Interests To Avoid On Your Resume
If youre on the fence about whether you should include a particular interest or hobby on your resume, its usually better to err on the side of caution.
The last thing you want to do is turn a yes into a no by including something taboo on your resume.
This means you should not include anything about your politics on your resume .
This is not to say you should avoid talking about your volunteer experience through your local church if thats a hobby of yours!
Just imagine youre meeting someone youd like to make a good impression with. If its a topic youd avoid in that conversation, then leave it off if you’d like to present a professional resume.
With that said, here is my experience including a hobby that, under different circumstances, would have been better left off my resume.
How a hobby helped me get my last job
Before I started BeamJobs with my brother and dove head-first into the world of resumes, I was a data analyst at a company called Chegg.
At that time in my life, one of my biggest hobbies was playing poker. Now, as a data nerd, I took a very data-driven approach to playing poker. I studied the game religiously to develop a deep understanding of winning strategies and probabilities.
Since I was applying for jobs as a data analyst, I thought that would be worth including as an interest on my resume. Now, I also understood poker would likely not be appropriate to include for all of my job applications.
It also highlights two important points:
Unique Hobbies And Personal Interests On Resume
Having quirky and unique hobbies and personal interests on resume is a fantastic way to gather attention!
Break through the stereotypes!
You donât need to have photography or football as a hobby.
If you are doing something out of the box, you should take pride in it. Frame it just as you would do with a common hobby or personal interests on resume.
Don’t shy away from mentioning the unusual ones. Playing the cards safely may make you stand out more.
Stating your exciting resume hobbies and resume interests makes you attractive in the cold robotic machine-driven world!
It portrays the real you and your involvement with your own self.
When someone has a unique hobby, they come across as creative.
Hobbies and personal interests on resume can become the central point of discussion in an interview.
Time-consuming hobbies on resume present you as a dedicated person. They might also present you as being hard-minded and cracking a nut without any tools. Care should be taken to only state the list of resume hobbies that are not very time-consuming.
So have you been volunteering at your local bird shelter or collecting matchboxes and want to boast about it?
Don’t be afraid and** go ahead** with it.
A big thumbs up!
Should I Add Hobbies And Interests To My Cv
Yes, adding personal hobbies to your CV can strengthen your job application and increase the chances of securing a job interview. This is because recruiters invest in people they hire and work with human beings, not robots. Recruiters actively look for every clue in the candidates CVs to find out about their interests, skills and competencies.
The benefits of including your personal interests on your CV:
- It will give the recruiter a fuller and more complete picture of you
- Extracurricular interests tell the employer that you are an all-rounded person who, besides just working, also enjoys having a good time
- They form a great basis for discussion at the interview stage
- Sporting activities indicate that you are fit, healthy and outgoing
- Involvement in the community suggests good interpersonal skills
A. Candidates who should write their interests on your CVs
- School leavers
- Candidates with little or no work experience
- Candidates who have blank space in their CVs
Remember that your CV is your personal marketing tool, and you should make the most out of using the totality of your CV, including the interests section, to sell yourself to the prospective employer.
B. Candidates who shouldnt write their interests on your CVs
- Senior professionals including managers and executives
- Candidates with a lot of work experience
- Candidates whose CVs are overflowing to more than 2 A4 pages
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Examples Of Good Hobbies For A Resume That Works
Your resume gives a clear picture of you as a person to prospective employers. A well-written resume can help you create a good impression during interviews. The hobbies that you have, help in giving a clear picture of your likes and dislikes to the interviewer. It also helps them relate your hobbies to the skills associated with the profile they have an opening in.
Though you may have multiple hobbies, yet your choice of a career will help you decide what hobbies to mention in your resume. Therefore, you need to be very specific about the major hobbies that you mention in your resume.
Here are some hobbies that you can mention in your resume and interview to leave a lasting impression and to boost your employability in the minds of interviewers:
Indoor Hobbies And Personal Interests On Resume
Only indoor hobbies on resume and indoor personal interests on resume might represent you as an introvert. This could deem you fit for profiles that do not necessarily require social interaction – coding, writing, etc.
However, some indoor hobbies on resume and personal interests on resume demonstrate good reasoning and great patience. Achievements in chess and scrabble might reflect highly on the candidate’s intelligence.
They are best suited in the fields that involve calculative risk-taking, strategic planning and analysis.
Quick tip: The unique resume hobby section lists all unique hobbies like coffee brewing, flower arranging, haiku, etc., can be a double-edged sword. It is best to avoid them on your resume if you’re applying for a managerial role that requires business-friendly skills.
