What Are Your Hobbies?
We help facilitate local interviewing skills workshops offered to folks enrolled at the local ‘One-Stop.’ (If you are looking for work, and have not visited your local One Stop – in our area called Employment Source – they offer solid resources and some very helpful, professional assistance. And, it’s free to job seekers! Okay, it’s not free, however, a very productive use of tax dollars.)
Kind of digressed; sorry. The backgrounds, experience, education and qualifications of these participants in our workshop will range widely from engineer to machinist to IT specialist to secretary to customer service representative. We’re asking panelists (local company recruiters) to prepare to give participants their typical questions that they like to ask candidates.
One of my panelists said that he likes to ask candidates ‘what are your hobbies?’ I’ve rarely used that question. However, his explanation made a lot of sense:
‘People who play team sports as a hobby – softball, basketball, volleyball– will likely work well in a team and probably handle client-facing jobs well because they are social by nature. Someone who runs competitively can usually be counted on to stick with jobs until they are completed, no matter the obstacles. A cook will be pretty creative and seek ideas and inspiration from others, and have the ability to synthesize information into something new.’
Hmmm. Good idea. Good question.
So what are your hobbies? And what do they say about you? Prepare a story or two, (remember: stories, stories, stories) answers to the ‘what are your hobbies?’ question. It’s a good question, and will tell the interviewer through your leisure-time activities what kind of person he or she might be hiring.