"Interests outside work"

[mike]

I used to use the hobbies bit as a lightener towards  the ned of the interview - but it was also one of the best ways of finding out a bulshitter. Surprising how often "photography' meant holiday snaps.

I do it the other way round and use it as an icebreaker to see if they can hold a conversation about something they are supposed to like before starting the meatier bits of the interview, especially if there something i know sommat about.  Quite an easy way to tell if the rest of the CV is complete and utter bullshit too.

[clarion]

Precisely.

[hellymedic]

Too true. My brother interviewed someone who mentioned a specific place in Italy on the CV. Brother knew loads about this place, interviewee did not.
FAIL!

[vorsprung]

In the ancient far off days before everyone had access to wordprocessors (the 80s) I did some CVs for a friend of Mrs V.  She was a professional singer and I got bored typing up the CV.  They looked fabulous but had to be redone because I'd claimed she worked with "Richard Stilgoe, Spawn of Satan".  Well he does look a bit evil with that little beard.

[GrahamG]

I'm currently helping wifey with her teaching application forms (first post as newly qualified teacher), and it's a real maze with the whole personal statement things on methods & strategies. Headache on the way tonight as we try and whittle it down to something really special in order to secure an interview.

Make sure you reply to the job specification, work through it point by point. If you manage that you should end up on the shortlist first cut. Sound enthusiastic but realistic. Personal statements are v important as well, research the school and create a reason why you would want to work at THAT school. Look at the last Ofsted.

IANAT, but I do help Mrs Ham (HT) with shortlisting.

Thanks, Ham. That's pretty much what I've fleshed out in reviewing her statement - she's not the greatest writer of flowing prose but she'll be a bloody great D&T teacher. I, on the other hand, have spent a few years crafting all sorts of masterful bullshit

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

This thread has just reminded me of the CV, recently proof-read by my boyfriend-of-the-time which had 'chasing down loose men, hot bikes and fast cakes' as my interests, that I forgot to change before sending it to the recruitment bod.

Did you get the job?

[Regulator]

Is there life outside wor?  I'm so hectic at the moment (it's contracting season) that I'm working in the evening and at weekends.

I got home about 6.30 last night and, as I got in and after a brief hello, I was straight onto the computer to sort emails.  It wasn't until about 9.00 p.m. when Mr R said rather dejectedly that he was tired and off to bed that I realised I hadn't asked him anything aout his holiday... and I hadn't seen him for over a week... 

[tatanab]

Like mike I've used "outside interests" as an icebreaker when conducting interviews.  As Jaded says, it shows up some BS.  I had one chap who expressed an interest in weather forecasting; when asked he said he watched the forecast on TV a couple of a day.

[Rhys W]

I used to use the hobbies bit as a lightener towards  the ned of the interview - but it was also one of the best ways of finding out a bulshitter. Surprising how often "photography' meant holiday snaps.

That reminds me - when I was at university a friend went for an interview for a job as a trainee BBC cameraman. In his interests section he'd mentioned his hobby of photography (which was, in fact, holiday snaps) and boasted of owning an SLR camera. Of course, he was asked what SLR stood for. He didn't know.

He was doing a degree in atmospheric physics, and he was also asked "so, can you tell me why the sky appears blue?" He didn't know that either.

[Speshact]

I once got a job where I subsequently found out that the final decision between whether to interview me or someone else went my way because my hobbies looked more interesting.

People's personal email addresses can be a barrier to being invited to interview too. I can't remember the specific address now, but it was along the lines of permanentlypissed@hotmail......

[ian]

The ones I read tend to split into two categories. The anodyne: "Reading, cinema, travel". They may as well list "breathing" as an interest. I like breathing, after all. The only people who don't like breathing are zombies. Admittedly, I've employed zombies before (it's all I can conclude from the available evidence and their fitful animation around lunch time), so there may be a point here.

Then there are the ones that take it other way and try too hard to impress. I had some guy who claimed his hobby was running a dive school each summer in the Bahamas. Well, that's rather cool, thought I. So cool that I called them to check. I work in sales, so obviously we want to employ sociopathic bullshitters, but they have to be good sociopathic bullshitters.

Snorkelling while on holiday isn't 'running a dive school.'

I flipped the lever and another candidate dropped down the chute to the shark tank. Outswimming our toothy little bendy fish friends shouldn't have been a problem for someone with his ninja scuba skills after all.

It's mostly social Internet bullshit these days. Everyone has invented some kind of app-shit with their mate in their flat in Hoxton. I am not fooled, these are the same people who would spend half their first day trying to find the 'on' switch on their PC. Probably because there isn't an app for that.

Really, this is not proving a healthy diet for a shark.

[rogerzilla]

Never mention any support of a professional football club.  It is overwhelmingly likely to result in a  rejection unless you KNOW all the selection panel also support that team.

One manager for whom I worked used to reject all the non-Aston Villa supporters, had they been stupid enough to state a preference.  For some reason, men can't resist doing this on a CV.

[rogerzilla]

This thread has just reminded me of the CV, recently proof-read by my boyfriend-of-the-time which had 'chasing down loose men, hot bikes and fast cakes' as my interests, that I forgot to change before sending it to the recruitment bod.

Did you get the job?

I once hacked the bio of a dull Catholic girl at work so that her interests became "binge drinking and witchcraft".

