Should I put hobbies and interests on a résumé?

What to put there instead

Two or three specific ones, or none. Name the thing precisely and let the specificity carry it: the distance, the instrument, the language and level, the number of years, the fact that you organise it rather than attend it. If none of your interests survives that test, cut the section and use the lines for work.

When the usual advice is wrong

Keep the section when the interest is the point. Client-facing and relationship roles where an opening conversation has value, positions where an interest demonstrates a genuinely relevant capability, and applications outside your home country where a language belongs somewhere visible. In several countries a personal section is also simply expected, and omitting it reads as an incomplete document rather than a considered choice.

A worked example

Three facts a reader can picture and ask about, in the space three categories occupied while saying nothing.

Common questions

Should I put hobbies and interests on a résumé?

Only where the interest is specific enough to be a fact rather than a mood. Two or three specific ones, or none. Name the thing precisely and let the specificity carry it: the distance, the instrument, the language and level, the number of years, the fact that you organise it rather than attend it. If none of your interests survives that test, cut the section and use the lines for work.

Why does "a hobbies and interests section" weaken a résumé?

Interests fail for the same reason character adjectives fail: written generically they describe a category of person rather than a person. "Reading, travelling, socialising with friends" is true of nearly everyone and therefore distinguishes nobody, which makes it a paragraph of page space returning nothing. Written specifically they do the opposite, because a real commitment is a fact with a duration and a scale attached, and it can carry evidence of persistence or leadership that your employment history has no room for.

When is it right to keep it?

Keep the section when the interest is the point. Client-facing and relationship roles where an opening conversation has value, positions where an interest demonstrates a genuinely relevant capability, and applications outside your home country where a language belongs somewhere visible. In several countries a personal section is also simply expected, and omitting it reads as an incomplete document rather than a considered choice.

Where this is corroborated

These career services publish guidance on this section. Each was read and checked to actually address it. They establish that the question is taken seriously; the argument above is ours.

• Harvard UniversityCreate a strong résumé, Harvard FAS Office of Career Services
• University of PennsylvaniaHobbies and interests: should they be on your résumé? Penn Career Services
• Yale UniversityRésumé advice and samples, Yale Law School Career DevelopmentLaw school guidance; legal hiring has conventions of its own.