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> You know, a lot of people are saying "having hobbies tells employers you are a good employee," but I'd like to hear what more employers think, rather than what we *think* they think. I mean, we could prattle on about this for weeks (and you *know* we could, don't you), but most of us are on the employee side of the equation, and are only speculating about what potential employers want.
As someone who used to be able to hire (and hopes to again, before too long <whimper>), I regard hobbies and other personal information on a resume as irrelevant to the point of being slightly unprofessional. When I am to the point where I'm looking to hire someone, I want to see the focus that our work requires. I assume that the person has a life outside of work, but what that person
does when not working is really no business of mine, unless it interferes with his/her ability to perform the work. When I see a list of hobbies on a resume, I automatically wonder if the hobbies will interfere with the person's ability to do the work we need done.
My concerns when looking at a resume are all about work: does this person have the skills and background to do what we need to have done? To that end, I want to see work experience and training that's relevant to the job, not extraneous information. I don't even care if there are time gaps in the resume - for all I know, the person had to take time off to deal with an elderly parent or a
sick spouse or child, or even had the money saved up for a trek to Nepal.
I repeat the point I made in an earlier post: personal information like hobbies is something that can be handled in an interview; it doesn't belong on a resume.
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