CV Writing: Your Hobbies, Interests & Achievements

 Robert Duvall – “A young actor once asked me, what do you do between jobs? I said, Hobbies, hobbies, and more hobbies”

I have seen quite a few CV writing advice articles circulating the internet recently banging on about how to make your CV STAND OUT FROM THE REST. But as someone who often has to wade through over 100 CV’s in one day, I would like to express my humble opinion on this.

Now, I am a Data Science, Big Data & Business Intelligence specialist Recruitment Consultant which means that my answers will be focused on these types of CV’s. For every sector and job there is a different template or layout for your application e.g. if you were applying for a Designer job, you wouldn’t necessarily exhibit your experience like if you were a PhD Astrophysicist. So take this post with a pinch of Salt (www.welovesalt.com).

Firstly, layout your experience neatly with easy to read titles and bullet points. A skills matrix never does any harm either. But where can you inject your quirky, unique, nerf gunning personality into the hard facts of your experience?

THE HOBBIES, INTERESTS & ACHIEVEMENTS SECTION OF COURSE!

Make this full of what you actually do outside of work. Don’t put something like this:

“I enjoy socialising with friends, reading books, keeping up with the news and long walks”

This is incredibly boring. Just think about it, when someone is looking to hire not only are they looking for someone who can actually do the job, they want someone who they can get on with for 50 hours’ of the working week.

So let them know about that time you partook in a grueling bout of Chess Boxing, or traveled to South East Asia and contracted a rare fungal infection, or ate 7 foot long hot dogs in 10 minutes (I’ve done that because I’m awesome), or bathed in a bath of baked beans for charity.

Honestly, reading CV’s can be laborious so make yours interesting and you will stand out.