The Right Way To Include Interests On A Resume


Everyone includes hobbies and interests in their resume these days. But only a few know the right way to do it.

Employers value a resume with personality. But having too many personal details in your resume will take up the space you have to display valuable information. Mentioning interests in your resume is one way of showing the recruiter how much you’d fit in with their established company culture.

Just because mentioning interests in your resume can get the attention of a recruiter, you shouldn’t add everything from your love for team sports to your passion for collecting Harry Potter memorabilia. The interests you mention on your resume are more than an outlet to showcase your uniqueness. These can be used as assets to show an employer how you use soft skills in everyday life to interact with those around you.

You can add value to your career story by mentioning your interests the right way. Briefly expand on your interests to show the recruiter that there’s more to you than the skills you bring to the job.

Adding interests to your resume sometimes becomes a ticket for you to build a rapport with your interviewer. You can easily strike up a conversation about a common interest and start building a relationship based on that.

Should you include interests on your resume?

When you are starting out in your career after college, and are looking for an entry-level position, you’d be having less work experience and work-related skills to go in your resume. Adding hobbies and interests to your resume will help you fill-up the empty resume space while making a case for your transferrable skills. In such cases, you can include two or three lines about your personal interests that are relevant to the job.

If you are a senior applicant, you can mention any hobby or interest that helps you become more effective at work. But senior applicants have only limited spacing on their resumes. Whenever there’s a need for more space, the interests section is the first one to go.

Ground rules around including interests on a resume

It’s better to find out the proper way to include interests on your resume before you start stumbling through the task.

Do your research on the requirements of the job

Finding out the requirements of the role is important before you start writing the interests section. Review the job description to identify key skills. Then, tailor the list of your interests to align with them. For example, you can add team sports to your resume when the job description calls for a collaborative individual.

Match the interests with the workplace skills

Add a line to your interests to make the connection between the hobby and the workplace skill it demonstrates.

Decide where you are going to insert the interests

You can have a dedicated interests section for your resume or mention your interests in the bullet points of your work experience section. When the interest aligns with your workplace skills and tasks, it won’t seem odd in the work history section instead of in the interests section.

Try to be specific about your interests

Instead of simply saying “Volunteering at an animal shelter,” opt for a descriptive line such as “Volunteering at an animal shelter. Organized fundraisers to bring in $1000 of funds.” This will let the employer know about your organizational skills and initiative in addition to your need to give back to society.

Don’t lie in the interests section of your resume

You don’t want to add beekeeping as a hobby to discover in the interview that the interviewer is an avid beekeeper. If you are an amateur at a hobby, don’t exaggerate your level of participation.

By Resume Mansion



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