth mindset that aligns with the cultural values of many startups. By introducing novelty, flexibility, and depth to the decision-making process, creativity helps you deliver better results for the business.

Integrating creativity as a critical thinking skill into your resume involves showcasing instances where you've taken non-generic approaches to solve problems, make decisions, or innovate.

Here's one way you can incorporate creativity into your resume:

Innovation Challenge Winner (2022): Led a team of 15 people to win an industry innovation challenge by creatively solving a long-standing issue in supply chain management

An award on a resume featuring critical thinking skills

3. Analysis

Analytical skills on a resume add significant value in virtually any professional setting and are crucial for personal development as well. Demonstrating these skills can help show that you’re adaptable in the workplace and able to draw correct conclusions from information.

Here's how you can showcase analytical skills in the "Projects" section of your resume:

Customer Behavior Prediction: Utilized machine learning algorithms to analyze customer behavior, leading to more targeted marketing and a 25% increase in sales
Website Optimization: Conducted A/B tests on website elements, leading to an improved user experience and a 15% increase in engagement
Resource Allocation: Analyzed departmental needs and reallocated resources, resulting in a 10% decrease in operational costs

4. Decision-making

In fast-paced work environments, employers value job seekers who can identify and analyze problems and make effective decisions to solve them.

Hiring managers often look for candidates with strong decision-making skills within teams, which may require technical or industry-specific expertise. Strong decision-making among a team can contribute to better cohesion and collective problem-solving.

In addition to incorporating decision-making skills in your professional summary, work experience, projects, and more, a resume "Skills" section can be a compelling way to showcase decision-making—highlighting the tools you used to analyze situations, weigh options, and execute effective solutions—making your resume more persuasive.

A resume skills section featuring critical thinking skills

5. Communication

Once you’ve identified an issue and discussed possible solutions, good communication comes in handy. Good communication skills mean you can present conclusions in a persuasive manner—written or verbal.

However, good communication isn’t just about speaking; it's also about listening. Active listening and open-mindedness help you understand other perspectives and shift your own when necessary. It also involves understanding your and others’ emotions.

There are plenty of ways to integrate communication skills into your resume, whether that's under work experience, projects, or your “Education” section. Sharing quantifiable metrics can also go a long way toward showing how your communication skills have saved the day in your past roles.

Here's a quick example:

Facilitated team meetings to ensure clear communication and effective collaboration, resulting in a 20% increase in project completion rates
Presented quarterly reports with team performance and future strategies to senior management

6. Leadership

Good leaders need to be able to evaluate the potential risks and benefits of a course of action (or many) and guide their teams toward the best possible outcomes. By showcasing how your leadership skills have benefited your past companies, you demonstrate your effectiveness as a critical thinker.

One of the most effective ways to highlight your leadership skills on your resume is to show the impact you made at various organizations, with key metrics to show your decisions under pressure.

Here's an example:

Work Experience

Spearheaded team expansion from 10 to 30 members in 12 months, leading to a 40% increase in project delivery efficiency and overall team productivity
Established and led a cross-functional task force, resulting in a 25% reduction in project timelines and a subsequent 15% improvement in client satisfaction
Directed a team through a critical organizational restructuring, boosting employee morale and engagement, and contributing to a 20% reduction in staff turnover

How to add critical thinking skills to your resume or cover letter

In a competitive job market, employers aren’t just looking for technical expertise or hard skills—they also want candidates who can think critically, solve complex problems, resolve conflict, and adapt to the ever-changing professional landscape.

Exceptional critical thinking and conceptual skills can be the difference between you and another candidate. They demonstrate your ability to analyze situations, make sound decisions, and lead teams—all of which are invaluable in almost any role and industry.

Here are a few ways you can include critical thinking skills on your resume or cover letter to make sure your job application stands out:

1. Use action verbs that highlight critical thinking

Action verbs can bring your critical thinking skills to life and make your resume more engaging. Instead of using generic verbs like "did" or "made," opt for more dynamic verbs such as "analyzed," "formulated," "assessed," or "strategized."

2. Integrate critical thinking into your brand

Your resume summary is often the first thing recruiters read. By embedding critical thinking skills there, you set the tone for the rest of your resume.

For example, a statement like "Results-driven professional, skilled in analytical problem-solving and strategic decision-making" immediately signals to the employer that you have valuable critical thinking skills.

3. Use real-world scenarios and projects

Real-world examples offer concrete evidence of your critical thinking abilities. You can create a separate “Projects” section where you detail specific instances of how you applied critical thinking to solve real-world problems. This provides context that makes your skills more relatable and impactful.

Add critical-thinking skills to your resume with Teal

The job search can seem daunting at first. No matter your industry or career level, editing your resume is easier with Teal.

Teal’s AI Resume Builder helps you quickly generate personalized resumes tailored for each job application. Incorporate your critical thinking ability by customizing every section and following expert guidance to ensure you don't miss a beat every time you hit apply.

Want to learn more about how Teal can help create a standout resume? Sign up for a free account today to get started!

Frequently Asked Questions

How can i demonstrate my critical thinking skills in a job interview after including them on my resume, can i include critical thinking skills in my resume if my previous job roles didn't explicitly require them, should i list critical thinking skills separately on my resume or integrate them into my experience and qualifications.

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6 Critical Thinking Skills to Supercharge Your Resume

Customers Interviewed by:

When employers are asked which resume skills are the most important, the majority answer “critical thinking skills”.

This is according to the Job Outlook 2022 survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

But what exactly are critical thinking skills? And how can you highlight them on your resume? Let’s find out…

What are critical thinking skills and why are they important?

6 essential critical thinking skills

6 ways to add critical thinking skills to your resume.

How can you develop your critical thinking skills?

What are critical thinking skills and why are they important?

Humans employ critical thinking skills without even realizing it. From the time we get up to the time we go to sleep, our minds are always working to analyze and make sense of the world around us.

Critical thinking skills allow us to see beyond the surface level of many issues and problems, and to think deeply and creatively about potential solutions.

Critical thinking skills are key for many modern job roles. If you’re thinking about data engineer skills , critical thinking is needed to design and manage complex data systems. In terms of data scientist skills , critical thinking plays a big part in interpreting data to gain useful insights. When it comes to project manager skills , the ability to think critically helps to manage tasks and solve project issues effectively. Finally, when considering business analyst skills , critical thinking is essential to understand business needs and suggest improvements.

Here are six critical thinking skills that can strengthen your resume. Try to use them whenever you can.

1. Questioning

To think critically, you need to be able to question the information you’re given. This means looking at all sides of an issue and not taking anything at face value.

Questioning at work might involve asking your boss for more information about a new project that’s been assigned to you. Or for clarification on an email that was sent out to the team.

Questioning information is a key part of being a successful employee. It shows that you’re engaged and interested in what’s going on around you.

How to add “questioning” to your resume:

Consistently posed relevant questions during meetings and discussions, contributing to a deeper analysis of topics.
Questioned and critically evaluated the information presented in team communications, resulting in improved comprehension and minimized misunderstandings.

2. Creativity

Critical thinking isn’t just about logic and reasoning – it also requires creativity.

Sometimes the most unexpected solution can be the most effective. This kind of problem solving requires creative, outside the box type of thinking.

An example of using creativity at work is to brainstorm with colleagues in an attempt to come up with new ideas or solutions to a problem. Or you can use creativity to look at a problem from a different perspective or angle.

For example, if you’re struggling to come up with new ideas, try talking to people outside your field for inspiration.

How to add “creativity” to your resume:

Applied creative problem-solving techniques to develop innovative solutions, contributing to a 30% increase in efficiency and cost savings within the department.
Spearheaded a creative brainstorming initiative, fostering a collaborative environment where diverse ideas were encouraged.

3. Analysis

When you’re presented with an argument, it’s important to be able to analyze it rationally to determine its strengths and weaknesses.

For example, a vendor might try to persuade you to buy a product or service to help your business grow. In order to make a decision, you need to analyze the vendor’s argument.

What are the potential rewards of buying? What are the risks? Does the vendor’s argument make sense? Is there anything they’re leaving out?

By analyzing the vendor’s argument in this way, you can make informed decisions that align with the growth and success of your business.

How to add “analysis” to your resume:

Applied critical analysis to competitor data, providing valuable insights that guided product development decisions.
Analyzed complex financial reports, enabling accurate forecasting and budgeting.

4. Decision-Making

Critical thinking skills allow you to sift through information and make well-informed decisions.

For example, if your job is a customer service representative, you need to make decisions when people call to complain about a product. Should you refund the customer’s money, send them a replacement product, or offer some other type of compensation?

After considering all the options, you would then make the decision that you believe is in the best interest of the customer and the company.

How to add “decision-making” to your resume:

Demonstrated strong decision-making skills by assessing risks and evaluating alternatives, resulting in a 20% increase in project completion rates.
Led cross-functional teams in critical decision-making processes by gathering relevant information, analyzing potential outcomes, and implementing solutions.

5. Communication

Critical thinkers know how to express themselves clearly and persuasively. They can communicate their ideas in a way that is logical and easy for others to understand.

In the work environment, good communication helps prevent misunderstandings and conflict at work. It also gets everyone on the same page, which creates a more efficient workflow.

Overall, good communication skills result in a more positive, professional, and productive work environment.

How to add “communication” to your resume:

Delivered compelling presentations to diverse stakeholders, conveying complex ideas in a concise and accessible manner.
Orchestrated communication strategies across multiple departments, facilitating collaboration and ensuring clear dissemination of information.

6. Leadership

If you want to be a successful leader , developing your critical thinking skills is essential.

Leadership requires the ability to ask questions, make sound decisions, solve problems, and communicate clearly. Good leaders also continually challenge their own assumptions.

Many businesses do not reach their potential because the leaders lack the ability to do these kinds of things effectively. Are you beginning to see why employers place such a high value on critical thinking skills?

How to add “leadership” to your resume:

Led a high-performing team of 15 members, employing strategic decision-making and effective delegation to drive project success.
Fostered a culture of innovation and continuous improvement, inspiring team members to think critically, take calculated risks, and implement creative solutions.

Employers are always looking for candidates who can think critically and solve problems. That’s why it’s so important to showcase critical thinking skills on your resume.

If you’re not sure how to add critical thinking skills examples to your resume in a way that will have the biggest impact, here are some tips and strategies:

1. Use keywords

When searching for jobs, be sure to include keywords like “critical thinking” or “problem solving.”

Some employers may even specifically state in the job description that they are looking for candidates with strong critical thinking skills . If so, it’s absolutely vital that you include that keyword.

To make sure you’re using the right keywords on your resume, use a tool like Jobscan’s resume scanner . It uses AI technology to analyze your resume and score it based on how well it matches the job description.

2. Highlight examples

On your resume , be sure to highlight any projects or tasks that required you to use strong critical thinking skills. You can mention how you solved a difficult problem at work, or discuss a time when you had to make a quick decision using logic and reasoning.

For example, you could say, “Increased social media engagement by 82% after analyzing what our top competitors were doing.”

Remember, employers are also looking for creative thinking, so share any successful results you got from thinking outside-the-box.

3. Describe your process

It’s always a good idea to show exactly how you solved problems using critical thinking skills. In other words, present any research, analysis, or brainstorming that went into your decision-making process.

You can also mention any tools or technology that you used. For example, you could say, “I improved department efficiency by 50 percent using Six Sigma management tools.”

4. Use action words

When writing your resume, use powerful action verbs that demonstrate critical thinking skills, such as:

Investigated
Transformed
Spear-headed

For a comprehensive list of action verbs to use on your resume, check out 500 Resume Action Words .

5. Focus on transferability

Critical thinking is a soft skill , which means it’s transferabl e . This means you can apply it to any job, across all industries and positions.

Even if you don’t have expertise in the role you’re applying for, you can still highlight critical thinking skills that are relevant to the position.

For example, if you’re applying for a job in customer service , mention any experience you have with managing difficult people, even if they weren’t your customers.

6. Use numbers and data

Whenever possible, use metrics to showcase your critical thinking skills.

Rather than saying “I increased sales by coming up with an innovative marketing strategy,” say “I increased sales by 30 percent with an innovative marketing strategy.”

Following these six tips for adding critical thinking skills to your resume will make you a stronger job candidate for any position you apply for.

To make sure your resume is as strong as possible, use a tool like Jobscan’s resume scanner . It analyzes your resume and tells you how to improve it to give you the best possible chance of getting an interview.

How can you develop your critical thinking skills?

Developing strong critical thinking skills will benefit your professional life and help you get jobs. They’ll also make you a more well-rounded and successful person in general.

You won’t develop these skills overnight – it can take time and practice – but it’s well worth the effort.

Here are 8 things you can do to increase your critical thinking powers.

1. Read, read, read

Reading is great “brain-food” and you should try to do as much of it as possible.

The more you read, the better your understanding of the world will be, and the easier it will be to see both sides of an argument.

Try to read a variety of materials, from news articles to novels to non-fiction books.

2. Challenge your own beliefs and assumptions

Assuming that you are always correct can lead to close-mindedness. It can also prevent you from learning new information or considering new ideas.

To become more open-minded, you need to be willing to challenge your own beliefs and assumptions.

Try to seek out other points of view as much as possible and always question the source of your information. Is it objective and reliable?

Also, when you’re confronted with a new idea, take the time to really think about it before you form an opinion.

3. Weigh the pros and cons

Before making a decision, always consider carefully the potential positives and negatives of each option. This will allow you to see both sides of the issue and make a more informed decision.

Of course, this is not always easy, and there are times when the best course of action may not be immediately obvious.

