Hobbies and Interests on your CV? Do or Don’t??
It is a question I get asked quite a lot and it can be quite a controversial one? We think of the scenario in our heads. We visualise the head of family scrolling through my CV and I am waffling on about how I like to run 10km every Sunday and beat my times each week?? Relevant?? Mmm that is what we need to decide.
Personally, when I meet my candidates I am always interested to know a little more about them than just how many files they manage and the targets they reached last year. I want to get to know them more so that when I am marketing them to my clients I am marketing a person not a CV. Sounds Cliché of course it does but it’s just the way it is.
Recently I interviewed a Senior partner for a role in the Cheshire region and we chatted over coffee through his CV and experience to date. He is a partner so an element of his role was interviewing people for his department over time and he said that hobbies and interests on a CV he felt were very important.
He said it gives you a slight preview of the type of person they are, achievements are also of great interest to him not necessarily work based achievements but sporting ones or awards and achievements from societies they may be involved in outside of work.
It is also worth being honest about your hobbies and interests, for example sometimes people just list, going to the cinema, reading and socialising. Think outside of this regular list and be honest about what your hobbies and interests are in details.
Lets take me for example! I am a fitness enthusiast and I believe this has a positive impact on my work as a recruiter. I find great energy by staying fit and healthy. From this I have achieved many sporting honours. I am also involved in a big football club where my duties involve organising big annual events, dinners, fundraising and more. These kinds of skills come in to play in my working life too. I enjoy writing and take on some weekend paper columns along with radio and TV stints (Albeit they are small scale and more hobbies than anything else) but they make up the kind of person I am. Hobbies and interests can make us more attractive to employers as well as our skills and business achievements. I say include them and in detail.