Somewhere out there is a CV that lists "socialising with friends" as an interest, as though this sets the candidate apart from the other seven billion humans who also enjoy the company of other humans and somehow did not think to write "eating" or "breathing" instead, same energy, same zero information delivered. It's the CV equivalent of listing "attending church" in a country where that describes roughly everyone on a Sunday, true, but not exactly a differentiator, and yet there it sits, proudly, right under "Education".
And before the introverts in the audience start quietly closing this tab, relax; you're not off the hook, but you're also not the villain of this story. "I have no hobbies; I just work and sleep" is not, contrary to popular belief, a personality. It's a cry for help formatted as a bullet point, the CV version of that science student at the family gathering who's asked what he does for fun and just stares at his malt like it owes him an answer. We'll circle back for you soon; everyone gets roasted equally here.
The split that makes this genuinely confusing
Resume Genius's 2024 Hiring Trends Survey, which polled 625 hiring managers, found 79% admit they don't actually read the hobbies section at all. Somewhere, a whole generation of people agonised over whether "pottery" sounded pretentious, for an audience that was already three sections deep into their phones. Same survey, same year, plot twist: 57% of Gen Z managers specifically rank hobbies and interests among the three most important sections on a CV, more likely than older managers to call it the single most critical part. So depending entirely on who opens your CV, this section is either invisible or the thing they weigh most heavily, which is a genuinely unhelpful thing for an entire industry to agree on disagreeing about.
A separate 2024 UK survey by CV Genius, also polling 625 hiring managers and recruiters, found something actually worth acting on: 61% of in-house hiring managers said they'd be more likely to interview a candidate with a sharp, job-relevant hobbies section, against only 35% of agency recruiters who said the same. Makes sense once you think about it. An in-house manager is hiring one human for their own team and can afford to be charmed. An agency recruiter is scanning a database against a checklist a client handed them, and your weekend chess club is not on that checklist.
If your application goes straight to someone genuinely capable of going, "Oh nice, me too" and remembering your name for it. If it's routed through a recruitment agency first, that section is basically dead weight, decorative, like a houseplant nobody waters but nobody throws out either. Worth knowing which situation you're actually in before you decide how much energy this section deserves.
When it's genuinely worth including
If you're early in your career with a thin work history, a sharp interests section fills space that would otherwise sit embarrassingly empty, the CV equivalent of a half-furnished apartment you're pretending is "minimalist". Also, if your hobby has produced an actual, describable outcome, such as captaining your local weekend football team, running a small church choir, organising a school's cultural day, or competing at a real level, it's functioning as evidence of a skill your job history hasn't gotten around to proving yet. And if you're applying somewhere creative or culture-driven, a well-chosen interest can genuinely be the detail a hiring manager remembers you by after fifty CVs that all started blurring together somewhere around candidate number thirty.
What to actually avoid
"Reading." "Watching movies." "Listening to music." These appear on what feels like every second CV in existence and tell a recruiter precisely nothing they didn't already assume about a functioning adult with a phone full of downloaded YouTube videos for when the data finishes. If this generic hobby is genuinely important to you, at minimum attach a detail that makes it yours: not "reading," but "runs a monthly non-fiction book club focused on leadership," or not "cooking," but "known among friends for a jollof recipe requested at every gathering, smoke alarm and all." One sentence, and suddenly it's evidence instead of filler, the professional equivalent of finally introducing yourself instead of just standing in the corner of the party.
Steer clear of anything politically or religiously loaded unless the role itself is directly tied to that space, this is not the section to start a debate before anyone's even met you in person. And extreme, high-risk activities, competitive cage fighting, BASE jumping, that sort of thing, occasionally spook risk-averse employers into quietly wondering about your relationship with injury, extended sick leave, and possibly gravity itself. Debatable whether that reaction is fair. Common enough to be worth knowing about anyway.
Now, about the introverts
You. Yes, you, the one whose honest answer to "What do you do for fun?" is a long pause followed by "I decompress." First of all, no judgement: decompressing is valid; lying flat in a dark room after a long trotro ride home is a completely acceptable use of a Saturday. Second, you almost certainly have a hobby; you've just filed it under "not a real hobby" because it doesn't involve other humans or a visible trophy. Playing oware alone on your phone counts. Gaming counts, especially if you're competitively ranked at something; that's basically a sport with worse lighting and no jersey. Learning a language on an app at 11pm counts. Building spreadsheets for fun, yes, we see you, counts, and honestly might be the most on-brand hobby a job applicant could list. You don't need to invent a personality for this section. You need to notice the one you've already got and describe it like it matters, because it does, even if it happens entirely alone, curtains closed, generator humming, nobody watching.
Getting the format right
Three to five entries, no more. A list of twelve hobbies doesn't read as well-rounded, it reads as either wildly overcommitted or, more likely, padded out at 11pm the night before the deadline. Put it at the bottom of the CV, after everything actually doing the heavy lifting, your experience, your education, your skills. And where you can, tie each hobby directly to something relevant rather than leaving the recruiter to guess why it's there. "Football" says nothing, half the country would write the same word. "Organized and captained a community five-a-side league, coordinating fixtures and player rotation for two seasons" is doing actual work, quietly, in the background, like a good hobby should.
Where this leaves you
Hobbies were never going to save a weak CV, and a strong one doesn't strictly need them either. What they can do, done properly, is turn one small section into real evidence of a skill or a personality trait your work history hasn't had the chance to prove yet. Done lazily, three generic words with zero context, they just take up lines a tighter CV could have used for something that actually moves the needle, whether you're the type with eleven hobbies or the type still quietly Googling "is Netflix a hobby" at midnight.
If you're not sure whether your CV needs this section at all, or which one or two things from your actual life, however solitary or unglamorous, are worth the real estate, that's exactly the kind of detail Jade Consult reviews alongside the rest of your CV. Give us a text today, and let us find out how we can make your CV stronger and more primed for success.
— Samuel Nii Adotei Allotey (the_kurios_poet)