Tuesday, October 22 - "How to do Hobbies Section?"

Good morning!

Just checking in you. How are you doing today?

Here’s what’s on the job description for today:

1. New roles from a smaller digital consulting company growing quickly.

2. Jo asks, “does the hobbies or interests section matter? How can I fill in this section to be useful?”

IN HIRING

Stealth IT Consulting

• The company is focused on such verticals such as transformation & change, dev ops, cloud architecture, data science and a whole list of other areas.

• With nearly as many roles open as they have employees, the company is growing quickly. They are hiring consultants in a number of areas.

• Here are a few of the most interesting roles available

  • Managing Consultant Technology Strategy & Performance - Click here for full details

  • Sap Supply Chain Management Consultant - Click here for full details

  • Business Analyst - Click here for full details

Click here for the company’s career page

TODAY’S QUESTION

Jo asks, “does the hobbies or interests section matter? How can I fill in this section to be useful?”

Recommendation: here is what I’ve seen from experience talking with both candidates and hiring managers:

• First, it’s unlikely a good hobbies section will get you more interviews. It’s not a place recruiters look at when deciding who goes to the next round and it’s much more important for getting through interviews you do have.

  • Most common is that if you get interviews and have interesting and well-written hobbies/interests, they become a discussion point for the interview and help you stand out as both memorable and interesting.

• Second, before you begin writing about your beginner guitar skills, intro to French, or a love of travelling/yoga/cooking, consider how this section will be read and understood.

  • I once heard a McKinsey recruiter put it best. If you’re a computer programmer, we want to see you do poetry. In other words, be interesting. Make yourself come off as dynamic and put things that people want to talk about. No one wants to talk about or cares about a beginner guitar class for example.

  • If you search your life and find that you’re a bit one-dimensional (you are a marketing manager who likes to hang out with friends for example), it may be time to try some new hobbies. Think about things that people find interesting and are a bit different (think roller derby, trail running, sailing etc.). Worst case scenario, you try a bunch of interesting things once or twice.

• Finally, here are a few best practices when writing this section:

  • Use bullet points similar to the professional experience section. Mention the role you play, how long you’ve done it, and any achievements you’ve had throughout.

  • One bullet per hobby and do your absolute best to remove a list of hobbies without any context.

Conclusion:

The hobbies section is a great way to ensure your interviews are more fun and you’re able to stand out. Make use of this section by adding interesting hobbies and writing them in a way that readers can understand.