What recruiters really want when they ask about hobbies

Interested parties can find out in any commercially available career guide that hobbies on a CV are only for school leavers. Nevertheless, they are often a topic in job interviews. Anyone who thinks they can’t name any particular leisure activities will quickly become nervous.

What do you say when you’re not in a running group training for a marathon, when you don’t spend your evenings taking piano lessons, but prefer to sit on the couch and watch GZSZ or Netflix? The simple answer: the truth. In very few cases is it about how prestigious the hobby is. It’s about something completely different.

According to careers expert Alison Green, most of the time, hobbies are irrelevant when applying. In her advice column “Ask a Managershe even writes that they are never the reason for a rejection. The big advantage, however, is that, in the best-case scenario, they can steer the interview in a more personal direction.

According to Green, when recruiters ask about leisure activities, it’s a good chance to generate sympathy and highlight positive qualities in order to be better remembered. However, she immediately adds, this must not be done frantically.

“It’s about passion, not skills.”

“It makes little sense to try to find out which hobby you use to achieve this positive effect, because it will differ from HR manager to HR manager,” writes the author. “One recruiter might love it when you run the marathon while another doesn’t care and instead gets excited that you enjoy reading books.”

According to Alison Green, it’s not even important to make a connection between the hobby and the career. Instead, she advises her readers to answer the question about leisure activities in detail. Because the sentence “I like to read” alone doesn’t reveal much about your character.

What do you like to read? how often do you read Who are your favorite authors? Which book influenced you the most? Answering such questions makes all the difference. “Most of the time HR people don’t care what exactly your hobbies are. They just want to see if you can make pleasant small talk on a topic that you’re comfortable with,” explains careers adviser Green.

Small talk is a good chance to attract attention in a job interview. It is not what is said that sticks, but the good feeling that arose in the interview. It is therefore absolutely necessary to be authentic. It’s about passion, not skills.

In the end, applicants can also score with GZSZ or Netflix. As long as you have a few charming anecdotes ready.

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This is an updated archive post.