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Subject:Re: Hobbies (and other stuff) on resumes From:Gwen Barnes <gwen -dot- barnes -at- MUSTANG -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 4 Jan 1996 16:28:54 GMT
-> TB> > TB> There are instances, of course, where your hobby actually
-> TB> > TB> pertain to the job you apply for.
-> TB> > are hobbies that ARE important. Take me as an example:
-> TB> To which I reply: it depends. As an employer, will any of these
-> TB> skills benefit *me*? If so, by all means keep them on your
-> TB> resume.
For a mid-life career-changer, hobbies can show an interest in the new
line of work and a motivation to succeed. Example: In my "spare" time, I
wrote documentation for a series of successful shareware programs, and
ran the support BBS for the products. That experience was far more
important on my resume than my employment history, which was largely
unrelated.
You can use this as a strategy: define the objective (change careers),
gain the "paper" qualification (go back to college and get the requisite
degree), target your future employer (figure out who you want to work
for and where), then hang in there with the day job until they finally
agree it's time to hire you.
This is not "instant gratification" -- it took a couple of years for
everything to come together, but it was worth the wait.
