Most people have hobbies or passions. Some like cooling, while others enjoy hiking, reading, or playing football. Still, others volunteer in animal shelters or spend their time dancing with residents at retirement homes. If you have found your passion, you can benefit from it even more, using it as a positive when applying for a job. Here is how.
Dedicate enough time and effort to improving your skills. If you want to do something, you should be good at it. Try making your hobby into something that makes you stand out among others.
Highlight your hobby in your resume. Typically, people do not include a “hobby” section on their resume. And this is not without reason; hobbies usually are not what draws the eye of an HR, and listing them separately takes us precious space. But you can tell about your hobbies in other ways. For example, you could include this information in the skills section. However, it would be even better to write about your hobby in a cover letter and tie it into the job you are applying for. And yes, sometimes it requires creativity.
Connect your hobby to your career. Mention specific skills that have arisen from your hobby that also make you perform better at your job. For example, if you love knitting, you may reference your attention to detail, patience, perseverance, and time management, all of which are valuable skills in a workplace setting.
Explain how your hobby could be beneficial to an employer. If there is a chance that your hobby could increase the company’s success, you must indicate it in your resume. In the knitting example, maybe you would be willing to produce some goods that the company would donate to poverty-stricken families, orphanages, nursing homes, etc. Alternatively, if photography is your hobby, you could help create company advertisements. Present yourself as an invaluable asset.
Be passionate. Show that you really care about your hobby. Indicate how much time you dedicate to it, how it has grown in significance to you over time, and what it adds to your life. Sometimes it is even good to indicate the sacrifices you have made to continue doing it. However, avoid mentioning things like quitting your last job because of it.
Write about the soft skills you have developed. You do not have to be a professor to have learned negotiation techniques, adaptability, communication, along with other soft skills that would be useful in an employee. If your passion helped you develop such skills, make sure to mention it. Many skills may seem obvious, but a prospective employer does not know anything about you except what you tell them.
Be selective. Be very careful when choosing which hobbies to include in the resume. Keep in mind that some things like watching TV series or going to happy hour are not going to have a benefit to your employer and may even be seen as a negative. You should devote more attention to hobbies that you are comfortable discussing and know how they could benefit your job performance or the business public image.
If you are not passionate about anything right now, do not worry. There is always an option to find opportunities like volunteering or picking up new skills by taking classes at local community colleges or online. Anything you do in your free time to learn, create, or help others is going to be an advantage for you!
