Hobbies.

The word conjures up mental images of activities that we engage in when we are in a relaxed state . Most people simply equate hobbies with something that they do when they don’t work.When interviewees at a job interview are asked what their hobbies are, answers are given without much thought about the true intent of the question .

Hobbies offer a significant view of a person’s character as it affords more than a glimpse of how a person chooses to spend his time away from office (or study,if you are a student).In fact,hobbies offer a binocular view of a person’s perspective.

What you do in your “downtime” plays a part in devleoping effectiveness and efficiency in your “uptime”.In this post,I will attempt to highlight the significance of hobbies during job searches.

Hobbies can be classified into 2 broad categories :–

1.Consumption Type

2.Creation Type

Consumption Type hobbies are those  that typically involve consuming some kind of content without any kind of active participation.Examples are Surfing the Internet,watching movies,sight-seeing,watching sports and listening to music .These kind of hobbies do not require any special effort/attention to engage in and does not necessarily help build skills (though they help reduce stress).

Creation type hobbies are those that require active participation from the individual and helps in building skills as they involve the usage of your intellect and/or moving your body. Examples are : playing some musical instrument,photography,writing,playing sports,running,swimming,to name a few.

When you only have hobbies that focus on “consuming” it indicates that you are not too keen on building skills for self-development.Reading is an exception here as it help to build your intellect by expanding your inventory of ideas though it appears to be merely a consuming activity.

So,the next time you list your hobbies on a resume, be sure to list activities that indicate that you spent your time honing some skill.Reduce the number of consumption type hobbies that you list and limit them to two.Your hobby may help build peripheral skills that are relevant to the job that you apply for.This does not mean you have to lie about your hobbies;if you do not have a creation type hobby,start one immediately.