Bring Back The Hobbies!

For me, one of the hardest parts of being a recruiter is reading a long winded, highly technical resume with no break in sight. Don't get me wrong. I read the resume but I'm often not excited about it.

Picture this: A recruiter sits down at her computer, opens Outlook or Gmail and there are 50-75 resumes to review. She blasts through the first 10 or so with ease, then the resumes start looking the same. She questions if she's already seen that person because they look awfully similar to the previous one. Then, she starts to slow down because the material is dry, dense. She yawns, checks her phone, looks out the window & starts thinking about what's in the fridge. Now she's bored and she's only at #20. Does this sound kinda familiar?

There are lots of recruiting thought leaders who suggest candidates leave off any "personal information" other than contact information & education. I'm not a recruiting thought leader so I totally disagree! I'm a practical, hands-on recruiter and I say, bring back the hobbies section! Again, pages and pages of project examples with old buzz words and older technology (Hyperion anyone?) does not excite me. What does excite me is when Jane Doe lists her hobbies, her interests & pet projects. Again, just my opinion but I love learning that kind of stuff about my candidates. Why? Because I'm trying to find a way to connect beyond the resume. I also use it as an ice breaker if & when we chat on the phone. I have tons of examples of phone screens where I start with: "So, you're a black belt in Karate. How'd you get into that?" Or, "You're a mechanical engineer. You've listed horticulture as an intertest. Tell me about that!"

My point. In order to distinguish yourself from the vast pool of people on the job market today, having this simple section at the end of your resume is one way to grab a recruiter's attention. Boomer recruiters might disagree. GenZ recruiters might want memes or GIF's in their resumes. But for me, and since this is my blog, I want to see the hobbies section as bulky as the summary!

Happy job hunting!