However, taking the time to weigh the potential options is always worth the effort. It increases the chances of making a decision that leads to a positive outcome.

4. Consider different interpretations

How many times has your initial reaction to a situation colored your judgment and prevented you from seeing all the possibilities?

When you’re trying to understand a situation, it’s important to consider all the different ways you could interpret it.

For example, if you receive a low grade on a test, it is easy to feel discouraged and think that you are not smart enough. But if you take a step back and look at the situation objectively, you may realize that the test was unfair or that you simply didn’t have enough time to prepare.

By considering the different interpretations of a situation, you can make better decisions and avoid potential pitfalls.

5. Practice active listening

In our fast-paced, often hectic lives, it can be easy to let our minds wander when someone else is speaking. That’s why it’s so important to make a conscious effort to actively listen to what others are saying.

The next time you find yourself in a discussion, really try to listen and understand the other person’s perspective. It could help you see the situation in a new light.

6. Be willing to change your mind

If you find that a new argument or piece of evidence has convinced you, don’t be afraid to change your mind. This shows that you are flexible and adaptable. These are highly valued qualities in most workplaces.

Additionally, being willing to change your mind can help you avoid making the same mistakes over and over again.

7. Ask questions

It’s important to remember that nobody knows everything. So don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Asking questions can deepen your understanding about a topic. It also shows that you’re interested and want to learn more.

The next time you’re in a meeting or listening to a presentation, don’t be nervous about raising your hand and asking a question. Chances are, you’re not the only one who wants to know the answer!

8. Practice, practice, practice

Like anything else, critical thinking is a skill that takes time and practice to develop. The more you do it, the better you’ll become at it.

So challenge yourself to think critically about everything from the news to your daily conversations. Over time, you’ll start to develop good critical thinking skills that will last a lifetime. And, of course, these skills also look great on your resume.

To fully optimize your resume for each job you apply to, use a tool like Jobscan’s resume scanner . It uses AI technology to analyze your resume and score it based on how well it matches the job description.

What Are Critical Thinking Skills?

The skills that help us to analyze information, arguments, and situations are known as critical thinking skills. Critical thinkers can draw reasonable conclusions from plenty of information and discriminate between information.

Why is Critical Thinking Important?

A critical thinker evaluates sources of information- data, facts, and research findings. For instance, you can research the pros and cons of having a balanced diet. A quick Google search will give you plenty of information on why it is good for your health or is not.

You can find data to back up either side of the claim. Then, using critical thinking skills, you decide for yourself if having a balanced diet will be more or less beneficial for you.

So, critical thinking is important both personally and professionally. It is a skill that is highly valued by employers as well.

Why is Critical Thinking Important In a Workplace?

Critical thinking guides good decision-making, helping you spot possible obstacles and discover solutions to them. It assists you and your coworkers in coming up with new ideas to achieve objectives.

Critical thinking helps in identifying, and addressing workflow inefficiencies, improving management practices, guiding financial decisions, and cultivating a strategic attitude.

Employers want critical thinkers to evaluate a situation using logical thought and offer the best solution. Hiring a critical thinker implies micro-managing is not required.

How Would You Demonstrate Critical Thinking Skills in Your Job Search?

Critical thinking and critical thinker are the go-to words for employers, so much so that they mention them in the job listing. So, it fetches you brownie points when you mention critical thinking on your resume.

But is that all? Not really!

So, how do you demonstrate critical thinking skills in your job search?

Use Critical Thinking While Looking for Jobs

Read the job listing carefully and decide whether it would be worth your time. In your job search, it might happen that the role is suitable but the working hours are not, or the remuneration is not competitive. Would it then be worth going through the hiring process only to reject the offer in the end?

Add Keywords to Your Resume

If critical thinking is a key phrase in the job listing, then emphasize critical thinking skills throughout your job search. Use critical thinking keywords such as analytical, problem solving, creativity, etc. Include the top critical thinking skills that best describe you in your work experience and resume summary.

Demonstrate Critical Thinking in the Experience Section

Mention prior experiences where you had to make a decision in a challenging situation. It could be an instance where you supervised a project when no instructions were given or where you had to prioritize between many tasks.

What impact did your decision have? Quantify the results you achieved due to the decisions you took and mention them as bullet points in the experience section.

Demonstrate Critical Thinking in the Resume Summary

Craft a resume summary that encapsulates your experiences and sprinkle keywords such as implemented, result-oriented, problem solver, and driven. Keep the resume summary short and mention the most valuable experiences that you have had.

For instance, a driven individual with 5+ years of experience in app development who has led a team of 10 and implemented complex changes in software for IT companies.

Mention Skills in Your Cover Letter

Include critical thinking skills in the body of your letter. Pick relevant situations and experiences that you highly value and challenge you the most. Give specific examples of times when you have demonstrated critical thinking at work.

Show the Interviewer Your Skills

You can use instances when you demonstrated critical thinking at work when answering behavioral questions. Use the STAR method or situation, task, action, and result method.

Discuss times when you were faced with challenges at work and explain how you applied critical thinking to solve them. Explain your thought process clearly to the interviewer.

Also read : Should I include my soft skills on a resume?

What Are the Examples of Using Critical Thinking on a Job?

Aside from hard skills that decide how skilled you will be at your job, soft skills decide how tactful you will be with your tasks. Having rich soft skills will ensure that you perform your tasks correctly with very little mistakes or setbacks.

Deciding the precedence order of tasks : A critical thinker decides the order by which the tasks should be completed on the basis of urgency and importance.
Deciding the best course of action : A critical thinker reviews the evidence and devises a strategy to reach the desired outcome.
Deciding favorable inputs : A critical thinker decides which information, data, or materials (in case a project requires using raw material) that would be required to complete the task.

The Top 5 Critical Thinking Skills

The in-demand critical thinking skills must be added to your resume and cover letter. They should be emphasized throughout the application process, such as during interviews.

The most important critical thinking skills are:

It means carefully examining something- a set of data or a text. Critical thinkers examine information, understand it, and convey its implications.

Communication

You have to communicate with colleagues and superiors to share your ideas effectively. Often, you will have to share your conclusions with them one-on-one or in a group.

So, you would use critical thinking and communicate effectively to figure out solutions to complex problems.

Also read : How to leverage communication skills in a workplace?

Critical thinking involves creativity and innovation. You would spot patterns in the information or provide a solution that no one else has thought of before. It requires a creative bent of mind.

Open-mindedness

To think critically, one needs to put aside assumptions or judgments. You have to analyze the information you receive and be objective in evaluating ideas without bias.

Problem-Solving

It is another critical thinking skill that involves- analyzing a problem, generating its solution, and then implementing it. It also involves assessing the success of the plan.

Hiring managers don’t simply want employees who can think about information critically. They need employees to come up with practical solutions.

How to Develop Critical Thinking Skills?

If you catch yourself making rushed decisions with no real thought, don't worry because it is a skill that you can build. Use the seven-step rule to develop critical thinking skills:

Step 1: Identify the Problem

Choose to be precise while identifying the issue. The narrower the scope, the easier it is to find answers. You do not have to do it all on your own either, if there are coworkers with the same skill set as you, consult them so that you cover all bases.

Step 2: Gather Data

Find several sources of information that contain different ideas and points of view. Doing so will help you avoid hasty decisions and understand how to ensure integrity of choices by looking at it from all points of view.

Step 3: Analyze and Evaluate the Data

To analyze and evaluate data, you need to check the reliability of the sources from where the data is derived. Check if the conclusions are backed by data.

Step 4: Identify Assumptions

Ensure that you identify any underlying assumptions before you come to a conclusion. Consider others' assumptions from every angle along with yours to eradicate any biased decisions and to come up with the best solutions.

Step 5: Establish Significance

Include information that is useful and relevant. While conducting surveys, use a suitable sample size to determine if the outcomes affect many people.

Step 6: Make a Decision/Reach a Conclusion

Identify various conclusions that are possible. Decide which of them are sufficiently supported. Weigh their pros and cons. Making brash decisions can be risky as the lack of thought can lead you to lose resources in many ways.

Step 7: Present or Communicate

Present the conclusion to all stakeholders. Instead of being unprepared, try to structure your thoughts and develop an outline so that you do not miss out on any points. Articulating your thoughts correctly can earn you great respect in a workplace.

Key Takeaways

Critical thinking skills are applicable in both personal and professional lives. More often than not, they are mentioned in the job listings. Keep these points in mind while incorporating such skills into your resumes:

Critical thinkers can draw reasonable conclusions from plenty of information and are highly valued by employers
If critical thinking is a key phrase in the job listing, then emphasize critical thinking skills throughout your job search
Critical thinking would help you to decide the precedence order of tasks, the best course of action, and favorable inputs for a task
Develop critical thinking skills by applying the seven-step rule

Use our career platform for a smooth resume-building experience. We provide a 24/7 online chat service for all your job & career-related queries. You can also reach out to us at [email protected] for any professional assistance.

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Resume and Cover Letter
7 Best Problem-Solving Skills...

7 Best Problem-Solving Skills for Your Resume + Examples

11 min read · Updated on April 17, 2024

If you're a strong problem solver, your resume needs to prove it!

Imagine this scenario: a supplier delivers the wrong piece of equipment, your deadline is tomorrow, and your logistics person is out sick. What would you do if you were the one who had to respond?

All businesses encounter problems at one time or another. That's why companies need high-quality employees on hand who can solve problems like shifting deadlines, equipment failure, and changing client needs. Those problem-solving skills can mean the difference between success and failure.

That's why today's employers are actively seeking candidates who possess these critical problem-solving skills.

But what are problem-solving skills?

How do you identify which ones you might have or which ones a hiring manager might be looking for?

Most importantly, how can you present problem-solving on your resume to land that interview?

In this post, we'll help you learn to identify, define, and present problem-solving skills in your resume.

What are problem-solving skills?

Put simply, problem-solving skills help you overcome challenges and obstacles. They enable you to identify the core issue, propose solutions, choose the best option, and implement it.

When employers talk about problem-solving skills, they're usually referring to the ability to deal with challenging, complex, or unexpected situations. While they enable someone to assess and solve problems calmly, these skills can also be useful for relationship building and routine decision-making.

Why do companies need employees with problem-solving skills?

All companies experience challenges that can impact their operations and effectiveness. Those businesses will always need people to help them to find solutions to their problems. In fact, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers' Job Outlook, 86% of employers look for problem-solving skills on student resumes.

Employers like to see good problem-solving skills because it also shows them you have a range of other talents, like logic, creativity, resilience, imagination, and lateral thinking.

Looking for problem-solving skills in a job description

Sometimes, a job description will plainly state the problem-solving skills that the job requires. More often, however, problem-solving is one of those skill sets that don't necessarily appear in the “requirements” section of a job post. Employers simply expect candidates to demonstrate an analytical mind. So, instead, they will describe those desired skills using other phrases.

In those instances, you can look for keywords to identify the skills the employer is seeking. When you find any relevant keywords in the job description, you'll be able to tell what skills you should highlight in the resume you send in.

How to include problem-solving skills on a resume

It should be easy to highlight these skills during an interview, where you can describe a specific problem and paint a picture of how you successfully solved it. But it's also easy to find ways to illustrate your problem-solving on your resume.

Problem-solving skills sound like they're self-explanatory, but they can be difficult to describe without good storytelling. Unlike conceptual skills like abstract thinking and ideation, problem-solving skills are all about developing and implementing an action plan. That's why the best strategy to demonstrate your problem-solving skills is to tell a story: find specific examples of challenging scenarios and explain the plan you implemented and the results you achieved.

Related post : How to Create an Effective STAR Method Resume (With Examples)

Many resumes will use terms like “critical thinker” or “problem-solver.” Instead, get specific by showing how you've used a skill in a way that has solved a problem at work.

Give examples of scenarios where those skills lead to a solution

Describe a specific process you employed

List major accomplishments enabled by your solution

Add specific training related to problem-solving skills

Use various keywords to avoid repeating “problem-solving”

Let's look at 4 places on a resume where you can describe your problem-solving skills.

Where to include problem-solving skills on your resume

The summary.

The summary is a great place to present a core skill that has benefitted you and your employers. If you've been responsible for finding out-of-the-box solutions to unexpected problems or been a team leader known for adjusting to personnel or process challenges, this is the place to introduce those talents.

Solutions-driven sales specialist with 10 years of experience managing sales teams, analyzing markets, expanding market reach, and solving logistics issues. Extensive experience with rolling out new products and reinventing campaigns. Transformed market by 40% despite a period of intense market fluctuation.

In the work experience section

The work experience section is the ideal place to list problem-solving skills that have contributed to proven solutions. When detailing past job roles, you can use details like percentages, dollar amounts, and specific scenarios to show how your ability to analyze issues, find options, and communicate action plans has solved problems.

Mention a time when you took the initiative to troubleshoot key areas

Explain your habit of collecting new data regularly

Give examples of instances when you assumed a leadership role in process optimization

Look at the following resume example. It shows how this candidate's ability to design solutions, optimize testing processes, and adjust the process to the client helped to optimize process efficiency and save the client money.

In addition, the candidate highlights his communication skills by showing that he can collaborate with clients to adapt processes to their needs.

Solar Engineer, Acme Corp, 2010 - 2020

Developed solution designs in collaboration with Software Architects that improved process efficiency by 150% and reduced costs by $300K

Supported testing on 3 large-scale projects to refine solutions and ensure they were fit for purpose and matched the customer's needs, resulting in $1M savings for the client

The skills section

If problem-solving skills are needed for a particular role, the hiring manager will be looking for them in the skills section. The key, however, is to only list skills that specifically relate to the job posting.

