When you think of a resume, the first thing that comes to your mind might be professional experience and education.
Did you know that hobbies can be an essential part of your resume too?
Skills that employers look for like teamwork, leadership, critical thinking, and attention to detail can be obtained through various hobbies.
Here are 11 hobbies that look impressive on a resume:
1. Yoga
Yoga is more popular now than ever before. If you practice yoga, you might not know that it’s worth including on your resume. Employers like this hobby because it shows them that you are calm and in control of your emotions.
It also indicates your interest in health and fitness as a lifestyle. Organizations want healthy employees.
With the pressures of fast-paced working environments nowadays, workers are prone to anxiety and depression. Sometimes, they need days off work, or they may leave altogether.
Having yoga as an outlet for stress means that your mental health is well-balanced, you won’t burn out, and you will stay productive at work.
2. Playing a Musical Instrument
If you have played any musical instrument before, you know the discipline, dedication, and focus you need to sharpen your skills.
Playing an instrument requires independent learning skills, problem-solving, and teamwork, especially if you’re playing with a band or as a group. Employers value this skill in the workplace.
Having this as a hobby also shows your interest in continuous learning, developing yourself, and your ability to make presentations with confidence.
The dedication to learn how to read and play a musical instrument is impressive enough for any employer.
3. Volunteering
Volunteering is especially helpful for your resume if you’ve been out of employment for a while. During that time, you would have built skills like teamwork, project management, and leadership abilities beneficial to the workplace.
You’ll be an asset to the company during their charity drives and volunteering activities.
Even if you’ve been employed before, having volunteering experience on your resume shows employers that you are interested in community building, which means you’ll most likely be a good citizen in the company.
It also demonstrates loyalty and commitment because volunteering is optional. You could have chosen to do anything else with your time.
4. Extreme Adventure Sports
These activities include sky diving, mountain biking, snowboarding, bungee jumping, windsurfing, and many others.
This hobby involves physical and mental challenges that require you to think on your feet, be disciplined, persistent, have endurance, and be a problem solver.
Employers value candidates with this hobby because they can respond to challenging situations with viable solutions. It shows them that you take calculated risks and are not afraid of the unknown.
It also demonstrates your self-discipline and ability to push boundaries.
These traits suit candidates looking for any leadership position.
5. Blogging
Even if your blog page views are non-existent, your hard work is not in vain. All this while you have been honing valuable and useful skills you can use in other areas of life.
Future employers will be impressed to see blogging as one of your hobbies, especially if you post consistently. Your content should be without grammatical and spelling errors.
You will be a stronger candidate if your content is related to the job you’re applying for. It shows that you’re knowledgeable about the job.
Don’t include blogging on your resume if it only contains personal information.
Some valuable skills you can bring to the workplace through blogging include branding, marketing, social media, web design, and writing.
6. Gardening
This hobby is perfect for your resume if you’re applying for a position in medical care or customer support. Gardening proves that you are reliable and can take on responsibility.
It also shows the importance of daily care and keeping your surroundings clean, neat, and well maintained.
Your passion for gardening shows that you are concerned about nature and the environment.
This gives you a leg through the door into companies specializing in sustainability and clean energy compared to other candidates.
7. Learning another Language
If you’re going to put this on your resume, you should be able to sustain a conversation in the languages you’ve mentioned.
You don’t want to be caught out in a lie in your interview, especially if one of your interviewers can speak the language. It may not directly apply to the position, but it will show your lack of integrity.
For translation jobs and other positions that primarily require your multilingual skills, you must be fluent.
Learning a foreign language shows employers that you’re open to new ideas and up for a challenge. Being multilingual also improves your memory and enhances brain function, which enables you to perform various tasks.
8. Photography
Photography is so much more than just taking pictures. This hobby is valuable for specific positions like graphic designer, creative director at a digital agency, event planner, or social media manager.
Having an interest in photography shows employers that you are creative and detail-oriented with a great eye for visuals.
Every employer likes someone who pays attention to detail. Photography enhances your conceptual skills and expertise. It also teaches teamwork and collaboration.
Do you have a website displaying your work or an online portfolio?
Include a link for employers to see your work and whether it fits well in their vision.
9. Podcasting
This is the most recent and increasingly popular way of creating and sharing content through audio. Much like blogging, it allows you to demonstrate your industry expertise.
Through podcasting, you can learn various skills, such as writing (the script), how to edit the podcast, how to build an audience (marketing), connecting with industry leaders (research and networking).
The process of creating a podcast improves your organizational skills. These skills are all relevant in today’s workforce, especially in production houses.
If your podcast focuses on the technical aspect of the job you’re applying for, even better.
10. Traveling
Traveling allows you to explore various places and appreciate different cultures. The avid traveler is curious, courageous, and organized.
It means that you can easily step outside your comfort zone to learning something new. This translates into adaptability and flexibility in the workplace, which employers value.
Are you applying for a travel agent job? Being up to speed with traveling regulations in various cities is helpful to the company clients.
You can also advise them of weather patterns, peak periods, and the costs at various times of the year. You’ll also find it easy to work with foreign colleagues or clients.
11. Cooking
For several jobs, cooking is not a relevant hobby to include on your resume unless you’re applying for the position of a chef, sous chef, or cook.
These are mostly in establishments like hotels, restaurants, airlines, resorts, cruises, etc.
However, cooking demonstrates your ability to be creative, follow exact instructions, and manage time-bound projects.
Does your job description include cooking skills? Make sure to include specific details of your knowledge and experience to get an advantage.
Make Your Resume Pop!
As you include hobbies on your resume, make sure that they are relevant to the position you’re applying for and will help you integrate with the organization’s culture.
Sometimes, an impressive list of hobbies may lead you straight to your dream job. When they see your hobbies, potential employers will immediately relate to you. They will also develop an impression of your character, even before the interview, where they’ll have a light conversation with you.
Remember to be honest, detailed, and precise so that employers can read easily and quickly.