[L CC]

This thread has just reminded me of the CV, recently proof-read by my boyfriend-of-the-time which had 'chasing down loose men, hot bikes and fast cakes' as my interests, that I forgot to change before sending it to the recruitment bod.

Did you get the job?

The agent spotted it before she sent it out. She phoned and asked if I was sure that was what I wanted it to say. I said sex, drugs and rock & roll was closer, but we could tone it down if she thought it would help...

[drossall]

It's sometimes helpful to see that someone is a more rounded individual.  It wouldn't colour my judgment either way, but it can also help to have something to discuss to put people at their ease in interview/assessment situations.

+1. I'm a bit old fashioned about this - I know that the modern ethos is a very brief CV with no extraneous details. However, for me, interests give something to talk about, and may show some worthwhile characteristics. I wouldn't interview someone because they did or didn't ride a bike, but a hobby that required commitment might help, one that required social interaction would do no harm, the willingness to take a leadership or committee position could be a useful indicator, and so on. Or at worst it would be topic of conversation to broaden the interview.

[Morrisette]

We've just been looking at CVs for a new post at my place, and some of them have so many outside interests (running web businesses, huge lists of family commitments, two months a year doing archeology in Greece) that we were left wondering if they  would have any time for work.

[Ariadne]

Hmm, interesting. I recently took 'interests' off my CV, on the basis that it was a bit frivolous and maybe more relevant to younger people with little experience. Maybe I should put some back in!

[clarion]

It's annoying that people list reading and walking.  I used to, but I'll warrant that I was much more into both than the vast majority of people.  Probably the same for cycling these days.  Someone might put that down if they occasionally go for a scoot round the local park.  So it might get overlooked, yet there are plenty of very interesting conversations to be had with members of this forum.

[marcusjb]

People's personal email addresses can be a barrier to being invited to interview too. I can't remember the specific address now, but it was along the lines of permanentlypissed@hotmail......

100% and it amazes me how many people have ridiculous Email addresses when there are so many free options out there for getting a nice sensible, employer-friendly address.

One that sticks in my mind was myballsareitchy@hotmail.....

He wasn't asked for interview.

Yours faithfully

isnortcokeoffhookersthighseveryweekend@homail.com

[TimC]

As part of my then job as an imstructor at an RAF University Air Squadron, I used to interview undergraduates who wished to join the squadron. As the RAF was particularly keen to attract individuals who might be interested in joining the force after graduation, the application and interview process was pretty much exactly the same as the pre-employment one, and was a detailed and rigorous procedure. All aspects of a candidate's life were covered, and interests and hobbies would be examined in the hope of revealing a well-rounded individual. The number who displayed absolutely no factual knowledge of their claimed spare-time activities was quite remarkable! As was the number who had no knowledge of current affairs, yet wished to be associated with an organisation for whom the news served as an early warning of where it might next be expected to enjoy an excursion at Her Majesty's pleasure.

[MattH]

Make sure you reply to the job specification, work through it point by point. If you manage that you should end up on the shortlist first cut. Sound enthusiastic but realistic. Personal statements are v important as well, research the school and create a reason why you would want to work at THAT school. Look at the last Ofsted.

Very good advice.

With the outside interests, when I was looking a couple of years ago I not only listed them but put in a short explanation of how this relates to the work - so, for example, I give a very brief description of audaxing (along the lines of riding up to 300 miles per day with no support over consecutive days, showing planning ability, tenacity, resourcefulness etc ), then also listed some complementary stuff (I was on the committee of a big car club, organising international events for members). So rather than "cars and bicycles" I gave some meat, pointed out that I voluntarily take on responsibility, work at a high level even in my social life, work with groups or on my own, and do some interesting stuff.
In every interview I had (not that many, I found a job very quickly) the interviewer asked lots of questions about the cycling, which was a great ice breaker.

When I'm looking at CVs, as others have said the interests section can make an otherwise average CV stand out.

[Kim]

100% and it amazes me how many people have ridiculous Email addresses when there are so many free options out there for getting a nice sensible, employer-friendly address.

One that sticks in my mind was myballsareitchy@hotmail.....

Similarly, avoiding domains associated with luserdom is probably a good idea if someone net-savvy is liable to be looking over your CV.  A boring domain based on your name, or something neutral like gmail is a far better bet than hotmail, aol, btinternet and so on...

[tatanab]

Personal statements are v important as well

When interviewing I used to hate answers which started "we did--" "we achieved --" etc.  I always stopped there and asked what the interviewee had done themselves.  I suppose this is somewhat at odds with the modern idea that everybody has to claim to be a "team player".
Mind you, usually there would be two of us conducting the interview and I would be the bad one asking the difficult searching questions.

[iddu]

This thread has just reminded me of the CV, recently proof-read by my boyfriend-of-the-time which had 'chasing down loose men, hot bikes and fast cakes' as my interests, that I forgot to change before sending it to the recruitment bod.

Don't worry.

That translates in pimpspeak to excellent web developer, will commute to Sunderland, and has artistic tendencies

You're a shoo-in for the job...

[Karla]

Iddu's hobbies, from my experience, include:

Meeting strange men in car parks
Sleeping in bus shelters
Wearing silly hats.

His email address, however, is perfectly boring.