How to Put Hobbies on a Resume

The debate around whether to include hobbies on a resume has been going for some time. And by the looks of things, will continue for the foreseeable future.

The discussion is most often debated among candidates rather than recruiters. For recruiters, this tiny section at the bottom of your resume is not even on their radar.

The plus side of mentioning hobbies on a resume is that they create a sense of your personality, and help employers determine if you’d be a good fit culturally. For example, if you’re applying at an outdoors retailer, talking about your passion for snowboarding could be a great conversation starter.

With that said, most of the time your hobbies and interests will be ignored.

Making a Hobbies and Interests Section on a Resume

1. Stay away from boring hobbies that almost everyone has. Saying you liketravelling,watching movies, andhanging out with friendsmakes you sound like a robot trying to convince someone they’re human.
2. Be more specific. If you like volunteering, mentioning what kind of volunteering you do will serve as a better conversation starter.
3. Change yourHobbiessection to aHobbies and Interestssection. That way you can put in some bullet points that are more relevant to the job.
4. Don’t be too job-specific. Even if you do read books on mechanical engineering in your free time, putting that as a hobby on your resume will look implausible and dishonest.
5. Mention hobbies that you know the hiring manager has. If you find out you share an interest or hobby with the hiring manager (whether through networking or from your own research), include it!

The alternative to making a separate section for your hobbies/interests is to incorporate them throughout your resume. Here’s how to do that:

Incorporate Hobbies and Interests to Other Resume Sections

Not a programmer, but like coding on the weekends? Put coding in your skills section.

Have a passion for language learning? Make a section for languages on your resume.

Amateur photographer? Also worthy for a skills section!

The takeaway here? Only put these in your skills section or somewhere else on your resume if they could be a bonus for the job you’re targeting.

And if you have attended conferences, done a few freelance projects, volunteered, or worked for non-profits, put those into more appropriate sections on your resume. They’ll carry more weight in their respective sections than in yourHobbies and Interestssection.

At the end of the day, remember that Hobbies and Interestsis an optional section on your resume. Don’t spend too much time worrying about it.

Thanks for reading! Have any questions about hobbies on a resume? Let us know in the comment section below!