However, these skills are suitable for exceptional circumstances wherein you are required to apply specifically in these areas.
List of indoor resume hobby or common indoor personal interests on resume:
| Attractive hobbies for resume |
|---|
| Yoga |
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Examples Of Hobbies In Resume That Impress The Most
Lets check out some of the most commonly listed hobbies and how to frame them in a job-friendly way.
Volunteering / board membership. Specificity is key when listing the experience on your resume but volunteering in general can give you a leg up. A recent study found that 82% of hiring managers prefer applicants with volunteer experience. It speaks to your dedication toward a team, community and reaching long-term goals for the greater good.
Photographers use both the left and right sides of their brain, composing creatively balanced images while understanding the intricate workings of a camera. Include photography under hobbies only if its a personal passion. If photography and training is part of your work experience or the job requirements, then you should elaborate more on photography in the work experience section.
Team sports. Dedication to team sports shows strong communication skills, an ability to work well under pressure, teamwork ability, and a focus on work-life balance. Business Insider reported that members of team sports teams tend to thrive in corporate offices. If you are involved in several sports teams throughout the year, try to find a way to summarize the activity in a few words without oversharing.
Ability To Rebrand Yourself
If you are looking to make a career change or you want hiring managers to see you in a different light, including hobbies can help. For example, if you received your degree in computer science but you are interested in transitioning to a marketing career, you can include skills related to photography, design, travel and community involvement to show you have the necessary creative skills.
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Mba Resume: What Hobbies Should You Include
The hobbies on your MBA resume matter, says Jenifer Turtschanow of ARINGO Admissions
Jenifer Turtschanow, CEO of ARINGO Admissions Consulting, knows how you can use your hobbies to your advantage on your MBA resume
What hobbies and interests will support my MBA application?
Dear BusinsessBecause,
I want to study an MBA, and know how important work experience, goals, and GMAT score is, but what about extra-curricular activities and hobbies?
What kind of hobbies will best prepare me for an MBA, and how should I present them in my application?
This week’s question was submitted by an anonymous reader.
The Answer
This week’s Applicant Question is answered by Jenifer Turtschanow, CEO of ARINGO Admissions Consulting.
Before we jump into which hobbies and volunteer experiences will help you stand out in a sea of applications, lets start with why these components are important to MBA programs:
Committees want to get to know the real you: Yes, youre passionate about your career, but what else fuels your soul? What makes you get out of bed on a Saturday morning after a 60-hour work week?
Teamwork: If you are in a role where you work in a silo or rarely collaborate across departments, this is where you can illustrate your ability to contribute to and work in a team.
What experience works?
Now that we have established why these are important, lets talk about what should fill that valuable real estate at the bottom of your resume.
Advantages Of Adding Hobbies And Interests To A Resume
- Employers see tons of available job position applications. Analyze and study to gather the information that both you and the prospective employer have the same hobby or interest, adding that on the application, you can link with them and will provide you a topic to explore during the interview.
- It can enable you to ensure your resume excels from the sea of applicants. Recruiters managers tend to view a lot of applications focusing on reading as an interest. But a resume that involves cooking and winning a cookie making competition in your hobby segment is extraordinary and makes your resume noticeable.
- If you are making a change in your profession or want recruiters to perceive you from a new perspective, hobbies can benefit. For instance, if you have an engineering qualification but are keen to move to a marketing arena, you may include knowledge required in art, architecture, travel, and group participation to prove that you have the requisite artistic talents.
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Kicks Two Cents Of Advice
- Be professional. Dont include any sensitive subjects such as politics, any controversial issues, religion or sex.
- Dont mention risky and time-consuming activities. Your future employer wants to have you fit and able to work. Any activities that put your life at risk or are too time-consuming may scare them.
- Dont use buzzwords.Football, reading, traveling, music, social media? Nope. If you really like reading so much that you want to mention it, at least be specific. Reading is not a unique interest. Reading 55 books a year is.
- Dont overdo it. Adding too many hobbies and interests to fill up more space isnt a good idea. Keep it simple, list only the best ones and leave the valuable space on your resume for more important information.
List Of Hobbies And Interests For Cv:
You might feel like mentioning hobbies and interests in CV is not necessary moreover it may look unprofessional. But it is not so in all cases, there are few instances where providing these things helped the candidate land up a job.
Also as many experts, including the hobbies section on the CV can help the employer know about the candidates hidden talent and attitude. This can help judge whether the candidate would be a good fit for their organization or not.
