How do I include my hobbies in my CV?

Are you ready for your next work experience? Unsure as to how to craft your CV for your audience?

That's fine. Perhaps recruiters are looking for qualities and skills that define candidates beyond their formal experience. This is why including your hobbies in a CV can help you stand out from the crowd.

Your hobbies speak about who you are and what you like. They can help you find a job because:

• Recruiters want to know your human side and what drives you outside of work.

• They actually help you develop skills, and recruiters are looking for those skills on your CV — both on your formal experience and in your daily life.

• If your hobbies meet the job requirements. If you play basketball, and the company praises teamwork, go for it.

• If you're new to that career path, outlining your hobbies can reveal your motivations.

• If the company emphasizes personal traits and qualities on its website, including your hobbies shows that you fit into the company's culture.

• If the hobby doesn't add value to the job, it's best to avoid it. It shows a lack of consistency with the message you want to convey with your CV.

• If your hobby is connected to a highly political activity, it's best to avoid it.

• As simple as this looks, you should avoid including hobbies if you're short of space on your CV. No one wants to read a cluttered document.

If you're short of ideas, fear not! Here you'll find a bank of resources to use for hobbies in your CV:

• Team sports: A fan of baseball, handball, or water polo? Great, you can use it to show how well you work with others, your leadership capacities, or your self-discipline to improve for the team.

• Outdoor pursuits: Fancy going fishing, camping, or tending the garden? They will help you demonstrate your patience, problem-solving, or attention to detail.

• Music: Do you write songs or play an instrument? Think about how hard you've worked to master that and how much it shows your creativity skills, and now use that to your advantage at the interview.

• Volunteering: Be it in your community or addressing environmental issues or the like, giving your time and skills to organizations shows dedication, abstract thinking, and community focus. A job as a people coordinator would benefit from that.

• Creative arts: Painting, sewing, or taking photographs speak volumes of your creativity, problem-solving. and detail-orientation.

As with everything else in your CV, your hobbies require a particular way of phrasing. And yes, it does depend a lot on the type of job you are looking for or how you structured the rest of your CV, but in general, follow these guidelines.

1. Use bullet points. They add structure to the section.

2. Create an appealing description, preferably with some metrics. Example:

• Yoga: Participated in the annual yoga day workshop, completing 4 non-stop hours of practice.

3. Craft the description to provide context for the role. For example, for a team coordinator position, you could write in the hobbies section:

• Yoga: Organized an introductory class to yoga at a community center, found the instructor, and contributed to the event.

Regarding layout, place the hobbies in a separate section at the bottom of the CV. They shouldn't take up much space.

You're going to interview for the software developer role. The company seeks problem-solving skills, strategic thinking, and familiarity with technology. Which of these hobbies fits this description?

A. Participating in hackatons.

B. Competitive gaming.

C. Teaching IT to elderly people.

D. Mindfulness activities.