Careers blog. Stay Curious: The Career Asset You Already Have

Alumni Careers Manager Konstantina Dee reflects on the power of curiosity and embracing what makes you uniquely valuable. 

Recently, I worked with an undergraduate alum who told me a story that has stayed with me. During her degree, she decided to learn the bass guitar. She already played the piano, she loved the sound, and so in her own time with her curiosity but no official training or deadline, and no one asking her to, she learnt to play the instrument in three months.

I wonder whether you can remember the last time you learned something simply because you wanted to.

In our busy professional lives, CPD can quietly shift from something we value into something we just do. Another course to complete, another box to tick, another entry on your LinkedIn profile. Reflecting on my own professional development, the coaching supervision I have been receiving recently, the conversations with fellow coaches whose areas differ significantly from mine and the questions that have sent me back to my notes at midnight, reminds me how energising learning can be especially when curiosity is driving the experience.    

In an age shaped by rapid technological change and the democratisation of AI, curiosity is no longer a nice-to-have. It is increasingly what separates professionals who remain genuinely relevant from those who simply stay busy.

Curiosity is not a personality type. It is a practice.

Often, we speak about curiosity as though it belongs to certain people. You will have a colleague, a friend, perhaps a mentor, about whom you would say without hesitation: "They are just naturally curious." Always asking questions, always reading something unexpected, always noticing what others have missed.  

But if we treat curiosity as a trait, something you either have or do not, we allow ourselves the excuse not to be curious. Organisational psychologist Todd Kashdan makes an important distinction between curiosity as a fixed trait and curiosity as a state: something that can be activated, practised, and strengthened under the right conditions. In other words, curiosity is not just something you feel. It is something you do.

In professional terms, making curious choices might look like asking for the assignment that sits outside your comfort zone. It might mean seeking feedback not to be reassured but to genuinely discover something. It might mean reading extensively outside your area of expertise or learning to sit with ambiguity a little longer before reaching for a conclusion. Small choices, practised consistently, compound into something that becomes genuinely distinctive over time.

What curious professionals do differently

Over the years, working with alumni navigating career transitions, promotions, and pivots, I have noticed that the professionals who move through change most effectively tend to share a few habits.

They build unique combinations of knowledge. Not just expertise in their main area of work but also knowledge within diverse domains. Many of you would have completed your MBA where you would have gained understanding of corporate finance while your main domain might have been marketing. At the same time curiosity might have prompted operational professionals to undertake the elective Design Thinking module. These combinations are hard to replicate precisely because they are not the result of a curriculum. They are the result of sustained curiosity across a career. So, yes, I believe, as a WBS alum you have already got a great career asset, named ‘curiosity’.

They have a point of view. Not just on the technical dimensions of their work, but on leadership in 2026, on what is shifting in their sector, on the broader forces shaping professional life. And crucially, they hold these views with confidence and openness simultaneously, calm enough to express them clearly, curious enough to update them when challenged. Some of the most memorable conversations I have had with alumni begin: "That is a good question. Let me share my thinking with you."

They build relationships to learn from. They are genuinely interested in people who think differently, who challenge their assumptions and thinking. Networking, for them, is not a job hunting strategy. It is a form of continual learning.

CPD as an act of curiosity

As many of us enter review and planning cycles, this feels like the right moment to ask an honest question: does your current CPD reflect what genuinely interests and challenges you, or does it reflect what you feel you ought to be doing?

Curiosity-led CPD is not passive. It requires you to notice what you are drawn to, to follow those interests with intention, and to review regularly what you are learning and what it is opening up. It means looking out for courses that are not only current but genuinely alive for you. It means revisiting recent learning and asking honestly: what did I take from that? What do I want to understand next?

The platforms and formats available are rich: executive education programmes, peer learning forums, podcasts, coaching, cross-sector events, reading credible publications well outside your immediate field. Learning within the WBS community happens through dialogue, connection, and showing up with genuine questions. Several invitations to do just that are outlined in this newsletter. But the filter that matters most is not the format. It is whether curiosity is doing the choosing.

You cannot be repeated

Amid all the noise about AI and what it means for professional life, I find it useful to return to something quietly philosophical: your unique combination of skills, lived experience, perspective, and curiosity.  This combination cannot be simply replicated. Your role might be redefined or restructured. But you, as a person who has moved through the world in the specific way you have, cannot be repeated.

Staying curious is not about keeping pace with technology. It is about going deeper into what only you can offer and continuing to develop it with intention.

Where to begin

If you are not sure where to start, I find these three questions useful and I invite you to sit with them for a while, before putting down your answers:

What are you curious about right now?

How could you follow that interest professionally?

What opportunities might open up if you did?

Find out more about alumni careers support.