Remember, it's crucial to tailor each resume to a specific job advertisement, including the skills section. This is obviously easier if the job post explicitly lists desired skills. If it doesn't, look for keywords in the bullet points of the requirements part of the job description to find specific problem-solving skills to include in your resume.

Is it a management position looking for a “proven leader?” Communication skills are a must-have talent.

Is it a logistics position that requires experience with scaling? Then, troubleshooting and negotiation skills will be paramount.

There are both soft skills and hard skills that can be defined as problem-solving skills. “Test development” can be trained, but “troubleshooting” improves with experience. When considering which skills you possess, look at both categories.

Data analysis / Process analysis / Project design / Solution design / Test development / Benchmark development / Troubleshooting / Collaboration

A notable achievements section

A notable achievements section isn't always necessary, but some resumes can benefit from including one. If, for example, you're using a functional resume format for a career change resume or you're a senior executive looking to emphasize career highlights, an accomplishments section can really highlight those skills in action.

If you're using this section to focus on your problem-solving skills, describe accomplishments with demonstrable results.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Re-designed and upgraded front-end on 20+ sites with jQuery, AJAX, and Handlebars.js
Oversaw process improvements, which reduced expenses by $225,000 per quarter
Restructured the supply chain team following vendor flow issues

Related post : Seven Key Resume Sections and How to Organize Them

7 Important problem-solving skills for your resume

Problem-solving skills can range from detail-oriented diagnostics to team leadership. Here's a list of skills involved in various stages of the problem-solving process. When crafting your resume, look to these examples to see what problem-solving skills you might have.

1. Research

Research skills are an essential component of the problem-solving skill set, enabling you to identify and understand the root cause of an issue. Research involves gathering data and information, consulting with more experienced colleagues, acquiring knowledge online or from external sources, and collating newfound data for dissemination. This skill is about the ability to find and use the right resources, extract the data you need, and brainstorm with the right group of people. This means:

Studying specific cases without generalizing

Aiming at variables that make the desired differences

Reporting findings in understandable terms

2. Analysis

The first step in finding a solution is an effective analysis of the problem. To solve a problem, you must be able to analyze it from every angle. Your analytical skills will also help you identify and propose solutions that can resolve the problem.

Analytical skills allow you to assess data and processes to find solutions to a company's challenges. These include:

Forecasting

Data analysis

Interpretation of data and metrics

Deductive reasoning

Inductive reasoning

Diagnostics

3. Critical-thinking

Critical thinking is the ability to process details with a particular flow and draw connections between concepts and facts. In other words, it's “thinking about thinking” – or finding and fixing flaws in the way we think.

The ability to think critically is the foundation of problem solving. Unless you can see the big picture, you won't be able to identify the pros and cons of different action plans.

Critical thinking includes:

Interpretation

Open-mindedness

4. Decision making

Decision-making is the ability to choose solutions to problems. Simply stated, it's taking the relevant collected data, considering multiple viewpoints, and making an informed choice.

Once the choices are narrowed down, you'll need to pull the trigger – knowing you'll be held accountable for the decision. At times, you may need to make these decisions quickly, even if the wrong decision might make the problem worse. The ability to make proper use of your research and analysis to select the best action plan is a valuable skill. Components of this skill include:

Emotional Intelligence

Organization

5. Creativity

Sometimes, the best solution is only found by thinking outside the box. That demands creativity.

Creativity is the ability to approach a task or a challenge in a different way. In other words, it's possessing the imagination to generate new ideas and find interesting approaches and unique perspectives. Creativity is often described as

Divergent thinking

Inspirational thinking

Outside-the-box thinking

Experimental thinking

6. Communication

Strong communication skills are vital during all phases of problem solving:

While identifying and analyzing the problem, you'll need to know how to communicate the core issues to others.

When researching the background of the issue, you'll need to know what communication channels are appropriate when seeking guidance.

When brainstorming possible solutions, you will need to know how to guide a team through positive and effective discussions.

Then, once you find a solution, communicating the action plan with clarity and precision is key to avoiding confusion and achieving proper implementation.

No problem would ever be solved without good communication skills at work.

Communication skills, however, include a much broader array of abilities beyond just speaking clearly. They also encompass listening in ways that make your colleagues feel heard, body language that puts your audience at ease, and vocal pitch adjustments to make your point land better. Here are a few common communication skills:

Active listening

Giving constructive feedback

Presentation / visual communication

Nonverbal communication

Written communication

Oral communication

Voice modulation

Rapport building

7. Collaboration

In the business world, most problems are solved by teams of dedicated personnel, working in collaboration with one another. When highlighting this skill, you need to show how you've worked effectively as part of a team to generate and implement solutions.

Collaboration, by definition, means working with one or more individuals to complete a task. In the workplace, collaboration can be brainstorming ideas, delegating tasks to individual strengths, layering pieces of a process, or bringing together the team to understand the bigger picture.

When people work together, they're more effective at problem solving than when attempting to go it alone. Successful collaboration with your coworkers also increases their motivation and engagement at work, making them feel like they're an important part of the team.

Collaboration includes:

Long-term thinking

Adaptability

Positive debate

Emotional intelligence

The bottom line

In an increasingly complex business environment, the ability to solve problems is more important than ever before. As a result, including these high-value problem-solving skills on your resume can help to ensure that employers recognize your full value proposition as a prospective new hire. That, in turn, can help to separate you from your competition and increase your odds of landing an interview and job offer.

If you want to make sure that the problem-solving skills in your resume are making the right impression on employers, take a few moments to get your free resume review from our team of experts today!

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Critical thinking skills: What are they and why do employers care about them?

Observation

Problem-solving, self-awareness, resume and cover letter.

Being able to conceptualize, analyze and evaluate information to generate appropriate outcomes is the primary driver of corporate decisions. Disciplined and critical thinking skills lead to creative approaches, free of irrational biases and self-interest.

Employers understand that decision making is inherently complex, so when it comes to meeting a potential new employee, critical thinking skills are often at the top of the agenda. When left unchecked, lazy workplace thinking can cause damage. If your boss knows that you have turned over every stone in the search for a solution, they will sleep easy.

In this blog, we will consider critical thinking from a job seeker’s perspective:

What are the typical steps of a critical thinking process?
Why does your future employer care about critical thinking?
7 examples of critical thinking skills.
How to improve your critical thinking skills.
How to highlight critical thinking during your job search.

Being able to “think about thinking” is central to self-awareness and career success.

Six steps of a critical thinking process.

Identify the issue and understand why it is important.
Find out as much information as possible to inform your thinking.
Interpret the data from as many angles as possible – build a picture.
Consider your assumptions – are there any biases involved?
Work out what is relevant to help you to reach a useful conclusion.
Weigh each piece of evidence to come to a balanced judgment.

Critical thinking is an essential skill and should be highlighted in your cv and cover letter. If you need any additional inspiration, check out our resume examples, and cover letter examples.

Why your future employer cares about your critical thinking

Employers want people who can consider a problem from multiple angles and take into account the context before they decide on a way forward. If you do not take the time to explore the nuances, the level of uncertainty in terms of the outcome will be high.

If everyone in the team is comfortable with thinking critically, every debate will be well informed, and every decision will be optimized.

Critical thinking skills allow an employee to:

See the links between ideas - suggest synergies and find solutions.
Consider a discussion and be able to weigh the importance of each argument.
Build upon arguments to create a consensus and find a way forward.
Highlight errors in reasoning and challenge inconsistencies in decision-making.
Adopt a systematic and transparent approach to problem-solving .
Reflect on assumptions and be flexible to amend assumptions where required.
Understand the implications of ideas and find the best solutions for implementation.

Critical thinking is a complex topic. As you read through this blog, have a think about how you can frame your decision making to shine a light on how you came to your conclusions. You might be surprised at just how interested your future employer will be about how you got there. Sometimes the process of thinking is as important as the result.

The benefit of foresight in critical thinking . Thinking through the impact of workplace decisions is critical in any dynamic workplace. Show your future employer that you can pause and consider the deeper ramifications of your actions. You will only achieve the best outcomes if you evaluate the potential outcome from multiple angles.

What are interpersonal skills: definition + top examples

Getting on with others is the key to business success, but how are interpersonal skills defined and how might we use these examples in our resume to make it stronger? Which interpersonal skills does the job require?

7 examples of critical thinking skills

The following seven critical thinking skills form a roadmap for making an informed decision:

Being observant at work means sensing the undercurrents of what is going on and how the future might change as a result. Employees who can perceive a problem before it has arisen will be better placed to deal with it. Observational skills often revolve around an understanding of patterns of behavior – if you have seen something happen before (in similar circumstances), there is a fair chance that it will happen again.

Critical thinking skill: Be an observant and perceptive sounding board.

When thinking critically, the ability to compare and contrast various information is key to reaching a balanced conclusion. Where do you source your information? How do you verify its validity? Be open minded about where you inform yourself and do not be satisfied with a narrow range of sources. Industry echo chambers are real – especially on social media. Go out of your way to solicit contrary opinions and be dispassionate in your evaluation.

Critical thinking skill: Thorough research forms the foundation of a sound opinion

When you are faced with a mass of information at your disposal, you need to be able to analyze what will help you to make the best decision. Review the data, examine the sources, and interrogate the findings. The quality of the data set will determine the quality of the conclusion. If you make a decision based on shaky sources, you will be fumbling in the dark. Collecting and categorizing information at the early stage of any critical thinking process might take longer than you hope, but this investment is central to an optimal outcome.

Critical thinking skill: Analyze exactly what you need to include in your thinking.

When there is not enough information to make a fully informed decision, you sometimes need to make an educated guess. Inference is the ability to take raw data and fill in the gaps to make the best possible decision. The ability to extrapolate information and infer the correct conclusions is an incredibly valuable skill in the workplace – it requires sound judgment and an ability to solve an incomplete puzzle.

Critical thinking skill: Making an educated guess with incomplete source data.

As the process of critical thinking is rarely straightforward, the ability to tackle problems and resolve conflicts is central to smoothing the path. Adopt a self-critical mindset and constantly ask yourself the question: “is this going to get us to where we need to be?” Problem solvers view setbacks as opportunities for exploring a different path and know that the resultant insights will move them one step closer to a conclusion. There is nothing scarier than admitting that something isn’t working, but such feelings should be embraced.

Critical thinking skill: Problem-solving turns scary setbacks into unexpected opportunities.

You're meeting with someone who is judging you. Judging your character, your work ethic. Here are 7 interview skills that will get you hired in 2024.

It might sound obvious, but your critical thinking abilities are bound by the limitations of your mindset. If you are not self-aware enough to monitor and correct your assumptions, your thinking can be impaired. The ability to be self-aware and adaptable enough to correct your course when you are in a stressful situation is one of the hallmarks of a critical thinker. If your fixed mindset does not allow you to change direction, your potential is limited.

Critical thinking skill: Self-awareness means that you can adapt to change course.

Why? Pondering this simple word has the potential to reveal insights and question assumptions. Having the curiosity to explore the unknowns can tell you much about the problem that you face and throw up multiple other questions. You might not always find a satisfactory answer but allowing these questions to linger at the back of your mind proves an ongoing driving force for your intellect. Critical thinkers are not afraid of questioning everything like a five-year-old.

Critical thinking skill: Curiosity opens up avenues of thought you didn’t know existed.

How do you improve your critical thinking skills?

Put yourself in new and challenging situations where you need to act differently.
Forget about common sense for a minute – practice thinking differently.
Invest in your education to broaden your theoretical knowledge base.
Ask open-ended questions and follow up on what the answers might mean.
Network with a wider range of people and seek their perspectives regularly.
Be clear about your objectives and narrow your focus in accordance.
Be aware of your biases in any new situation – avoid instant judgements.

10 Leadership skills to include on your resume + examples

Sharing your array of leadership skills is essential to securing your dream job, so which ones do you showcase on your resume and how do you talk about them?

How to highlight critical thinking during your job search

Potential employers are interested in exploring how you went about making your decisions as well as their outcomes. When different problems come along, they want to be sure that your critical thinking ability is robust enough to make the right moves.

Showcase your critical thinking both in your job search writing and during an interview.

One effective way of highlighting your critical thinking in your written job search documents is to outline the journey that you took to your decisions. This is easier to do in a long-form cover letter than a resume, but you can still include impactful action verbs in bullet-pointed resume achievements.

You should make it clear that you do not take the big decisions lightly. Touching on aspects of the six critical thinking skills listed above will prompt a hiring manager to explore further during an interview. Analyze your thought processes and crystallize your approach.

There will be many situational questions during an interview where you will be able to share the thinking skills that led to the result. If you choose to tell your career stories using the STAR method , you can weave your critical thinking skills in between the task and action parts. In some ways, it should read STTAR. You can’t take action without critical thought.

When you are outlining your critical thinking during an interview, it is important to consider the culture of your potential employer. Is short-term tactical thinking preferred over longer-term strategy? Are decisions made by collective agreement or are individuals trusted to do the right thing within their remits? How open are senior management to being challenged?

Don’t just talk about your thinking skills in an interview – back up your claims with proof.

An example of critical thinking : Think about something that someone recently told you. Who said it? What did they say? When did they say it? Why did they say it? How did they say it? Considering the wider context of a problem will lead you onto further questions.

There’s really no such thing as an unskilled worker — pretty much everyone is good at something. And whatever field you work in, you need to know how to list hard skills on your resume to let employers know what you’re capable of doing.

