Avatar photoSteven Savage

Discussing Hobbies in Resumes, Interviews, and More

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Working on a resume, in an interview, filling out an online form, working with anew client, we too often get that dreaded points where we have to describe our hobbies.

You probably know what I'm talking about.  You wonder if (or how) you'll explain your fanfic, or your costly, or your website dedicated to rock operas, or pretty much anything else that's part of your interests.  It's hard to communicate, hard to explain simply – and you may simply be self-conscious about it.

So in short, how do you put your fannishness, your geek, on the table in the job search?

First, you need to stand back and ask just why do people want to know about your hobbies?  It's not necessarily relevant to the work you do, correct?

I'd say it's not.  Hobbies show . . .

  1. That you have a life outside of work (which, believe it or not, is seen as an advantage).
  2. How you relate to people and what people you relate to.
  3. Other skills and abilities you may have – hobbies often show potentials.
  4. Any potentially negative interests (let's be honest, if you go on month-long hikes for vacation, you might not be material for on-call tech support).

So when looking to communicate your hobbies professionally, I'd look at:

  1. Find ways to communicate how your hobbies show you have a life.  Yes, you may be on the internet a lot – but when you run social groups and websites it shows you do indeed have a life (just one online).
  2. When you discuss/list your hobbies, make sure that you show what people you relate to and work with – and how it may relate to your job.  I myself found my unrepentant geek background helped in IT since it pretty much guaranteed I'd have a lot in my hobbies to help me relate to people.
  3. Find ways to show how your hobbies indicate your potential.  We put a lot into our hobbies, we learn, we grow, we study, we practice.  Look at what they say about you – and make sure that's something obvious on the job.
  4. Are there any actual negative impacts?  You might not be right for the job or the client.  If you are right you'll want to be prepared for negative comments, or find ways to head them off in the first place. ("I like to go on long wilderness trips – when I'm able to arrange the free time").

Don't go worrying about communicating your hobbies or not, except perhaps in extreme cases  Instead find ways to communicate them to interviewers, HR, clients, etc. by keeping the above four categories in mind.

– Steven Savage

News of the Day 12/15/2009

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A look at the damage caused by unemployment, how to save Detroit, Borders is in trouble, Comcast is on the move, and I get to brag about being somewhat right about Harlequin and video games. Geeky Career Big Sentai Team Go – it's news time!

Career:
A look at effects of unemployment – It puts a face to the numbers and is a must-read. It's also important to remember the troubles people face and the impacts of their troubles do not just vanish when they get a job. We're seeing long-term effects, and indeed long-term damage, to people's lives, health, and mental well-being.

Dan Schwabel takes a look at personal branding trends.

Economics/Geekonomics:
Yves Smith quotes a reader saying we need new words to embarass people for engaging in dumb, mindless group activity – such as what we saw with the financial meltdown. They're aiming for a german sounding word, with Narrenfieber (crazy fever) or Narrenfreude (crazy happiness) to start with. Go help out so we can embarass more people in the future properly.

A plan on how to save Detroit. A mixture of human compassion, historical knowledge, and the sheer geeky courage it takes to mix them all into an idea for solving Detroit's issues? The basic summary is that you need leadership, specific actions, definite plans, long-term investment, sense of self-identity, tackling different regions differently – and accepting it may take up to a generation to fix things.

(A great read on many levels! Remember, you reading this are the imaginative types, the fanboys, fangirls, otaku, and more – your imagination may just dream up the solutions for the future.)

Anime and Manga:
Crunchyroll creates new Drama membership – Much like it's anime membership, providing enhanced features. The Crunchymarch to victory continues.

Publishing:
Sephen Covey moves rights to e-books from print publisher Simon & Shuster to Amazon. Royalties appear to be a factor, but Mr. Covey (of the "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" fame) is even looking into self-publishing. This is a sign of larger changes in the industry – self-publishing, e-publishing, the prevailance of Amazon.com, etc. A good read – and keep in mind my past statements that authors now need to consider all options in publishing – even a big name like Mr. Covey apparently is willing to rethink things . . .

Bonnie and I have been all over Skiff, but here's a Critique of the idea from the president and general manager of ESPN. Frankly I don't find his arguments all that convincing, but I felt it was good to provide some contrast to the enthusiasm we here at Fan To Pro have held.

Border's will close the 22nd if a buyer is not found – Bad news for bookselling, though I wonder if this announcement is a gambit to force purchases as well. That's a shakeup in the bookselling market if it happens – and more if it just shuts down.

Social Media:
Myspace may also be looking at Flixter as MySpace continues on its work of self-evolution.
Video:
Comcast launches its own internet broadcast system, Xfinity. We knew something like thi sis coming so . . . here it is. Not exactly thrilled that it needs a download to run, I sense all sorts of massive problems there. Also, wondering if bringing this out with the NBC purchase makes them look too aggressive to regulators.


Video Games:
Well I called it. Harlequin is releasing a video game via Big Fish with tie-in to novels. It's a basic hidden object game (looks nice though). If you've followed any of my writings or podcasts recently you know I've speculated on Harlequin's possible opportunities in gaming – so here we go. Also note Big Fish is living up to it's names by singing other deals. So, my geeks and fans, why aren't they getting your resumes?

An analysis of why some MMO's suck. Protip from a Project Manager – bad starts and bad process are the reason a lot of things fail. Go on, take a read.

60% of households have game consoles. The shift to watching more TV may have had something to do with it, along with changes in social patterns (check out the tidbit on buying habits at the end). The market is there, even in these troubled times (just is it enough to keep the current workforce in games going or expanding).

Kongregate releases development platform. They want to get into the MMO market and others as well. Go take a look, Kongregate obviously wants to support developers – including ones not supported by other platforms.

Square Enix ships 1 million copies of FF XIII in Japan. So here we go, let's see how it does . . .

Writing:
Carol Tice adds more tips on writing careers to consider.

General Nerdity:
Instant noodles combined with Asian Economics? How could I resit mentioning that the o wner of the company that's the biggest instant noodle distributor looks to expand to China.

QUESTION FOR THE DAY: Did Comcast tip its hand by announcing Xfinity? Is it too early and will it impact their acquisition plans?

– Steven Savage