Should You List Hobbies on Your Resume?
Posted on November 3, 2006
The Ashbury Park Press has an article about the pros and cons of listing your hobbies on your resume. The article says one person believes they found a job because they listed their disc jockey hobby. The recruiter thought the DJ hobby meant the applicant had the ability to talk to people.
Derby, the DJ, told the Ashbury Park Press, "He assumed that if I was a DJ, I've got to be able to talk to people. If that hadn't been in the resume, I might not have gotten the job."
Some experts say the risks of listing hobbies may outweigh any benefit because you don't know what the employer is going to think about those hobbies. This is because you have no way of knowing what the manager reviewing your resume is going to think about them. It could help you, but it also could hurt you.
Experts that think is it acceptable to list hobbies but most experts say to keep the list small -- don't overdue it. The resume section from Boston College has a few good tips relating to hobbies.
Somehow the chess hobby sounds like a much safer hobby to list than the mud wrestling one.when your interests or hobbies are so unusual that they are bound to attract positive attention. (One recent alumna, applying for work in the investment industry, listed "mud wrestling" as a hobby. Every recruiter that interviewed her started the interview off with a question about her hobby.)
when your interests or hobbies reflect positively on your job skills. For example, if you are applying for work as a paralegal and you love chess, the recruiter may equate your hobby with analytical abilities.