Should You Include Your Hobbies in Your Resume?

How can you decide whether to include your hobbies in your resume or not? To be fair, what you do with your free time really does not interest your employer too much. If at all, your employer would be extremely happy with you if you worked away all your holidays as well!

This sounds unfair, but it is true.

Especially when looking at a resume, most employers want to know if you can carry out the work they will assign you. This is totally irrespective of your hobbies or interests. For example, it really does not matter to a big law firm partner whether or not you are great at carpentry work. As a law professional, if you are expected to conduct research and write legal documents, you definitely need to know your job well!

Lawyers Have a Life Too!

Yes, but that is of little interest to a potential employer; particularly when the employer or recruiter is sitting with a huge pile of resumes to choose from. As bad as it may sound, the recruiter who is reading your resume is more interested in your professional credentials and not what you do to while away time (if you do get any free, that is).

More often than not, people include hobbies like cooking, reading or gardening. For a legal professional, this is not an advisable practice. Moreover, if the professional section of your resume is not attention-catching, there is very little likelihood that your hobbies will make a difference to the recruiters’ opinion or influence your chances of getting hired.

Related or Unrelated?

One thing that could go in favor of your hobbies is that if you have won awards or recognition for the work you have done in a particular field, you should list these down. While there is no guarantee that this will swing the vote in your favor, it definitely conveys to the employer or the recruiter that you are serious about whatever you take up and strive to do it well.

This can be more relevant if you have interests that go beyond the individual to encompass the community or a section of the community. For example, if you have undertaken work and won recognition for your work with adolescents, you can list this under a heading that reads ‘Interests’ or ‘Additional Information’.