Adding Hobbies in Resume: The Not-so-Conventional Way
They say adding your hobbies to a resume is a waste of time, but what if you actually land a job by adding some?
Is it okay to list hobbies on a resume?
The one question every job seeker has on their mind when writing a resume.
However, employers have contradictory views regarding this particular thing. Some say that they don’t show the least bit of interest in the hobbies section of your resume.
Meanwhile, many recruiters say that going through robotic, result-claimed resumes filled with power words is rather tiring.
According to a Reddit user, a good look into the hobbies of a job applicant gives in into the character of the person one will hire.
Without further ado, let’s discover the conventional way to add hobbies in a resume, the unconventional one, and how to use it to crack an interview and eventually land that dream job!
When to list hobbies in Resume (The conventional way)
Before hopping onto the rule-book of the conventional way, let’s figure out the preferences of a majority of job seekers while writing a resume.
What do job seekers mostly add to their resumes?
The following sections are preferably added by job seekers in their ATS-friendly resume in a chronological order:
- Professional summary
- List of professional experience
- Educational background
- Projects that are relevant to their core competencies
- List of certifications/achievements
- Soft skills
Most of the job seekers play it safe by avoiding the hobbies and interests section when they have enough professional experience to back up their capabilities.
Moreover, if a hobbies section expands your resume to a second page with no other data, this might not be your smartest choice!
But if you lack in some of the earlier-mentioned sections, adding hobbies might give you leverage. Let’s quickly figure out the cases where adding hobbies might turn the tables for you, such as:
- Minimal or Zero Work Experience: If you’re a fresh graduate or someone who has never had a chance to work, adding hobbies will provide insights to employers regarding your skills.
- Just started with Professional Career: If you’re someone seeking internships or entry-level positions in any organization, you might lack work experience, so an addition of your hobbies that highlight skills like leadership, teamwork, and so on can be great.
- Changed Career Path: If you’re someone who wants to explore a different career and didn’t have any work experience for that, adding a hobby section that highlights the skills required in that particular career will be helpful.
Adding hobbies to a resume can help you show your personality better and might give you an edge when it comes to getting an interview call.
However, according to industry experts, there are some specific rules that one must follow when writing about hobbies in their resume.
Standard rules to follow while adding hobbies
- Relevancy to Job prospects: It is important to review a job post before adding anything to your resume. Tailoring the sections with relevance to a job post will help you determine and figure out what hobbies can be listed to emphasize transferable skills.
- Highlight your soft skills: Employers are always on the lookout for crucial skills such as communication, leadership, teamwork, and analytical thinking when hiring people. You’ve to make sure that your listed hobbies highlight them.
- Present you as a cultural fit: Employers want to know about the individual beliefs of a person to see whether they’re worth working with, and the hobbies section helps with that.
What is the Not-so-Conventional Way?
When it comes to adding hobbies to a resume, the most important tip is to focus on the relevancy factor and be specific when listing your hobbies, as discussed earlier.
However, sometimes you do possess the skills that are relevant to a particular job you’re seeking, but you lack the particular experience required to get it.
This seems to be the case when you’re just starting out or have graduated recently. Rather than letting go of an opportunity that sounds good, why not use a different approach?
According to career counselors and industry experts, you shouldn’t add hobbies that are not directly relevant to a job prospect, but sometimes there are certain skills you build while doing a hobby that could help you with the work opportunity you’re seeking.
For example, as a writer who shifted from writing fiction to an entirely different, advertising-related genre of writing, such as copywriting, I built the skills often needed for copywriting.
Here’s the point: writing fiction doesn’t entirely mean that you just name characters and decide the starting and ending of a story.
It means having the patience, developing a refined thought process, target audience analysis, working on a storytelling approach, and so on.
So rather than simply stating a one or two-word hobby, slightly add the skills you developed by doing it.
If we look at another example, people often ask on the internet whether they can list going to the gym as a hobby in their resume.
Let’s say on the surface it feels quite generic or somewhat funny, but listing it for a sport-related job or otherwise a work opportunity that demands fitness, you can add it while giving a context that it helped you in building discipline and consistent routines.
Checklist to determine the worth of your hobby
Here’s a tiny list of questions for you to evaluate whether listing a unique hobby in your resume is actually worth it.
- Does the hobby have possible connotations with the work opportunity you’re seeking?
- Can it highlight the skills required for the job?
- Does it give a peek into your personality?
- Does it contradict your personal values and company beliefs?
- Does it highlight your work ethic?
Conclusion
Hobbies in your resume can be used to share your personality, highlight crucial skills that you possess, and might give you an edge if you are missing out on experience required to get a job.
So, what’s that one hobby you’re planning to add to your resume?
Frequently Asked Questions
Q.1 Should I include hobbies in my resume?
Yes, you can, if you lack specific professional experience and knowledge related to the industry.
Q.2 What hobbies should I mention in my resume as a fresher?
Add the hobbies that highlight the skills relevant to the job application you seek.
Q.3 What is the difference between hobbies and interests?
Hobbies are considered activities you enjoy and perform in your free time; meanwhile, interests are the phenomena or ideas that excite you to dig in deeper to understand a topic.