Key takeaways

If your future boss can understand the thought processes behind how you make decisions, it will be easier for them to imagine you making the right moves in your new role.
The ability to outline how you think is essential to gaining their trust in your decision-making.
Develop a narrative around critical thinking successes and share an example in the interview. It is only through real-life examples that an employer will gauge the depth of your thinking.
Don't forget to showcase your critical thinking skills in your cover letter and resume by using impactful action verbs that describe your achievements. You can find even more insights on how to highlight your critical thinking skill in our cover letter examples and resume templates.

Critical Thinking Skills for a Resume

Critical thinking skills are the ability to think clearly and rationally, understanding the logical connection between ideas. Critical thinking could be described as the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking. It requires you to use your ability to reason.

For example, you can research the pros and cons of running two miles a day. A quick Google search will give you plenty of information for and against this idea. Reasons why it is good for your health and reasons why it is hard on your body. You can find data and research to back up either side of the claim. Then, using critical thinking skills, you decide for yourself if running two miles a day will be more or less beneficial for you personally.

Related : Personal Qualities Employers are Looking For

Why are critical thinking skills important on a resume?

Critical thinking is the only way to make sense of the world. You’ll constantly challenge what seems given. For example, in your job, even if something appears to be functioning properly, critical thinking will help you try and identify new, better solutions.

Employers and hiring managers want to be sure you can process what is going on around you and use that information in your career. Critical thinking skills are the cornerstone of self-development and improvement. That’s why they’re so critical to have in today’s job market.

The Seven Steps of Critical Thinking

1. Identify the problem or question. Be as precise as possible: the narrower the issue, the easier it is to find solutions or answers.

2. Gather data, opinions, and arguments. Try to find several sources that present different ideas and points of view.

3. Analyze and evaluate the data. Are the sources reliable? Are their conclusions data-backed or just argumentative? Is there enough information or data to support the given hypotheses?

4. Identify assumptions. Are you sure the sources you found are unbiased? Are you sure you weren’t biased in your search for answers?

5. Establish significance. What piece of information is most important? Is the sample size sufficient? Are all opinions and arguments even relevant to the problem you’re trying to solve?

6. Make a decision/reach a conclusion. Identify various conclusions that are possible and decide which (if any) of them are sufficiently supported. Weigh the strengths and limitations of all possible options.

7. Present or communicate. Once you’ve reached a conclusion, present it to all stakeholders.

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How to Emphasize Strategic Thinking Skills on Your Resume

Here are the top ways to show your strategic thinking skills on your resume. Find out relevant strategic thinking keywords and phrases and build your resume today.

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Drop your resume here or upload a file to find out if the skills in your resume are readable by an ATS.

In This Guide:

What are strategic thinking skills, why is strategic thinking wanted by recruiters on your resume, what skills, activities and accomplishments help you highlight your strategic thinking, strategic thinking: key takeaways for your resume.

Any company in any field needs a strategy to exist. A business strategy is a set of plans and actions to achieve the goals that outline how the company will compete in the market.

Creating a strategy involves strategic thinking. This ability involves the generation and application of unique business insights and opportunities intended to create a competitive plan of action for your organization. In other words - thinking two steps ahead. Strategic thinking is all about being prepared for the future.

As a strategic thinker, you can come up with successful plans of action by nature. And you often bring new points of view to the table.

Your strategic thinking skills allow you to detail a step-by-step action plan. You can find creative ways to save the company money and time.

Strategic thinking skills are among the most highly sought-after skills recruiters looking for in applicants. The ability to think logically and critically can have an enormous impact on the business direction. Showing on your resume that you actually have strategic thinking qualities increase the chance to be chosen for the position. Explain that you can imagine what could be, that you can create an action plan and strictly follow it to achieve the goal, the company set’s to you.

The business environment is always shifting and transforming. Every organization and business area may be affected by these changes. That’s why companies need employees who can incorporate in their everyday work strategic thinking. Forecasting the upcoming changes and quickly adapting the business trajectory is the key in strategic thinking.

On a personal level, strategic thinking can contribute to your role in the company and help you become a valuable employee.

Develop any skills that enable you to use critical thinking to solve difficult problems and have a clear vision of the business environment. Strategic thinking requires research, analytical thinking, innovation, problem-solving skills, communication and leadership skills.

Research skills are the ability to find and evaluate useful information related to the project you are working on. Understanding the environment and providing answers underneath the surface of the issue. Having this information will help you to make better decisions and have better solutions for the future.
Analytical skill is a key element to strategic thinking. The ability to quickly identify the situation and provide new solutions to old problems.
Innovation skills are the knowledge you use to adapt to change. This set of skills are helping you to solve problems in a creative way. Generate ideas that can improve the processes of your work.
Problem-solving skills help you solve issues that may occur, quickly and effectively. This is important to your strategic thinking because it shows how easy you can adapt to change without allowing the circumstances to affect the main goal.
Communication skills and strategic think are deeply related to one another. If you know how to communicate effectively, you know how to apply successfully in your work strategic thinking. Strategic thinking involves taking what you have and using it to achieve your goals.
Leadership skills are to make decisions quickly with the information that you have. Be influential to the team and organize the people to reach a shared goal.

How to demonstrate strategic thinking on your resume:

Developed financial models and analyses related to new business development strategies.
Provided actionable insights by leading strategic design and executing user-centric research.
Established thoughtful and provocative marketing strategies, creative briefs, and branding ideas.

Example 1: Demonstrate strategic thinking in the experience section

• Developed and rolled out digital marketing strategy that enabled 22% profitability gain.
• Develop a new content marketing approach and increased three times the organic leads per dollar spent than paid search marketing.
• Orchestrated the successful launch of the social media marketing campaign of a new product. Wich generated over 300 new customer leads on the first day of the campaign, resulting in an over 5% increase in bottom-line profitability.
• Initiated focus on conversion rates and introduced a post-click marketing platform increasing on-page conversion.

Show on your resume that you have effective strategic planning skills which give results. These examples indicate, that they have the needed skills to create a strategic plan and execute to achieve the goals that were set for them. Provide good details that tell the whole story. Created and executed the strategy whit 22% profit gain, shows facts and this statement simply helps them to stand out more and tell a bigger story. The main goal of your resume is to tell the story. The story of your career strengths, achievements, and experiences.

Example 2: Demonstrate your strategic thinking skills in the resume summary section

On your resume, it’s not enough to show examples of your strategic thinking skills. In your resume summary, you must convince your future employer that you actually understand and apply strategic thinking in your personal and professional life. The example provides the key qualities of a person who has strategic thinking abilities. They know how important it is to have an action plan to achieve their goals. They present critical and analyzing tinging, to help them to evaluate results and avoid future problems. Planning, showing decisiveness, setting goals and welcoming feedback proves that they have strategic thinking skills.

Example 3: Show your strategic thinking in your achievements sections

To stand out from other applicants, it is advisable to give examples in the achievements' section on your resume. Show some of your achievements that prove your strategic thinking.

Don’t outline only duties and responsibilities. Be more concrete by telling how you applied your skills in a real situation when strategic thinking is needed.

These achievements sections exhibit some key skills of the applicant. They have very good planning expertise, with impressive results. They are capable of analyzing a variety of inputs, which is very important in strategic thinking.

Strategic thinking is the most valuable, sought-after executive skill that is nearly always mentioned as a requirement in executive job postings.
It is very important to demonstrate on your resume that you have the skill set on your resume and interviews.
Try to demonstrate your strategic thinking skill set, all over your resume. Specifically, in your summary, in your job descriptions, and in your achievements section.
Don’t outline only your duties and responsibilities. Tell the story of your achievements, and experiences with concrete goals and how your skill set of strategical thinking achieve them.

Resume Skills

How to Answer "What Motivates You?" Interview Question (With Examples)

Cover letter salutation that entices the recruiter to learn more about you, how to write an effective personal resume, interview question: tell me what you know about our company, 5 things we learned from helping 249 engineers write their resumes, phone interviews: sure-fire advice on 14 common questions (plus 5 questions to ask the interviewer).

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18 Résumé Writing Tips to Help You Stand Out

By Allison Pohle

Updated May 11, 2021 2:15 pm ET

A résumé isn’t just a list of every job you’ve ever had. It should demonstrate your accomplishments.
Mirror language used in the job posting so your résumé isn’t discarded by an applicant tracking system.
Use a clean and simple format.

Companies increasingly rely on software to sort through applicants, which is why it is essential to tailor your résumé to ensure it makes the cut. Applicant tracking systems sort, scan and rank applicants by looking for keywords in applications. Although these programs can save time and money for employers, about 60% said such tools cause them to miss some qualified candidates, according to a 2016 survey of 1,200 job seekers and managers by CareerArc, a human-resources technology company, and Future Workplace, a research firm. Here’s how to make your résumé stand out to robots and humans alike.

1. Highlight your achievements in your résumé.

A common mistake job seekers make is believing a résumé is a recap of your career, when in reality, it should convey what you have accomplished, says Christy Noel, a career expert and author of “Your Personal Career Coach.”

“I always say, spend less of your real estate describing your job, and more time describing your results,” says Ms. Noel.

2. Customize your résumé.

Read over the job posting, and think about the work experience you have had that is most directly relevant to the position you are pursuing. You can leave out some past jobs and internships if the experience you had wasn’t related. Whatever you do: Don’t submit a generic résumé to dozens of postings. “Even if you have the best experience, if your résumé isn’t speaking directly to the position in which you are applying, there is a strong chance you’ll never even get an interview,” says Demisha Jennings, a certified professional résumé writer and founder and owner of She Assists LLC.

The same applies to your cover letter. It is your chance to provide more detail on how your experience will help you succeed in the job. Read our cover letter guide for how to write one that makes you stand out.

3. Decide how to format your résumé.

Most of the time, a chronological résumé will work well for communicating your past experience. But, in some cases, a functional or hybrid résumé might be more appropriate. Read more about résumé formats here.

4. Make your contact information easy to find.

Include your name, phone number, email address, city and state. It may also be appropriate to include the URL to your LinkedIn profile. You want it to be easy for hiring managers to reach out.

In addition to making it easy to connect with you, it is important to your job search that you grow your network. Read our networking guide for tips on how to do so.

5. Consider adding a summary.

Many résumé templates leave space for an objective statement, outlining career goals, but that approach is outdated, says Ms. Jennings. Instead, consider a carefully worded summary. The summary is often the first place a hiring manager will look, and gives you an opportunity to introduce your skills high up on the page. You can also work in relevant keywords from the job description. “Recruiters are looking for what you can bring to the table and what you’ve done, rather than you saying, ‘I’m seeking a position,’” Ms. Jennings says.

6. Great résumés should stand out to skim readers.

Most recruiters spend just a few seconds skimming through a résumé—with an average in one study of 7.4 seconds.

To have the best chance of making an impression, ensure your job titles, company names and dates of employment are easy to read. The sections of your résumé should be adequately spaced, too, says Dana Leavy-Detrick, founder and director of Brooklyn Resume Studio.

For additional ways to make a good impression on recruiters and headhunters, read our guide on how to work with headhunters .

7. Make your résumé robot-friendly.

Structure your résumé to meet the requirements of an applicant tracking system to give yourself the best chance of having it reach an actual human. Ms. Leavy-Detrick suggests the following:

Optimize keywords. Use the same words and language that are in the job description. For example, three different companies might describe the same role as “programmer,” “developer” or “software engineer.”
Use a straightforward format. Avoid tables and text-based graphics, which might not get picked up by a scan of the résumé. Sans-serif fonts such as Arial or Helvetica are also best to ensure readability.
Think about order. When formatting each line item of work experience, list the company name first, followed by the job location (city, state), your job title, and your start and end dates. Some résumés can get lost if the dates are listed before the job title.

8. Prioritize relevant keywords.

Tailoring your skills to include language from the job posting is an important way to let both the applicant tracking system and, eventually, a hiring manager, see how your prior qualifications tie into the job requirements. But just because you have a résumé full of keywords doesn’t mean you’ll automatically get an interview. “The ATS isn’t there to help the job seeker, it is there to help the employer review your skills against their most important qualifications,” says Ashley Watkins, a career coach and résumé writer with Write Step Résumés LLC.

9. Craft compelling and concise bullet points.

The goal of a résumé is to list your accomplishments, rather than every duty you performed in the role. Résumé-writing experts recommend including no more than five bullet points per prior job listed.

Don’t focus on tasks. Many job seekers describe what they did every day, such as answering phones or creating marketing materials, Ms. Watkins says. “Simply copying and pasting the job description doesn’t account for the things you did great, that you did above and beyond your peers,” she says.
Instead, explain what those tasks achieved. Emphasize your results. Ms. Watkins suggests asking yourself “Did I save [the employer] money? Did I save time? Did I improve a process? Did I build a relationship?” These will help you format your bullet points.
Use metrics. Say what you achieved, then contextualize it—with figures if possible. You might not be able to put a monetary value on every accomplishment, but you can frame it by sharing details like the time it took or how many people were involved. “If you raised sales 50% in two months, that means a whole lot more than ‘I’m in charge of sales,’” Ms. Watkins says.
Don’t omit accomplishments that aren’t quantifiable. Not every achievement will have metrics to show success. If there are figures, you might not always have access to them. But that shouldn’t stop you from including them, says Ms. Leavy-Detrick. Perhaps you had a positive impact on the culture of an organization, or improved a struggling relationship with a client. These efforts could help to demonstrate your soft skills.

10. Focus on transferable skills if you lack experience.

If you are applying for a job in a new field or you are an entry-level applicant and don’t have much direct experience, don’t worry. Highlight transferable skills you have developed in the past that will serve you well in the position, says Ms. Leavy-Detrick. For example, you could play up leadership skills you developed participating in an extracurricular activity or time-management skills you learned in a prior job.

