Should you have hobbies on your CV?

I recently had my current CV reviewed by Hilt and one of the things I asked about was whether I should include a hobbies and interests section. I’d always heard mixed opinions — some people said it helps employers see who you are outside of work, while others think it’s just wasted space as employers don’t care if you like to read, jog or do Pilates in your spare time!

What I was told made it a lot clearer. Apparently, it really depends on where you are in your career.

For more senior roles, I was advised to leave hobbies out altogether as that space is better used highlighting strong professional achievements rather than personal interests.

Since I’m not at that level yet, the advice was a bit more nuanced. If you’re a recent graduate, you should actually include them but not as “Hobbies”.

For someone like me, somewhere in the middle, it’s optional, but if I do include interests, I was advised, just like a graduate, to call the section “Interests and Achievements” and make it more meaningful.

They explained I need to be strategic about it and not to just list activities, but to frame them in a way that shows useful skills. So instead of simply saying I enjoy walking, swimming and reading (which is what I had!), it was recommended to structure it like this:

Interests & Achievements

Walking** – member of a local hill walking club and have organised walks to raise funds for local charities (**This shows them that you have initiative and organisation skills)

Swimming** – train with the club and have helped with junior swimming classes (**This shows them that you have teamwork and patience!)

Reading** – founder member of local book club. Gave a presentation at a national book club event and recently invited leading local author Max Readalot to speak at our club (**This shows them that you have communication and networking skills)

Another useful tip I got was to include other relevant details in that same section, things like having a full driving licence, language skills, awards, or anything that shows genuine interest in the field I’m applying to. For example, if I were going for an IT role, mentioning contributions to tech blogs would actually strengthen my application.

Overall, I came away thinking it’s not about whether you have hobbies on your CV; it’s about whether you’re using that space to show something valuable.

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