7 hobbies for a resume that will definitely impress the recruiter

Watching movies, playing cricket, and listening music were the 3 hobbies found on almost every resume when I sat for my campus recruitment. When I saw the resume of my friends on the first day of campus recruitment, I was surprised of having seen the same hobbies as mine.

I had just one more addition to the list of hobbies in my resume ‘reading books and comics’ which really was my hobby and still is. We all joked, laughed, and mocked the day as all of us realized on that very day that none of us had any hobby.

Listening music, watching movies and playing cricket are not hobbies as per me. These represent your superficial interest towards your life, your own time. Another friend from our circle then joined our group with his resume in his hand.

Since, we were in the middle of hobbies on resume discussion so I immediately moved ahead and grabbed his resume to see the hobbies he wrote. And there was watching movies again, listening music again and the 3rd hobby literally dropped a bomb in my head. I felt the shrapnels of the bomb literally swirling my mind round and round.

Well, the hobby was – ‘watching cricket’, a killer modification.

These hobbies on resume kept bugging me. There was another hour before the interview so I took chance and exited the venue. I went straight to a cyber café, modified the hobbies on resume of mine to ‘exercise’ and ‘reading books and comics’.

I started strength training at that time and thought that if the recruiter asked then I could answer. Quickly I modified my resume and came back to the venue. All asked me to find out where did I go and I told them the truth.

They kind of stayed silent at my action to reduce the list of hobbies in resume to just 2.

I went with the same resume in the interview room. The interviewer looked at my resume, glanced it and started asking me questions related to my profile. After around 20 minutes, he went to the section where hobbies on resume were listed.

The interviewer said, “So, exercise? Exercise is what you do? Why and how frequent are you at exercising?”.

I preferred to answer the second question first, “I exercise 6 days a week”. Then immediately it clicked me to say that “I believe a healthy body is necessary to keep the brain healthy plus it saves you from regular illnesses.”

That was something mediocre I said right, nothing out of the box. But the interviewer moved ahead. He didn’t even ask me anything on reading books.

Thank god, I got selected in that interview without much hassle, however, after the interview when I interacted with my friends I got to know that they were asked some tricky questions around the classic hobbies we all first mentioned and some even were asked to prove that they love playing cricket.

One interviewer even asked in which area the 3rd man fielder stands and the answer which came out was that in our ground we have play in limited directions i.e. leg side and just straight. Oh my god! When I think of that day I say that I took the right decision to change the list of hobbies in resume to just 2.

According to several teachers who groom people for personality development or prepare students for interviews, hobbies play a vital role on your resume. Therefore, you should be careful in picking hobbies for resume of yours. Hobbies and interest for resume, if carefully selected, will add stars to your profile and can impress the recruiter immediately only to select you for the job.

So, here are 7 hobbies for a resume which will definitely attract the attention of the recruiter.

1. Reading books

Reading books is a hobby which fascinates every recruiter provided you read books indeed. If you’re a fan of novels then go ahead read as many novels you get your hands on.

An average CEO reads 52 books per year, this is a fact, corporate knows this and hence they respect the importance of reading books.

Finest is that person who takes a taste of several genres through his/her hobby of reading books like self-help, autobiographies, business and management, computers and digital etc. But make sure that you’re prepared enough to answer well on this hobby of reading books.

I would recommend you start reading books at least 5 months before mentioning reading books as a hobby in your resume.

Do you know what reading books brings you? 24 more months to your life.

2. Computer Programming

Computer programming was hot before the dot com bubble even started and is hot 20 years later even. Almost every student be it of commerce major, science major, and psychology major has an additional subject of computers.

Pick up one language out of C, C++, Java, Python, C#, Scala and start learning it. Build programs in your chosen language and mention it as a hobby in your resume.

Engineers of any field must keep computer programming as a hobby in their resumes. Indeed, programming must be the hobby of a computer science or Information technology graduate.

Don’t worry if you think that the recruiter may ask you some tricky questions around computer programming. Just be thorough with the programs and projects you created, stick to them; your interview cracking will be a cakewalk then. If you’re not a computer science graduate the recruiter may think of you having an upper edge in computers.

3. Playing a music instrument

Playing any music instrument like a mouth organ, flute, Guitar or a keyboard is millions times better than mentioning ‘listening music’ as a hobby. Hobby must require an action from your end.

Watching movies, listening music require no action, they just make use of your seeing and listening skills.

If you pick playing a music instrument as your hobby then you are doing a lot of favour to yourself. The calm that you’ll be bringing to yourself while playing it is going to be incredible and impeccable. Pursuing finesse in playing a musical instrument provides great results to mind, it also boosts your creativity quotient and leaves a great impression to the interviewer while he visits your resume.

4. Yoga

In times to come, yoga is going to be a necessity but for now, you can take it as a hobby. Increasing CO2 emissions are shattering the environment bringing lifestyle diseases in picture because the environment is no longer suitable for the sluggish and lethargic.

Practicing yoga brings relief to mind as well as body. In long term, it is a boon for both body and mind. As a student, there are fears you face of bad results, failure etc, practicing yoga over a period of time will bring you on top of them.

In recent times, yoga is one of the attractive hobbies for resume but make sure when you go inside that interview room you know 5-6 asanas to talk about.

5. Event Management

I am sure you’re thinking that this is a peculiar one. Yes, it is but man! I tell you that people who love to manage events have such strong management skills.

If you have done a lot of work in managing your cousin’s wedding or have managed a society event single handedly then never downplay it. Never lose a single opportunity of managing any sports event in school or a tech fest in college, these events will give you a lot of experience very early in life.

Look forward to managing a couple of more events so that you can mention event management as your hobby. This is a ‘out of the box’ hobby which you’re not going to find in many resumes, probably one of the best hobbies for resume of yours.

Once you have organized a couple of events successfully, you can proudly say that I am good at managing people and a project.

6. Community service

You know in ‘Target 3 Billion’ written by the great Dr APJ Abdul Kalam it was mentioned that real power of India lies in the hands of people living in rural areas. It doesn’t mean that we go and distribute them food and clothing rather we empower them for a self-sustainable development.

Think of anything using which you can service the community, the only thing which is running through my mind at the time of writing this article is teaching. You can provide free teaching in schools for the underprivileged.

Providing service to community will give you a sense of accomplishment, will make you feel better for yourself, build your confidence and your resume will literally shine once you mention ‘community service’ as a hobby in your resume.

7. Learning a foreign language

Whether you’re reading this article for getting to know hobbies for engineering resume or hobbies for teaching resume, learning a foreign language will stand tall anytime.

Choose any foreign language you like and enroll in a course to master it. Remember that it takes time, months, may be years to speak a language fluently and develop expertise in it.

Your dedication towards the language is going to speak for itself in your resume, therefore, don’t make the same mistake of starting it but not ending it. The interviewers are smart and are literally going to catch you if you ever showed superficial interest in learning a language.

There are 5 hot languages which you can choose to learn 1. Chinese 2. Spanish 3.Hindi 4. German 5. French

It is always good to mention hobbies on resume but make sure that you’re not mentioning them without acquiring them.

Keep a little bit of time in your hand before you mention any hobby or hobbies in your resume because the recruiter won’t let you leave the room without going through the section of hobbies, therefore, prepare enough so that you can answer some questions on them.

So, did you like the article? Would you care to mention any other hobby which is not here?

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