Employers nowadays are not looking for employees who just are good at their work but also look for candidates who could fit their work culture.
As pleasant work culture plays an important role in team productivity and organization success, some traits need to be analyzed carefully in the hiring process.
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Can Make You Stand Out
Along with helping you make a connection with the hiring manager, including your hobbies and interests can also help make your resume stand out. Hiring managers will likely see plenty of resumes that list reading as an interest. However, seeing a resume that includes baking and winning a cupcake decorating contest in your hobby section might be unique and help your resume be noticed.
Hobbies And Interests That Expand Your Skillset
As you are writing your resume, you may find that companies are asking for skill sets you are lacking. If so, the hobbies and interests section of your resume can help. As an example, you may be a recent college graduate who is interested in a graphic design position, but you do not have a lot of experience. However, you have a passion for photography and occasionally freelance for weddings and family portraits. You can list this hobby on your resume to show you have an eye for visual design and layout.
Similarly, say you want to reinforce certain skills on your resume because you know they are essential for the role you are interested in. This is another time your hobbies can come in handy. You can also list your volunteer work with teaching graphic design to students as a way to showcase your passion for the position.
Read more: 10 Best Skills to Include on a Resume
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Should You Include Your Hobbies On A Resume
So you know what you should and shouldnt put in a personal interest section but is it really a good idea to include hobbies on a resume?
Lots of human resource and resume experts may maintain that including a section on your resume detailing your hobbies is perhaps unprofessional or they see personal interests as irrelevant for a job application, however with the worlds business culture evolving so rapidly, it could end up being the positive edge you need to convince a hiring manager to contact you.
Your resume is your first chance at showing a potential employer what you can offer their company and that doesnt just involve your professional experience and skills but also your expertise on a range of subjects, your passions and what makes you a good candidate for the role they advertise.
If you know you have what it takes to get the job but your experience is limited, you can use your personal hobbies in a way that demonstrate your abilities that make you the appropriate candidate.
The main purpose of including your personal interests in your resume is to stand out from other candidates in the application process, make yourself memorable to the hiring manager and show them a part of your personality that speaks to them as a human being.
This helps the company or hiring manager get to know you better as a person and not just another resume with the skills and qualifications the position requires.
How To List Hobbies On A Resume
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Creative Hobbies And Interests
Now, what skills do you think someone with creative hobbies would have?
Creative people usually:
- Are able to see a challenge from a different angle
- Can make links between two projects that seem totally opposing
- Are good with big workloads, as they get bored easily
If you are applying for a position where problem-solving is one of the main tasks, listing these six hobbies and interests on your resume will be helpful. Same goes for jobs that require someone with a visual understanding of things.
If you’re looking for some extra inspiration, have a look at these resume templates.
Examples Of Hobbies And Interests To Put On A Cv
You already have limited room on your CV.
Therefore, as a general rule, your CV should only include your merits, strong suits, and overall selling points.
If you are going to add hobbies and interests to your resume, you should know which ones to include because specific hobbies say certain things about you.
Here, we take a tour through:
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Good Hobbies And Interests For A Resume
The best hobbies and interests for a resume have some form of relevance to the job you are interested in and show the hiring manager you are a good fit for the job. Examples of good hobbies and interests for a resume include:
Although you might have a variety of interests you can include on your resume, you should consider only including those that are relevant to the job. Try to limit your selection to a maximum of four or five hobbies and interests.
Read more: Listing Hobbies and Interests on Your Resume
Should You Include Hobbies Or Interests On Your Resume
Before we dive into the types of hobbies and interests you should add to your resume, we first need to answer the question of whether you should include them at all.
The primary factor in determining whether you should include an interests section on your resume is the type of role and company youre applying to.
Modern technology companies are likely to be more interested in learning about your prospective cultural fit. One great way to demonstrate that on your resume is through your hobbies.
Older, more established companies are less likely to be interested in what you do outside of work.
To determine whether you should include your interests do the following:
- Read the job description of the role youre applying to. Do they make specific mention of their company culture or the importance of cultural fit?
- If the answer is yes, thats a good indication that you should include your interests section.
- Visit the companys website. Read their about us section as well as their employment pages. Do they talk about culture or the importance of unique perspectives?
- If the answer is yes, then again its probably best you include your interests.
When it comes to your resume, not all hobbies and interests are created equal!
For example, I am an expert television show binge-watcher. If there was a binge-watching championship, I think I could win gold.
Be specific about your hobbies and interests on your resume
- Wrong: Sports
- Right: Expert at Sudoku
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