11. Go beyond your work history, and include all relevant experience.

If you are new to the workforce, or are job-hunting after being laid off, you could also include related experience that was outside of a traditional full-time job, says Ms. Watkins. For example, you can highlight volunteer work, consulting projects or educational training, all as part of making the case for your unique value, she says.

12. Don’t worry too much about gaps in your résumé.

The Covid-19 pandemic economy resulted in many people being laid off or furloughed. Ms. Watkins says the 2020 job market reminds her of 2008, when she worked as a recruiter. The expectation at that time, she says, was that candidates would have gaps on their résumés or list more short-term positions. While it isn’t necessary to directly address the gaps in your résumé, you should be prepared to talk about them in an interview . “The focus should not be centered on the fact that you were furloughed or laid off, it should be focused on you and your skills and what you do that impacts the company’s bottom line in a positive way,” Ms. Watkins says.

While it is common to list the months and years you started and ended positions in the job history section, you could just use years. This will draw less attention to a six- or eight-month gap, says Ms. Leavy-Detrick.

13. Highlight relevant skills.

It is common to add a skills section to your résumé , outlining expertise relevant to the position. You can include languages you speak, technical skills or courses you have done. If you lack experience, you can also complete some trainings, which you can find on LinkedIn and elsewhere, related to the job you are applying for and add the courses in this section, says Ms. Jennings.

14. Prioritize work experience over education.

The professional experience you have had is often more relevant to the position than your education history, which is why the work experience should be listed first. In the “Education” section, you should list where you attended college, if applicable, or the highest level of education you have attained. If you graduated with honors, you can flag that, but it isn’t necessary to list your GPA.

15. If you are early on in your career, a key résumé tip is to limit it to one page.

If you are early on in your career, you should limit your résumé to one page. It is OK to start spilling onto a second page after you have eight to 10 years of experience, says Ms. Leavy-Detrick.

16. Add some color for a stylish résumé that sets you apart.

Your résumé should look clean and professional and you should keep applicant tracking systems in mind when formatting the document. But, if it is appropriate, you can add subtle accents of color in the section headings or in bars that separate sections as a way to differentiate your résumé. Ms. Leavy-Detrick doesn’t overstress the need for good design with her clients. “But it can definitely help,” she says. “When I say design, I don’t mean crazy graphic design. I mean having a polished application,” she says. “Think of it the same way you would coming dressed to an interview, it is part of your presentation, and so many people overlook this on the résumé.”

It may be appropriate to incorporate a more creative and graphic-based layout depending on the field in which you work and where you are applying. If you are applying for a position in a creative field, and you are emailing your résumé directly to a hiring manager, then it can be appropriate to use more designs, says Ms. Jennings. But if you are applying to a large company that uses an applicant tracking system or job portal, she says it is best to avoid using graphics unless you are working with a résumé writer who can help you get your resume through the system.

17. Proofread and double-check the formatting.

You may be eager to send your résumé or submit your application, but you should take the time to first check for typos and grammatical errors. You could also have a friend or family member look over it. When you are checking for errors, be sure to double-check the formatting. Sometimes the spacing can get thrown off when you save the file, so check how it looks as a saved document and, if you can, save it as a PDF before sending.

18. Make sure the saved file name includes your name.

Make less work for the hiring manager by including your full name in the file name of the résumé document.

Critical Thinking AI in Cybersecurity: A Stretch or a Possibility? Critical Thinking AI in Cybersecurity: A Stretch or a Possibility?

It might still sound far-fetched to say AI can develop critical thinking skills and help us make decisions in the cybersecurity industry. But we're not far off.

August 21, 2024

Will artificial intelligence ever think for us? In 2024, when AI is still in somewhat of an early stage, this might be a loaded question. In cybersecurity, the technology doesn't go beyond automating repetitive tasks, leaving security teams to do the decision-making bit. However, AI's impressive growth in the past two years inevitably makes us wonder if, soon enough, it will be used for critical thinking activities in the sector.

This question becomes even more pressing as hackers increasingly use AI to build better, more sophisticated attacks. And, as KPMG posits, the industry must use AI to fight AI . If the industry wishes to be a step ahead of malicious actors, it must also elevate the technology to fight fire with fire. So, security teams must train their AI models to be smarter than their hacker counterparts, nearing critical thinking levels to outsmart attacks.

While AI's possibilities seem limitless and AI cyberattacks are a pressing matter, we can't get ahead of ourselves. There are many improvements yet to be made, and it's up to the cybersecurity industry to channel its development in the correct path. Where should the industry concentrate its efforts so AI can eventually aid in critical thinking tasks?

Let's explore the current state of AI technology in cybersecurity, the obstacles facing its development, and what leaders can do to get it closer to a critical thinking stage.

What's the Current State of AI In Cybersecurity?

In the larger scope, we are still attempting to build trustworthy AI that can generate accurate answers without hallucinations (which have proven to be extremely harmful to cybersecurity). In the cybersecurity industry, it's helping chief information security officers (CISOs) streamline workflows and forensics examine cyberattack incidents. It also provides valuable insights into new attack vectors.

Needless to say, when we talk about critical thinking technology, its purpose will be to aid humans in making decisions that require more than a yes or no answer and to go beyond the current logic we give it — analyzing angles, forecasting outcomes, and suggesting favorable choices.

For example, let's say a company receives a convincing phishing email that appears to be from their CEO requesting an urgent wire transfer of a large sum of money. Traditional AI would simply analyze keywords in the email and sender address. If they match the CEO's information, the transfer could be flagged as legitimate but not necessarily verified.

On the other hand, critical thinking AI would analyze the email content, verify the request, identify anomalies, and cross reference data. This could mean the AI directly contacts the CEO to confirm he made the request, alert security teams about suspicious activities, and check on the CEO's calendar to see if he was even available at the time the email was sent.

AI never makes any vital choices in this scenario because the complexities of our lives, work, and decisions involve numerous little factors that it may not fully comprehend, at least for now. However, it does assess more data points than traditional AI, and becomes more resourceful on its own accord. Ultimately, humans should monitor and confirm its decisions before anything else is done.

This constant vigilance is crucial, especially considering the ongoing arms race with cybercriminals: 93% of leaders already expect daily AI-powered cyberattacks. While the technology is being used to strengthen and secure systems, malicious actors have also found ways to refine their attacks and outsmart cybersecurity protocols — meaning leaders must keep pushing the boundaries of AI to keep platforms safe.

What Are the Most Pressing Obstacles to Building Smarter AI?

It's clear there is a long road ahead to achieving an AI tool we can trust with decision-making in the cybersecurity world. We must start by addressing some major pain points in how we implement the technology right now, like lack of context, data sharing, and unforeseen incidents.

AI is built on large language models (LLM) that can process vast amounts of data, but we might fail to give it a crucial piece of information: context. AI systems often lack the detailed understanding of personal and organizational specifics needed to make accurate choices that reflect a company and its members, leading to potential misjudgments. By giving it company, industry, and more task-specific context, it can begin to arrive at more well-rounded conclusions.

Explaining the "why" will empower AI to discern the best choices in given situations.

Lastly, the technology requires an extreme level of accuracy in terms of its algorithms, data quality, and prompt specificity to achieve the desired outcome. This means training data and algorithms must be optimized continuously, and prompt engineering must be taught to all users.

What Steps Can Cybersecurity Leaders Take to Refine AI?

To fully harness AI's potential while maintaining security, there must be a way to safely provide AI with the necessary context and information. One approach is to create secure and controlled methods for feeding relevant data to AI systems, ensuring they understand the specific goals, context, and security priorities of an organization. For example, automating security scans across attack surfaces can align data with security objectives. Implementing explainable AI and context and scenario-building training data can also help improve AI's critical thinking.

And, as with anything, AI needs limits if we want to get the most optimal results. These limitations will help reign in the tech, preventing it from going out of scope and performing actions that developers didn't anticipate. This is particularly important when considering AI agents capable of executing specific tasks within the context of LLMs. For example, imagine using AI to transfer money for a mortgage payment but instructing it with a twist: "Don't use my money, use John Doe's." It must be developed to avoid unintended manipulation.

It might still sound wild to say AI can develop critical thinking skills and help us make decisions in the cybersecurity industry. However, we're not too far off, and developing the technology through the right path can help businesses build a smarter and more intuitive tool — going above and beyond automation and monitoring.

About the Author

Nenad Zaric

CEO & Co-founder, Trickest

Nenad Zaric is an offensive security professional with more than 10 years of experience in penetration testing, bug bounty hunting, and security automation. He is the co-founder and CEO of Trickest, a company focused on automated offensive cybersecurity. Before founding Trickest, he found critical vulnerabilities in Fortune 500 companies such as Uber, Snapchat, Spotify, Twitter, and Airbnb.

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At Military-Themed Event, Trump Slams Harris Over Afghanistan: Election Updates

The former president has made America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 a central focus of his attacks on Democrats over foreign policy and national security issues.

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Donald J. Trump rests a hand on a lectern as he speaks. There are blue curtains behind him and the image of someone in the foreground is blurred.

Michael Gold Simon J. Levien and Maggie Astor

Here’s the latest on the presidential race.

On the third anniversary of the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that killed 13 American service members, former President Donald J. Trump held two military-themed campaign events and attacked his rival over the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

At a conference in Detroit for the National Guard Association of the United States, Mr. Trump argued that American’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan was a domino that led to global conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.

“Caused by Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world,” Mr. Trump said. He added, “It gave us Russia going into Ukraine. It gave us the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, because it gave us lack of respect.”

The Biden administration has noted that Mr. Trump made a deal with the Taliban in 2020 that set a timeline for America’s exit, and Democrats have argued that Mr. Trump flip-flopped on the withdrawal after Mr. Biden saw it through.

Ms. Harris will hit the campaign trail next on Wednesday, when she and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, are scheduled to begin a bus tour in Georgia. Ms. Harris is also scheduled to hold a rally in Savannah, Ga., on Thursday. On Monday and Tuesday, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts will campaign in Wisconsin on Ms. Harris’s behalf.

Election Day is just 71 days away. Here’s what else to know:

Harris-Trump debate: The two campaigns are again at odds over the presidential debate scheduled for Sept. 10 on ABC, with Mr. Trump questioning on social media why he would participate in the debate. And Ms. Harris’s campaign asked that both candidates’ microphones be live throughout the full broadcast, a change from the rules that the Biden campaign had agreed to for the June debate.

Georgia lawsuit: Democrats sued the Georgia state election board , arguing that new measures approved this month seeking to alter the election certification process were illegal and could create chaos on Election Day.

Trump and Vance: Mr. Trump is scheduled to give a keynote address at a meeting of the conservative group Moms for Liberty on Friday, a day after his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, holds a fund-raiser in Florida. Mr. Trump’s campaign website also shows a town-hall event in La Crosse, Wis., on Thursday and a rally in Johnstown, Pa., on Friday.

First to vote: In Pennsylvania, perhaps the most important battleground state, some voting options start Sept. 16. In Minnesota and Virginia, Democratic-leaning states that are unlikely to be closely contested in the presidential race but have important down-ballot races, voting starts Sept. 20.

Big fund-raising numbers: Ms. Harris’s campaign said on Sunday that it had raised $540 million over the last month, including $82 million during the Democratic National Convention last week.

A generational gap: New York Times/Siena College polls this month found an extraordinary gender gap in support for Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump among members of Generation Z — much larger than the gaps among members of previous generations. The Upshot spoke with young women and men to examine what was driving the shift.

Nate Schweber

In the Hamptons, Doug Emhoff calls Kamala Harris a ‘joyful warrior.’

Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, told receptive crowds at two fund-raisers in the Hamptons on Monday evening that his wife had met the moment — quickly winning the Democratic Party’s support for her candidacy under difficult circumstances after President Biden dropped out of the race.

“She’s just the most badass version of Kamala Harris,” he said, “when we needed it most.”

Mr. Emhoff spoke at the homes of supporters of Ms. Harris’s presidential campaign — on patios beside large, expensive houses, in backyards landscaped with oaks, hydrangeas and swimming pools. He traveled via a seven-car motorcade. Both events — one in Water Mill, the other in Sag Harbor — had many dozens of attendees. “My wife could be the next president of the United States,” he said at in Sag Harbor. “That would be pretty cool!”

Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, was scheduled to introduce Mr. Emhoff in Sag Harbor but had tested positive in the morning for Covid. Her husband took her place and expressed a friendly touch of jealousy at the prospect of Mr. Emhoff getting to be the country’s first “first gentleman.”

“He’s going to get the only job I really wanted for the last 20 years,” former President Bill Clinton said. “And he’ll be great at it.”

The events raised more than $2 million for Ms. Harris’s campaign and for other Democratic candidates.

At both events, Mr. Emhoff detailed how Ms. Harris had pushed him to crusade against antisemitism.

He described Ms. Harris as a capitalist who is for business growth — but also reminded his wealthy audience about her history of prosecuting lawbreaking businesses.

“If you cheat, if you take advantage of folks,” he said, “there you go, there has got to be consequences for that.”

And he characterized her as a “joyful warrior.”

“There’s the joy,” he said, “there’s also the warrior.”

In Sag Harbor, Mr. Emhoff spoke about Ms. Harris’s commitment to abortion rights and her respect for veterans. He contrasted her positions to those of Donald J. Trump, reminding the crowd about insulting comments about the military by the former president.

Laurie Tisch, who attended the event in Sag Harbor, imagined a different title for Mr. Emhoff, should Ms. Harris win the presidential race.

