The Talent Development Centre features a lot of resume advice, and often directly from the mouths of recruiters. For example, we’ve told you what recruiters say independent contractors must have in their resume, what recruiters hate about your resume, and how they suggest you should format your resume. One common point that each of these posts had is that the Hobbies & Interests section included by many IT contractors is of zero interest to recruiters.
We went back to recruiters and asked them for some more specific thoughts about this controversial section. While one was quite positive, and noted that an applicant’s unique accomplishments demonstrate personality and make them more memorable, most had comments similar to the following:
“They should never have them on there.”
“Hobbies and Interests should be banned from resumes.”
Usually I see people with a small list of “safe” hobbies (most of them include golf, working out, and camping) and it doesn’t really add anything of value.
I really don’t pay attention to that too much as it’s not really relevant.
Never put hobbies or interest… nobody cares!
Ouch! As for those memorable Hobbies and Interests, here are the 4 most unique ones Eagle recruiters have seen on IT contractors’ resumes:
Skydiving
Nights Out
UFO Chasing
Photo-bombing
Do you keep a Hobbies & Interests section on your resume? If so, what do you list? Do you think they add value?
