CV Writing: How Your Hobbies Could Be Derailing Your Job Search

By Dorcas Karuana,

In CV writing, hobbies are an important part which tells the employer the other side of you.Employers judge you by what your hobbies say about your personality, even before you have met them for interviews.

Sometime back I went to assist in conducting an interview in a well know real estate and they were looking for a General Manager. The Directors were looking for very many things apart from papers and experience in a candidate. Just before the candidates arrived we went through the hobbies section and they were specifically looking for someone who can play Golf.  3 out of 6 candidates passed this test. Secondly they stationed someone at the gate to look at the type of car each of the candidates was driving. Clearly it was all about image. Yes it does matter

The hobbies section is one part of a CV where you actually tell things about yourself in an unbiased and unfiltered way. So if in the body of your CV you paint yourself as sophisticated and refined then under hobbies you have football, singing, traveling, dancing and socializing you may just have contradicted the body of your CV.

Now you may need to get rid of those ratchet hobbies from your CV. All those things we love but are not fitting on a future C.E.O’s CV need to go. Rugby, soccer, basketball are not fitting hobbies. You need to replace those with golf, polo and or squash. Notice the higher up you go the smaller the balls become.

You need to find new swanky hobbies that allow you to knock balls with the who’s who, hobbies that allow you into high society by virtue of what you play. Instead of farming skuma wiki in your back yard, you need to consider growing orchids or better still get rid of gardening on your CV and add in viniculture.

Get rid of traveling on your CV, executives travel for work, they stopped enjoying it; add to your CV silence. No, I don’t know what that means either but it seems to impress prospective employers. If you’re trying for a creative, marketing or artsy position you may want to toss in photography and or wine tasting.

It’s not all glum and dreary pastimes on a CEO’s hobby list if you want to portray a more vibrant out going persona then add in, scuba diving, archery, target shooting, rock climbing, bungee jumping, snorkeling, rafting and rappelling. Of course it helps if you’ve at least attempted these sports at least once you’ll be surprised how affordable and enjoyable they are and you may actually pick up a hobby.

And while you’re at it be real don’t say things you have no idea about. Don’t be trying to impress someone and say you enjoy the Australia opening that happened in Vienna Austria. So get real hobbies, there are no people as sad as those who do not care deeply for anything in particular.