“Isn’t he a mensch?” she said. “We’re going to call him the First Mensch.”

Chris Cameron

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who ended his independent presidential campaign and endorsed Donald Trump on Friday, said in an interview that ran tonight that he had been asked to join the Trump campaign’s presidential transition team to “help pick the people who will be running the government.” “I’m looking forward to that,” Kennedy told Tucker Carlson in the interview. The Trump campaign did not immediately confirm Kennedy’s addition to the transition team when asked for comment.

In a podcast interview that ran on Monday, Donald Trump again attacked current military leadership as “woke,” and mocked his former chief of staff and the man he appointed as his top military adviser as “stupid.” “Milley was a stupid person, very stupid,” Trump said of Gen. Mark A. Milley, whom he picked to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . He added of his onetime chief of staff , “Guys like John Kelly are one of the — he’s one of the dumbest people I’ve ever met. A bully, but a weak bully. And, you know, we just have some stupid people. Kelly wasn’t so involved in that, but we have some really stupid people at the top.”

Former aides to Bush, Romney and McCain back Harris over Trump.

More than 200 people who previously worked for President George W. Bush and Senators Mitt Romney and John McCain have signed a letter endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.

Many of the more prominent signatories, including a chief of staff, a legislative director and a deputy campaign manager for Mr. McCain, had signed a letter supporting President Biden in the 2020 election. Others work for organizations like The Bulwark and the Lincoln Project that oppose former President Donald J. Trump’s leadership of the Republican Party.

But the former Republican officials’ renewed support of the Democratic ticket reflects how Mr. Trump has transformed the Republican Party under his leadership, as well as deep and persistent opposition to his candidacy from those who served Republican presidential candidates.

Mr. Romney, Mr. Bush and other high-profile Republicans skipped the Republican nominating convention last month, while the Harris campaign made significant efforts to highlight the support of anti-Trump Republicans — as well as former members of Mr. Trump’s staff who no longer support him — with speaking slots at the Democratic convention last week.

“We have plenty of honest, ideological disagreements with Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz,” the letter said. “That’s to be expected. The alternative, however, is simply untenable.”

The signatories include Mark Salter, a former chief of staff for Mr. McCain; Joe Donoghue, the senator’s former legislative director; Reed Galen, his deputy campaign manager and a co-founder of the Lincoln Project; Mike Murphy, a former McCain campaign strategist; Jean Becker, a chief of staff for George H.W. Bush; and Jim Swift, a senior editor of The Bulwark.

Nick Corasaniti

Democrats sue the Georgia state election board, warning of ‘chaos.’

Democrats sued the Georgia state election board on Monday, arguing that measures approved by the board this month seeking to alter the election certification process in the state were illegal and could create chaos on Election Day.

The lawsuit claims that the board intended to give local election officials a broad license to “hunt for purported election irregularities of any kind, potentially delaying certification and displacing longstanding (and court-supervised) processes for addressing fraud.”

The lawsuit was filed in state court by local election officials, political candidates, the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia with support from Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. The move comes weeks after the state election board voted 3-2 to pass rules to give election officials authority to conduct “reasonable inquiry” into elections before certification and to require that county election officials be given “all election related documentation” before certification. Both rules, the lawsuit argues, create the impression that local election officials have discretionary power over certifying election results.

The political spotlight has pivoted back to Georgia in recent weeks, since President Biden withdrew from the presidential race and polls have shown Ms. Harris closing the gap with former President Donald J. Trump in the critical swing state. The increasingly close nature of the race there has thrust the actions of the state election board to center stage.

Members of the board who voted to pass the new rules said that they would not permit officials to ignore deadlines for certification set by state law. But the lawsuit notes that some local election officials in Georgia have already sought to delay or refuse certification, and that the new measures add to a legal uncertainty that undermines the entire election process across the state.

“These novel requirements introduce substantial uncertainty in the postelection process and — if interpreted as their drafters have suggested — invite chaos by establishing new processes at odds with existing statutory duties,” the lawsuit argues.

The suit is asking the court to clearly state that certification is mandatory and cannot be delayed by election officials. It also seeks clarification that the courts, and not local election boards, are the venue for resolving disputes about alleged irregularities or fraud.

Delaying certification, the lawsuit argues, could also result in “mass disenfranchisement of eligible, registered Georgians.”

In a statement announcing the lawsuit, Democrats pointed to praise that members of the state election board received from Mr. Trump, and recalled the Trump effort to overturn the result in Georgia in 2020.

“The three members Donald Trump called his ‘pit bulls’ for ‘victory’ disagree, and they’re determined to establish a new power of not certifying an election result should their preferred candidate lose — as he did in 2020,” said Representative Nikema Williams, the chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia.

Members of the state board of election did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit lands months after right-wing election activists obtained a 3-2 majority on the state election board, and began passing a host of rules and regulations that aligned with conservative goals.

During meetings in which both rules were passed, election officials from across the state weighed in, saying that some of the board’s proposals would create difficulties for local election officials so close to the election and cause unneeded extra work and costs.

In a statement, Quentin Fulks, a deputy campaign manager for Ms. Harris, framed the new rules as part of a broader effort by Republicans “to lay the groundwork to challenge the election results when they lose again in November.”

The shift in the board, and the new rules, have alarmed Democrats, voting-rights groups and even some Republicans, who have said that the board has exceeded its authority.

Brad Raffensperger, the Republican secretary of state, chastised the state election board this month, stating that the last-minute changes were undermining confidence in elections and risking the integrity of the election.

“Activists seeking to impose last-minute changes in election procedures outside of the legislative process undermine voter confidence and burden election workers,” Mr. Raffensperger said in a statement. “Misguided attempts by the State Election Board will delay election results and undermine chain of custody safeguards. Georgia voters reject this 11th-hour chaos, and so should the unelected members of the State Election Board.”

An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of a deputy campaign manager for Vice President Kamala Harris. He is Quentin Fulks, not Quinten Fulks. The story also mis-characterized Mr. Fulk’s statement. He said that Georgia’s new election rules -- not the Democrats’ lawsuit -- were part of a broader effort by Republicans “to lay the groundwork to challenge the election results.”

How we handle corrections

Jill Stein will remain on the ballot in Wisconsin after a court order.

Jill Stein, the presidential candidate for the Green Party, will remain on the ballot in Wisconsin, the state’s Supreme Court said, after the court declared a Democratic technical challenge to her ballot access moot on Monday.

The three-page order, left unsigned by members of the court, represented a significant victory for Ms. Stein’s third-party presidential bid, as the Green Party had been disqualified from the ballot in Wisconsin in 2020 . The presence of Ms. Stein — a minor left-wing candidate — on the ballot could also pose a risk to Vice President Kamala Harris’s prospects in Wisconsin, which has been won on razor-thin margins in recent presidential races.

David Strange, a staff member of the Democratic National Committee, filed a complaint to the Wisconsin Elections Commission this month asserting that the Green Party was ineligible to place a presidential candidate on the ballot because the party had no candidates for state office, or state officeholders, who could nominate presidential electors — those who officially cast votes for a presidential candidate in the Electoral College.

The order by the state’s Supreme Court, which offered few details for its reasoning, said that it had determined “that the petitioner is not entitled to the relief he seeks” and that “all other pending motions are denied as moot.”

An election last year in Wisconsin , the most expensive judicial election in American history, was won by a liberal judge and tipped the balance of the court from the conservatives.

The decision on Monday represents the latest legal battle over ballot access for third-party candidates, which both Democrats and Republicans believe could shape the outcome of the election by pulling support from Ms. Harris and former President Donald J. Trump in key states like Wisconsin. Democrats had made significant efforts to undermine Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ballot access — concerned that he could draw more support from Democrats than Republicans — before he ended his independent presidential candidacy and backed Mr. Trump.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton lost to Mr. Trump in Wisconsin by a margin of 22,748 votes . Ms. Stein, who was also the Green Party candidate in 2016, won 31,072 votes while Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate, won 106,674 votes that year. Mr. Biden won the state by 20,682 votes in 2020 after the Green Party candidate failed to qualify.

Michael Gold

Trump hits Harris over ‘humiliation’ in the military’s Afghanistan exit.

Former President Donald J. Trump wrapped himself in military imagery on Monday, attacking the Biden administration over its withdrawal from Afghanistan. Observing the third anniversary of a deadly suicide bombing in Kabul, the Afghan capital, he visited Arlington National Cemetery, then later spoke in Detroit to a gathering of National Guard members.

During his remarks in Detroit, at a conference for the National Guard Association of the United States, Mr. Trump blamed President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for the bombing and America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which he argued led to the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.

As he has attacked Democrats over foreign policy and national security issues this year, Mr. Trump, who often highlights his allegiance to the troops, has made the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 a central focus. He and his allies have pointed frequently to the suicide bombing at Abbey Gate at the Kabul airport on Aug. 26, 2021, which killed 13 American service members and as many as 170 civilians, arguing that the Biden administration’s handling of the event showed a disregard for American service members.

Still, Mr. Trump has been fending off criticism from Democrats and some veterans groups that he has been insufficiently respectful of the military and has made comments in which he has appeared to mock, attack or express disdain for service members who are wounded, captured or killed.

During their national convention, Democrats repeatedly brought up the claim that Mr. Trump, while president, called veterans “suckers” and “losers.” And this month Mr. Trump drew the ire of veterans groups after he described the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which honors civilians, as being “much better” than the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor, because service members who receive it are often severely wounded or dead.

Mr. Trump and his campaign drew a contrast on Monday between his decision to visit Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where he laid three wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknowns to honor the troops killed at the airport attack, and Ms. Harris’s role in the withdrawal.

In an interview with CNN in 2021, Ms. Harris said she was the last person in the room when Mr. Biden decided to pull out from Afghanistan. Mr. Trump has pointed to that remark as proof that she was directly involved with and bore some responsibility for the chaotic withdrawal.

In a statement on Monday, Ms. Harris mourned the loss of the 13 American soldiers killed in the airport attack and said she honored those who served in the 20-year war in Afghanistan. She also reiterated her support for Mr. Biden’s “courageous and right decision” to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

Ammar Moussa, a spokesman for the Harris campaign, attacked Mr. Trump’s leadership. “The Biden-Harris administration inherited a mess from Donald Trump,” he said in a statement. “Trump wants America to forget that he had four years to get out of Afghanistan, but failed to do it. ”

During his speech in Detroit, Mr. Trump noted that he was criticizing “not that we withdrew, but the way we did it.” He repeated his promise to demand the resignations of senior miliary officials involved in the withdrawal. He also repeated his insistence that he could bring the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to an end immediately after being elected, though he has yet to offer specific plans for doing so.

As he spoke to Air and Army National Guard officers and service members and their families, Mr. Trump insisted that Democrats were “waging war” on the “rights and liberties” that the military was deployed to defend.

And Mr. Trump, whose false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election led some of his supporters to attack the Capitol and prevent the peaceful transfer of power, insisted he would “make American democracy great again.”

Mr. Trump covered a range of topics in his Detroit speech, though he largely stayed focused on issues he could tie to the National Guard, like military concerns and foreign policy. He used the deployment of the Texas National Guard to the border as a peg for extensive remarks on immigration. And as he attacked Ms. Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, for voicing support for protesters after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, Mr. Trump bragged about supporting the deployment of the National Guard to stop looting or violence.

Still, Mr. Trump’s remarks veered occasionally into asides, including questioning Harris’s becoming the Democratic nominee without winning a vote in a primary race, accusing Democrats of weaponizing the Justice Department against him and attacking Europeans for taking advantage of America on trade.

Mr. Trump also promised to create a separate Space National Guard to work with Space Force, the military branch whose creation he oversaw. He again bragged about telling NATO members that he would not defend them from Russian aggression unless they raised their military spending. NATO members have made informal commitments to spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product on their militaries, and more than 20 of the alliance’s 32 members were on track to hit that target as of July.

But in his speech, Mr. Trump said that he would insist NATO members “spend at least 3 percent,” a target that he could not set unilaterally but that raises questions about his continued commitment to the alliance .

Mr. Trump at one point invited Tulsi Gabbard, a former congresswoman, who has since left the Democratic Party, to the stage to formally endorse him. She served two combat tours in the Middle East and is helping him with debate preparations .

After his cemetery visit earlier on Monday, he stopped at a Vietnamese restaurant in Falls Church, Va., where he appeared with Hung Cao, who is the Republican Senate candidate in the state and a retired Navy captain. Standing next to Mr. Cao, he lamented the deaths at the Abbey Gate bombing, saying “these are people that should have never been killed.”

Mr. Trump and his campaign are hoping to flip Virginia, which has not been won by a Republican in a presidential race since 2004. At the restaurant, he said he thought Mr. Cao had strong chances of winning, even though Virginia was “traditionally not necessarily for Republicans, but I’m not the average Republican and neither are you.” In front of a crowd of Asian Americans, Mr. Trump also said he believed Mr. Cao’s “name alone should get you elected, right?”

Chris Cameron contributed reporting from Falls Church, Va.

Rebecca Davis O’Brien

An administrative law judge in Georgia has kicked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. off the state’s ballot, on the grounds that the New York address listed on his petitions was invalid. He had used the same Katonah, N.Y. address for ballot petitions in many states, and earlier this month a New York judge ruled that it was a “sham.” Of course, Kennedy says he is in the process of withdrawing from the ballot in swing states , so this may be a moot point.

Trump, speaking to the National Guard Association of the United States, vowed to push for a “Space National Guard” if he is elected in November. Trump signed the bill that created Space Force, the sixth and newest branch of the U.S. military, in 2019. The association has advocated for a separate Space National Guard, arguing against incorporating existing members of the Air National Guard into Space Force.

Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman who served two combat tours in the Middle East, just formally endorsed Donald Trump in Detroit. Her endorsement is not as a surprise: Gabbard left the Democratic Party after her 2020 presidential run and has been helping Trump with debate prep.

Speaking to an association of members of the National Guard, Donald Trump accused his political opponents of having “waged war” on the rights and liberties that soldiers of the National Guard “risked your lives to defend.” Trump has repeatedly tried to portray his political opponents as antidemocratic in a bid to blunt criticism over his actions in spurring a mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Today in Detroit, he said this election was “a fight between communism and freedom, a very serious fight.”

Kid Rock, the pro-Trump musician from Michigan, just took the stage ahead of Donald Trump at an annual conference of the National Guard Association happening in Detroit. The musician, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, performed shortly before Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention and has become one of the leading entertainers to back the former president.

Maggie Astor

The Foo Fighters have joined the list of artists saying they don’t want Donald Trump to use their music: “No,” they said on X when asked if they had authorized Trump’s use of the song “My Hero” to welcome Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to a rally stage. Celine Dion issued a similar statement earlier this month, and the estate of Isaac Hayes is suing Trump for using one of his songs.

No — Foo Fighters (@foofighters) August 24, 2024

When a reporter asked if he would consider Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the post of health and human services secretary if he were re-elected, Trump said they had not talked about it. But he added that Kennedy “knows a lot about the subject,” and that he had made a good impression within the Republican Party.

Trump told members of the news media during a campaign event in Northern Virginia that he thought ABC should be “shut out” of hosting a debate, but then added that he and his team were still “thinking about” whether he should participate in the one scheduled for Sept. 10, adding that Harris and her team “also want to change the rules.”

Trump Still ‘Thinking About’ Participating in Presidential Debate

During a campaign stop in northern virginia, donald trump raised the possibility of not participating in the presidential debate with vice president kamala harris on abc news, claiming that the network’s executives and anchors were biased against him..

I think ABC is really — should be shut out. I’d much rather do it on NBC. I’d much rather do it on CBS, frankly. I think CBS is very unfair. But the best of the group — and certainly I’d do it on Fox, I’d even do it on CNN. I thought CNN treated us very fairly the last time. I think Jake Tapper was very fair and Dana Bash was very fair. They also want to change the rules. You know, the deal was we keep the same rules. Now all of a sudden, they want to make a change in the rules because she can’t answer questions. Why doesn’t she do a couple of question-answer? Why doesn’t she do something like I’m doing right now? The agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time. In that case, it was muted. I didn’t like it the last time, but it worked out fine. I mean, ask Biden how it worked out. It was fine. And I think it should be the same. We agreed to the same rules, same rules and same specifications, and I think that’s probably what it should be. But they’re trying to change it.

Trump also said it didn’t matter to him if the microphones were muted at times during his debate with Harris.

“I’d rather have it probably on,” Trump said. “But the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time.”

Theodore Schleifer

JD Vance is keeping up his aggressive fund-raising schedule on behalf of Trump, who himself doesn’t headline that many finance events. Vance had two events this weekend in the Hamptons, one a Sunday dinner hosted by Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets. Tomorrow he’s headed to a fund-raiser in Nashville, and on Thursday he has one in Dade City, Fla. After Labor Day, he’ll hit fund-raisers in Phoenix (Sept. 5) and Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., (Sept. 6); an event hosted by the tech investor David Sacks in Los Angeles (Sept. 8); and an event in Manhattan hosted by another tech investor, Keith Rabois, and his husband, Jacob Helberg (Sept. 12).

For the wreath laying at Arlington National Cemetery, Trump was accompanied by two marines who were injured in the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan: Cpl. Kelsee Lainhart, who was paralyzed in the attack and now uses a wheelchair, and Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, who lost his right arm and left leg.

Trump has just laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in honor of Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, a marine killed in the Abbey Gate bombing three years ago during the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Among those present at this wreath ceremony is Tulsi Gabbard, a former congresswoman and Democrat who has rebranded herself as a celebrity among Trump’s supporters. She is also helping Trump prepare for his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump laid three wreaths at the tomb, two honoring Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover and Sgt. Nicole Gee — two marines killed in the Abbey Gate bombing — and another wreath dedicated to all 13 service members who were killed in the attack.

Michael M. Grynbaum and Maggie Astor

Trump tussles with Harris over the ABC debate.

At the weigh-in before a big bout, prizefighters often taunt their opponents in an effort to try to psych them out.

So it goes with the presidential pugilists set to meet next month in the city of Rocky Balboa.

The Harris and Trump campaigns squabbled on Monday over the ground rules of their coming ABC News debate in Philadelphia, with each side trying to score political points off the other. And within hours, the Trump campaign found its argument undermined by an unlikely foil: Mr. Trump himself.

The tussle began on Sunday when former President Donald J. Trump blasted ABC in a social media post, suggesting that the network’s anchors and executives were biased against him and threatening, not for the first time, to pull out of the event. “I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?” Mr. Trump wrote.

Then, on Monday, Ms. Harris’s campaign went public with an effort to change one of the agreed-upon conditions for the debate: that each candidate’s microphone be muted when it isn’t their turn to speak.

“We have told ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast,” Brian Fallon, a spokesman for the Harris campaign, told Politico.

He added a dig for good measure: “Our understanding is that Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own.”

Jason Miller, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, shot back. “ABC offered the exact same debate rules as CNN, and we accepted — as did the Harris camp,” he wrote, referring to the CNN debate between Mr. Trump and President Biden in June, when the muted microphones rule was in effect.

Mr. Miller tossed in a gibe of his own: “Now, after the Harris campaign has begun debate prep, they’re clearly concerned about what they’re seeing from Harris’ performance.”

But when Mr. Trump was asked about the microphone issue by reporters in Virginia, he seemed to back away from the fierce objections of his team.

He told members of the news media that it “doesn’t matter to me” whether the microphones were muted, adding, “I’d rather have it probably on. But the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time.” Mr. Trump also said that ABC should be “shut out” of hosting the debate, while adding he was still “thinking about” whether he should participate.

For its part, ABC News declined to comment.

When Mr. Biden was the Democratic nominee, his team pushed hard for the muted microphones rule, arguing that Mr. Trump could not be trusted to stay silent when Mr. Biden was speaking.

But Ms. Harris was not in charge of the campaign at that point. Her camp’s reversal on the muting rule seems intended to underscore reports that the vice president’s rise in the polls has rattled Mr. Trump. (Mr. Trump has vociferously denied those reports.) One of Ms. Harris’s standout moments in her 2020 vice-presidential debate came when Mike Pence, on a live microphone, seemed to interrupt her, prompting a memorable rejoinder from Ms. Harris: “I’m speaking.”

Mr. Trump has called for his own variations on the debate rules, urging Ms. Harris to participate in a debate sponsored by Fox News “ with a full arena audience .”

For decades, the televised forums were organized by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. But this year, the commission was sidelined when Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump agreed to negotiate directly with television networks, and to hold the events earlier than the commission had scheduled. The candidates agreed to a debate on CNN on June 27, and a debate on ABC News on Sept. 10.

The exact format and ground rules of the ABC debate have been in flux, but both campaigns have broadly agreed to a format similar to that of the CNN debate that took place between Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump. More than 51 million Americans watched that debate live, by far the biggest audience of any political event this year, a sign of how consequential the televised forums can be in a tight presidential race.

ABC’s debate is scheduled to last for 90 minutes and be held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The ABC anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis are the moderators.

Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump have never debated face-to-face. Ms. Harris’s team has signaled it is open to another debate in October, but no plans have been set. Several television networks are jockeying for the right to host that debate if it does ultimately occur.

Michael Gold , Jonathan Swan , Chris Cameron and Reid J. Epstein contributed reporting.

Former President Donald Trump will attend a wreath-laying ceremony this morning at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia to honor 13 American troops who were killed in the Abbey Gate bombing during the withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago. Trump has frequently cited the bombing and the death toll to criticize President Biden and his handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Vance defends tariffs and claims Trump would veto a national abortion ban.

Senator JD Vance of Ohio, former President Donald J. Trump’s running mate, denied in an interview with NBC News on Sunday that tariffs had caused higher costs for Americans, as economists have documented, and said he believed Mr. Trump would veto a federal abortion ban, trying to blunt two potent lines of attack from Democrats.

Mr. Vance also equivocated when asked repeatedly whether the mass deportations of undocumented migrants Mr. Trump has called for would involve separating families.

In a lengthy exchange on tariffs, Mr. Vance denied that the tariffs Mr. Trump had imposed during his first term in office had raised prices for Americans, though data shows they did , and maintained that they had brought a significant number of jobs back to the United States, though data shows they didn’t .

“When Kamala Harris says if we do the thing that Trump already did, it’s going to be way worse than it was last time, I just don’t think that makes a lot of sense,” he said, adding, “Donald Trump already did it, he brought a lot of jobs back, and it didn’t cause inflation.”

In response to follow-up questions from NBC’s Kristen Welker, Mr. Vance described the theoretical argument for tariffs — that they would encourage companies to produce goods domestically by punishing them for importing from countries, he said, like China.

Mr. Vance did not acknowledge a nonpartisan study by the National Bureau of Economic Research showing that Mr. Trump’s tariffs did not accomplish that goal. At one point, Mr. Vance suggested that even if consumers did end up paying more, it wouldn’t matter because the higher costs would be offset by higher wages.

The Biden administration has adopted some of Mr. Trump’s protectionist trade policies, keeping in place many of his tariffs and adding new ones. But since replacing Mr. Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, Ms. Harris has denounced Mr. Trump’s proposals to expand tariffs. She has not said specifically which of the existing ones she would keep or remove.

Ms. Welker also asked whether Mr. Vance could say definitively that, if elected, he and Mr. Trump would not “impose a federal ban on abortion.”

“I can absolutely commit to that,” he said. He added, when asked if that meant Mr. Trump would veto a bill like the 15-week ban Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, has proposed, “If you’re not supporting it as the president of the United States, you fundamentally have to veto it.”

Mr. Vance — who had expressed support for national abortion restrictions before he was Mr. Trump’s running mate — went on to try to parse the meaning of the word “ban.” Mr. Graham’s bill would ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks’ gestation, but Mr. Vance said that “Lindsey Graham himself has not advocated a federal abortion ban. Lindsey Graham has advocated a federal minimum standard.” (Mr. Vance added that Mr. Trump didn’t support that either.)

Appearing on NBC immediately after the Vance interview aired, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said Democrats should not trust Mr. Vance’s or Mr. Trump’s recent pledges not to pursue a national abortion ban, given that Mr. Trump has boasted about appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and that Mr. Vance urged the Justice Department last year to enforce the 1873 Comstock Act to stop the mailing of abortion pills.

“American women are not stupid,” Ms. Warren said, “and we are not going to trust the futures of our daughters and granddaughters to two men who have openly bragged about blocking access to abortion.”

In one of the most contentious portions of Mr. Vance’s interview, Ms. Welker asked him three times whether families would be separated under Mr. Trump’s proposed mass deportations of undocumented migrants — a possibility, for example, when one member of a family is in the country illegally and others are not. Mr. Vance did not give a direct answer.

He obliquely acknowledged the possibility before claiming, without providing evidence, that the Biden-Harris administration’s policies were separating more families than a Trump-Vance administration would.

“I think that families are currently being separated, and you’re certainly going to have to deport some people in this country,” he said.

“So that’s a yes?” Ms. Welker asked.

“No,” Mr. Vance said.

He added, “You start with the most violent criminals,” before revisiting his claims that the policies of the Biden administration had allowed children to fall into the hands of drug cartels and sex traffickers.

Mr. Vance also said he was glad Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had endorsed the Trump ticket . Mr. Kennedy has said, falsely, that vaccines cause autism, linked antidepressants to school shootings and refused to “take sides on 9/11 or any of the other debates.”

“There are things that Robert Kennedy has said that I disagree with. I’m sure there are things that I’ve said that he’s going to disagree with,” he said. “But I think what his endorsement represents is that Donald J. Trump’s Republican Party is a big-tent party.”

Jasmine Crockett at DNC says race is between career prosecutor and career criminal

The Dallas freshman congresswoman took to the national convention stage to ridicule former President Donald Trump and extol Vice President Kamala Harris.

U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, speaks at the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on Aug. 19, 2024.

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CHICAGO — U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett , D-Dallas, blasted former President Donald Trump as a “career criminal” while speaking at the Democratic National Convention on Monday, contrasting his record with Vice President Kamala Harris’ career as a prosecutor and former California attorney general.

“One candidate worked at McDonald’s, while she was in college at an HBCU. The other was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and helped his daddy in the family business: Housing discrimination,” Crockett said to boisterous laughter. “She became a career prosecutor, while he became a career criminal, with 34 felonies, two impeachments, and one porn star to prove it.”

“Kamala Harris has a résumé. Donald Trump has a rap sheet,” Crockett said. “She presides over the Senate, while he keeps national secrets next to his thinking chair — y’all know what I said the other time — in Mar-A-Lago .”

Crockett was the first Texan in Congress to speak on the DNC main stage. Her presence on the convention program punctuated her exceptional political rise . She is a freshman member of the U.S. House, running for Congress after serving only one term in the Texas House. She has broken out as a viral messenger on Democratic priorities, often clashing with Republicans in public committee hearings.

Crockett’s acumen as a party messenger showed early signs as a state representative, when she became one of the Democrats' key spokespeople for the 2021 state House Democratic quorum break to stall the passage of Republican-led voting legislation. Before elected office, Crockett was a public defense attorney practicing civil rights law.

