by Gerard Coulombe

Created on: October 21, 2009

Should you mention your hobbies and interests in your resume? Absolutely, if the advice that resume writers are getting is that one should not include hobbies and interests in a resume, then the advice is wrong.

Resume readers read many resumes when there is a call out for applicants. Depending on the job, dozens if not hundreds of resumes land on the addressee's desk or are opened by the one doing the preliminary screening.

If an applicant gets by on the fundamentals and is heavy on the qualifications, then the distinguishing characteristic wanted by the firm or business might just be the kind of person who is talented enough to have an avocation, hobby, or unique interest that might just mean something significant to a decision maker

A reader of resumes is usually accomplished at the task of reading resumes. For him, a resume is a quick read. He or she looks at the resume and flips it based upon some clear or internal criterion. If he does not see it, the applicant is done.

It may be format, it may be a recommendation, and it may be the last job. Whatever it is, the reader locks in on this one piece of information and decides then and there to move on.

It is a well-known fact that with hundreds of applicants for every job, the determiner, all things being equal, all recommendations being solid, might just be someone's hobby or interest.

A person who repairs old clocks as a hobby reveals a great deal more than his skill. Patience is required and fine motor skills are required. These may very well push the candidate over the top.

Someone who does the New York Times crossword as a hobby demonstrates another kind of facility-this one with knowledge and language. That candidate, too, brings a valued skill to the job that might just enhance the primary skill involved in the work required by the job.

Yes, there are debates over the issue of whether or not to include hobbies and interest in a resume. While the folks and companies that advocate just the important facts that relate to the job are relevant, there are those who rightly want a candidate to mention or even elaborate about their hobby or interest.

And it is just because the reader of a candidate's resume, all things being equal or not, might just identify with the applicant's hobby or interest enough to strongly suggest to him or her that it go into the "interview" basket. For it might make for an interesting interview.

Odds are that including hobbies and interests on a resume is worth a try because it might just get you that interview. And that's what any applicant really wants.

Anyway, the introduction of hobbies and interests is not the lead story. Any resume writer has to get that right first. Then the rest is just pudding.

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