Including hobbies and interests in your CV is a bit of a contentious issue. Some employers and recruiters are not interested in your achievements or pastimes outside of work or academia. However, others consider additional interests to be an essential element in determining whether you are a well-rounded individual and therefore an appropriate fit for their organisation.
Quality over quantity is key when considering having hobbies and interests on your CV. Did you just add all of your hobbies to your CV? If yes, stop for a moment and think: how are these relevant to a recruiter? For instance, adding that you were the captain of your football or rugby team at a high level would be relevant to applying for a Team Lead type position. But saying your interests are walking, reading, keeping or hanging out with friends are generic and don’t add any value other than taking up space.
Advantages
• The interviewer could share a similar interest to you, and would be a good ice breaker or small talk topic either at the start or end of an interview
• Including group sports such as football, rugby, basketball, or Hockey, etc. show that you are able to work as a team member in pursuit of a common goal. While this is a desirable quality in most industries, it might be especially useful in team-based environments.
Disadvantages
• They may not have anything to do with a job and take up valuable space on a CV.
• If the hobbies & interests on your CV are generic like reading, walking etc. it can be seen as just a space filler
Whether or not to include Hobbies & Interests on your CV ultimately comes down to opinion, and different recruiters and HR professionals opinions will vary. But in my opinion, if you are going to include a Hobbies & Interests section, make it relevant and stand out.
To read three tips on how to make your interests more interesting on your CV, please click here >>>