She alluded to her past as a public defender, saying Harris was “the kind of prosecutor we longed for.” She brought up Harris’ mandate for police officers to wear body cameras and efforts to reduce criminal recidivism.

Crockett also opened up about Harris caring for her when she was early in her time in Congress. She said Harris consoled her during their first meeting at the Vice President’s residence shortly after Crockett was elected to Congress.

“When I first got to Congress, I wasn't sure I made the right decision,” Crockett said. “That chaos caucus couldn’t elect a speaker and the Oversight Committee was unhinged.”

“She saw right through me. She saw the distress. I immediately began crying,” Crockett continued, holding back tears. “And the most powerful woman in the world wiped my tears and listened. She then said, among other things, ‘You are exactly where God wants you.’ ”

Crockett went on: “The next month, I went viral for the first of many times to come.”

Crockett made a quiet allusion to one of her most famous viral moments where she pushed back at U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, for mocking her appearance during a committee hearing. During that meeting, Crockett indirectly said Greene had a “bleach blonde, bad built, butch body.”

“The question before us is, will a vindictive, vile villain violate voters’ vision for a better America or not?” Crockett said, giving a knowing smile as the crowd burst into laughter. “I hear alliteration is back in style.”

Other Texans who were on the agenda Monday included Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Democratic abortion rights activist Amanda Zurawski. The first Texan to take the main stage of the national convention was country singer Mickey Guyton, a native of Arlington, who performed “ All American .”

Hidalgo, who leads the most populous county in the state, praised Harris for visiting Texas the same week she launched her campaign to distribute FEMA aid in the wake of Hurricane Beryl. Hidalgo also praised Harris for the Biden administration’s work on climate policy, which sent “at least a billion dollars to help us with” protecting “our communities from extreme weather.”

“We deserve leaders who acknowledge the threats, heck, the existence of climate change,” Hidalgo said. “We deserve tough leaders who have our backs. We deserve compassionate leaders ready to help. That’s Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.”

Zurawski sued Texas over its restrictive abortion laws after doctors refused to end her compromised pregnancy, jeopardizing her life. The Texas Supreme Court ruled against her, galvanizing her to advocate abortion access. She has been a surrogate for the Biden and Harris campaign, traveling with the campaign around the country.

She appeared on the stage with her husband Josh on Monday night.

“Every time I share our story, my heart breaks,” Amanda Zurawski said. “For the baby girl we wanted desperately. For the doctors and nurses who couldn’t help me deliver her safely. For Josh, who feared he would lose me, too. But I was lucky. I lived.”

Zurawski pointed out that more than a third of American women of reproductive age live under an abortion ban.

“We need to vote as if lives depend on it,” she continued. “Because they do.”

The Texans shared the convention stage with some of the biggest names in the Democratic Party. President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, and U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jim Clyburn were all on the Monday evening program.

Clinton, who was the 2016 Democratic nominee for president, cast Harris as continuing the effort she led as the first woman nominated by a major American party.

“Together, we’ve put a lot of cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling,” Clinton said, alluding to her concession speech in 2016. “On the other side of that glass ceiling is Kamala Harris raising her hand and taking the oath of office as our 47th president of the United States.”

Harris also made a brief, surprise appearance on stage to thunderous applause and Beyoncé’s “ Freedom ,” which has been an anthem of her campaign. Harris thanked Biden for passing the torch to the next generation by stepping off the ticket.

“Joe, thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifetime of service to our nation and for all you will continue to do,” Harris said. “We are forever grateful to you.”

The full program is now LIVE for the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival , happening Sept. 5–7 in downtown Austin. Explore the program featuring more than 100 unforgettable conversations on topics covering education, the economy, Texas and national politics, criminal justice, the border, the 2024 elections and so much more. See the full program.

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Information about the authors

Matthew Choi

Washington correspondent.

[email protected]

@matthewichoi

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Politics Jasmine Felicia Crockett Texas Democratic Party

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Critical thinking, Resume design, Interpersonal skills
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COMMENTS

Critical Thinking Skills for Resume: Definition, Importance Examples
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.
How can you Show Critical Thinking Skills on your Resume?
1. Learn to ask basic questions. One of the best ways to develop critical thinking skills is to train yourself to ask more questions, even about basic things. By focusing on the who, what, when, where, and why of a situation or problem, you can often cut through complex possibilities and get to the heart of the issue.
How to Show Critical Thinking Skills on Your Resume
Provide examples and results. 3. Use keywords and phrases. 4. Tailor your resume to the role. Be the first to add your personal experience. 5. Here's what else to consider. Critical thinking is ...
Critical Thinking Skills: Definition and Examples
How to demonstrate critical thinking skills when applying for a job. When it comes to knowing what skills to put on your resume, remember that you need a balance of soft and hard skills.Critical thinking is one of the essential soft skills you need to succeed at work. Compared to hard skills (those learned through education and training), soft skills are harder to demonstrate to employers ...
How to Highlight Critical Thinking Skills on Your Resume
There are many ways to highlight your capacity for critical thinking by featuring more specific types of skills on your resume. For instance, data analysis and data-driven decision-making skills draw attention to your ability to analyze and interpret findings critically. By featuring skill sets that are more grounded in your field, you'll be ...
Critical Thinking Skills [Examples & Tips]
Critical thinking skills include a wide range of abilities, including analytical skills, problem-solving, and decision-making. Embracing a growth mindset and seeking new knowledge are great tactics for improving your critical thinking skills. Using critical thinking skills in the workplace involves employing logical reasoning, data analysis and ...
The 6 Best Critical Thinking Skills To Add to Your Resume
1. Use action verbs that highlight critical thinking. Action verbs can bring your critical thinking skills to life and make your resume more engaging. Instead of using generic verbs like "did" or "made," opt for more dynamic verbs such as "analyzed," "formulated," "assessed," or "strategized." 2.
How to Show Essential Critical Thinking Skills in Your Resume ...
Demonstrate that you are good at prioritizing by selecting the essential experience points in your resume. Use action verbs that indicate critical thinking, like "analyze" and "conclude." Prove that you solved problems and made critical decisions by providing appropriate examples. Let the results speak for you as a professional.
Critical Thinking Skills for Your Resume + Examples
So, critical thinking skills enable you to analyze and evaluate information effectively, enhancing your ability to solve problems creatively and make decisions based on logical reasoning and factual analysis. Open-mindedness, collaboration and analysis are all key critical thinking skills that enable you to be an innovative thinker and worker.
6 Critical Thinking Skills to Supercharge Your Resume
4. Decision-Making. Critical thinking skills allow you to sift through information and make well-informed decisions. For example, if your job is a customer service representative, you need to make decisions when people call to complain about a product.
Critical Thinking Skills to Include in Your Resume in 2024
The best way to demonstrate your critical thinking skills in your resume is through specific examples of notable achievements and results obtained. Some of the most prominent critical thinking skills include observation, analysis, inference, evaluation, problem-solving, and open-mindedness. There are many ways to improve these skills, including ...
Critical Thinking Skills for a Resume in 2022 with 10+ Examples
Add Keywords to Your Resume. If critical thinking is a key phrase in the job listing, then emphasize critical thinking skills throughout your job search. Use critical thinking keywords such as analytical, problem solving, creativity, etc. Include the top critical thinking skills that best describe you in your work experience and resume summary.
What Are Critical Thinking Skills (& How to Develop Them)
8. Creative Thinking. Creativity is a valuable skill that's closely related to critical thinking, and it's handy regardless of your line of work or level of experience. After all, it lets you develop innovative ideas, make processes more efficient, and generally drive innovation in the workplace. 9.
How to Show Off Your Critical Thinking Skills and Land the Job
Show how your critical thinking skills played an important role in the successful outcome of a project. Use powerful verbs like "identified," "analyzed" and "managed" to describe your efforts. For example, if you were tasked with creating a logo for a new product, you might mention how studying the competition, interviewing ...
9+ Critical Thinking Skills & Examples for the Workplace
Active listening skills. Attentiveness. Empathy. Optimism. Taking initiative. 2. Analysis. An important aspect of critical thinking is carefully examining different types of information before making a choice. For instance, selecting the most relevant facts to use in a research paper shows you're an analytical thinker.
Top [20+] Critical Thinking Skills for Your Resume
Communication. Good communication skills help collect all the information needed to solve a problem or make a decision, making it a crucial ability for critical thinking. Communication skills include: Active listening. Nonverbal cues. Writing. Clarity. Conciseness.
5 Top Critical Thinking Skills (And How To Improve Them)
Here are some steps you can take when using critical thinking for problem-solving at work: Identify a problem or issue. Create inferences on why the problem exists and how it can be solved. Collect information or data on the issue through research. Organize and sort data and findings. Develop and execute solutions.
7 Best Problem-Solving Skills for Your Resume + Examples
3. Critical-thinking. Critical thinking is the ability to process details with a particular flow and draw connections between concepts and facts. In other words, it's "thinking about thinking" - or finding and fixing flaws in the way we think. The ability to think critically is the foundation of problem solving.
Critical thinking skills: What are they and why do ...
Thinking through a difficult problem with a logical and unbiased approach lies at the heart of great decision making. Critical thinking skills are highly prized by all employers, so make sure to talk about them during your job search. Being able to conceptualize, analyze and evaluate information to generate appropriate outcomes is the primary ...
Critical Thinking Skills for a Resume
The Seven Steps of Critical Thinking. 1. Identify the problem or question. Be as precise as possible: the narrower the issue, the easier it is to find solutions or answers. 2. Gather data, opinions, and arguments. Try to find several sources that present different ideas and points of view. 3.
How To Include Problem-Solving Skills on Your Resume
Here are a few ways you can highlight problem-solving skills on a resume: 1. Mention them in your work history section. When writing your work history, mention times when your problem-solving skills made a positive impact, such as saving the company time and money.
How to Show Creative Thinking Skills on Your Resume
Creative thinking: key takeaways for your resume. Keep it short and sweet - use keywords and phrases to connect your experience with the job ad requirements, and don't write walls of texts. Use bullet points and to-the-point sentences to prove how original and inventive you are.
How to Emphasize Strategic Thinking Skills on Your Resume
Strategic thinking requires research, analytical thinking, innovation, problem-solving skills, communication and leadership skills. Research skills are the ability to find and evaluate useful information related to the project you are working on. Understanding the environment and providing answers underneath the surface of the issue.
10 Most In-Demand Soft Skills to Put on Your Resume
You could say something like, "Used strategic thinking skills by analyzing user engagement data and running an A/B test that resulted in increased engagement of 20 percent." For more resume advice ...
18 Résumé Writing Tips to Help You Stand Out
"I always say, spend less of your real estate describing your job, and more time describing your results," says Ms. Noel. 2. Customize your résumé. Read over the job posting, and think about the work experience you have had that is most directly relevant to the position you are pursuing.
Donald Trump lashes out as DNC attacks throw him off message
Donald Trump isn't in Chicago but his presence hangs over everything and he is clearly following events here. Ahead of Kamala Harris's speech on Thursday, a couple of Trump aides told me, a little ...
Critical Thinking AI in Cybersecurity: A Stretch or a Possibility?
Needless to say, when we talk about critical thinking technology, its purpose will be to aid humans in making decisions that require more than a yes or no answer and to go beyond the current logic ...
At Military-Themed Event, Trump Slams Harris Over Afghanistan: Election
Ms. Welker also asked whether Mr. Vance could say definitively that, if elected, he and Mr. Trump would not "impose a federal ban on abortion." "I can absolutely commit to that," he said.
Jasmine Crockett blasts Trump as a "career criminal" at DNC
Crockett's acumen as a party messenger showed early signs as a state representative, when she became one of the Democrats' key spokespeople for the 2021 state House Democratic quorum break to ...

Critical Thinking Skills for Resume: Definition, Importance Examples

What Are Critical Thinking Skills?

Why Are Critical Thinking Skills In Demand By Employers

List Of Critical Thinking Skills For Your Resume

Observation

Problem-Solving

Communication

Strategic Thinking

Critical Evaluation

Continuous Learning

How To Improve Critical Thinking Skills

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The 6 Best Critical Thinking Skills To Add to Your Resume

3 key takeaways

What is critical thinking, and why is it important?

Top 6 critical thinking skills

1. Questioning

Add critical thinking skills to your work experience with Teal

2. Creativity

3. Analysis

4. Decision-making

5. Communication

6. Leadership

How to add critical thinking skills to your resume or cover letter

1. Use action verbs that highlight critical thinking

2. Integrate critical thinking into your brand

3. Use real-world scenarios and projects

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6 Critical Thinking Skills to Supercharge Your Resume

Table of Contents

6 essential critical thinking skills

What are critical thinking skills and why are they important?

1. Questioning

2. Creativity

3. Analysis

4. Decision-Making

5. Communication

6. Leadership

1. Use keywords

2. Highlight examples

3. Describe your process

4. Use action words

5. Focus on transferability

6. Use numbers and data

How can you develop your critical thinking skills?

1. Read, read, read

2. Challenge your own beliefs and assumptions

3. Weigh the pros and cons

4. Consider different interpretations

5. Practice active listening

6. Be willing to change your mind

7. Ask questions

8. Practice, practice, practice

Related Articles

What Are Critical Thinking Skills?

Why is Critical Thinking Important?

Why is Critical Thinking Important In a Workplace?

How Would You Demonstrate Critical Thinking Skills in Your Job Search?

Use Critical Thinking While Looking for Jobs

Add Keywords to Your Resume

Demonstrate Critical Thinking in the Experience Section