You want people who learn fast: you don't have to explain everything three times. It's not easy to detect this during an interview though. The way I would do i

You want people who learn fast: you don't have to explain everything three times. It's not easy to detect this during an interview though. The way I would do it is to focus on side-activities. If a hardware engineer built a website for a side-project, that's a good sign. Anything that shows success outside their expected space. Smart, fast learners tend to pick up random knowledge and apply it quickly and successfully. People who need hand-holding tend to know their core topic well enough (they spent years in college refining those skills), but are having difficulty learning anything outside those core topics.