Should You Put Hobbies on Your Resume? The Honest Answer

That is also why the advice about hobbies is so contradictory. One recruiter will tell you the section is a waste of space. Another will tell you it was the line that got you the interview. Both of them are telling the truth about their own hiring. The trick is knowing which recruiter you're writing for, and what your hobbies actually prove.

What the surveys actually say (and why they disagree)

Ask recruiters about hobbies and you get a split verdict, which tells you more than any single number would.

A poll of 572 recruiters and hiring managers by Remote Rebellion found 52% like seeing hobbies because they help them understand the person behind the resume, 23% think hobbies are pointless and don't influence their decision, and 17% say hobbies only make sense when they relate to the role. Add it up and roughly three in four recruiters are at least open to the section, but only if it earns its place.

Now the other side. Resume statistics compiled by Enhancv and StandOut CV report that only 19% of resumes include a hobbies and interests section, while 79% of recruiters say they don't read it. And a ResumeLab study of more than 500 recruiters and HR professionals found that 90% of professional CV writers advise leaving hobbies off once you have more than five years of experience, and 77% advise against listing them even for less experienced candidates.

These numbers aren't really contradicting each other. They're describing two different hobbies sections. The one recruiters skip is the generic list at the bottom of the page: reading, traveling, cooking. The one they remember is a short, specific section that proves something the rest of the resume doesn't. Data from nearly 7 million resumes analyzed by Resume.io shows reading is the most listed hobby worldwide, appearing in the top five in 90% of countries surveyed, with traveling second at 77% and cooking third at 50%. When everyone lists the same three hobbies, the section stops saying anything about you at all.

There is also a generational split worth knowing about. Resume Genius's 2024 Hiring Trends Survey found that 57% of Gen Z hiring managers rate hobbies and interests as one of the three most important resume sections, and Gen Z managers are 36% more likely than other hiring managers to treat the section as the most critical part of the resume. If your hiring manager is under 30, the hobbies section carries real weight. If they are over 50, it probably carries less. You can't know who's reading, so write the section to survive both audiences: short, specific, and skill-linked.

Why hobbies matter more in a skills-based hiring market

The strongest case for a hobbies section has nothing to do with personality. It has to do with how hiring actually works now.

In NACE's Job Outlook 2026 survey, 70% of employers said they use skills-based hiring for entry-level roles, up from 65% the year before, while only 42% still screen candidates by GPA, down from 73% in 2019. NACE's own advice to students is blunt: translate your coursework and extracurricular activities into the language of professional skills, because that is what employers are now screening for.

That is exactly what a good hobbies section does. When work experience is thin, which is true for every recent graduate and every career changer, hobbies and activities are often the only evidence you have for the skills the job posting asks for. Leadership, teamwork, discipline, initiative: these are the attributes NACE says employers want most, and a hobby you have actually done is proof of them in a way a skills list never is. "Teamwork" in a skills section is a claim. "Captain of a 30-player amateur football club for three seasons" is evidence.

This is also why the section is having a moment. The Wall Street Journal has reported on job seekers reviving the one-line hobbies section to stand out in a market where AI-written applications all look alike, with recruiters saying a distinctive hobby gives them a reason to take a second look and an easy opening question in the interview. A hobby can't replace qualifications. But when fifty qualified candidates look identical on paper, the human detail is what gets remembered.

When to include hobbies (5 cases)

1. You're a recent graduate or early in your career. With little work history, your activities are your experience. A hiring manager deciding between two new graduates will use whatever evidence exists, and a well-chosen hobby is evidence.

2. You're changing careers. Your old job titles don't match the new field. A hobby that demonstrates the target field's skills bridges the gap. Someone moving into UX design who runs a small design blog has proof of genuine interest that a certificate alone doesn't give.

3. The hobby is directly relevant to the role. A developer who contributes to open-source projects, a teacher who coaches a youth team, a marketer who runs a newsletter with a real audience: these aren't hobbies, they're unpaid work experience, and they belong on the page.

4. It proves a skill the job posting asks for. Read the posting first. If it asks for leadership, discipline, or public speaking, and your hobby demonstrates exactly that, the section is doing real work.

5. It makes you memorable without being risky. The best hobbies give an interviewer a natural question: "You row competitively, how do you fit training around work?" That question is a gift. It lets you talk about discipline and time management in your own words.

When to leave hobbies off (5 cases)

1. You have more than five years of relevant experience. At that point your work history should carry the whole argument. The ResumeLab finding is right here: experienced candidates gain nothing from the section, and it costs space better used on results.

2. You need the space for something that matters more. A one-page resume for a senior role has no room for hobbies. Cut the section before you cut an achievement.

3. Your only hobbies are the generic trio. Reading, traveling, cooking: if that's the list, leave it off. It adds no information and it signals that you filled the section because you thought you had to.

4. The hobby invites bias or awkward questions. Some hobbies reveal things a hiring manager has no business weighing: your religion, your politics, your health, your age. A hobby tied to a political campaign or a religious organization can trigger conscious or unconscious bias, and it gives an interviewer a topic they shouldn't be exploring. Keep those off the resume, no matter how proud of them you are.

5. You'd have to stretch the truth. A Babbel survey of more than 1,000 Americans found 14% admitted listing hobbies on their resume that they don't actually have, and one in eight admitted lying about foreign language fluency. Interviewers ask about hobbies precisely because they expect a real conversation. Getting caught exaggerating a hobby is worse than having no hobbies section at all, because it poisons everything else on the page.

How to write a hobbies section that actually works

The formula is simple: activity, plus proof, plus the skill it signals. One line each. Three to five items maximum, placed at the very bottom of the resume, after experience, education, and skills.

Weak version:

Hobbies: reading, traveling, photography

Strong version:

Interests: Marathon running (3 races, personal best 3:41) · Volunteer youth football coach, under-12s · Open-source contributor, 40+ merged pull requests

The first version tells a recruiter nothing. The second tells them this person finishes hard things, leads a team of kids every weekend, and writes code that strangers accept into their projects. Same section, completely different resume.

A few format rules that matter:

• Use "Interests" or "Hobbies and Interests" as the heading. Both are understood by recruiters and by ATS parsers. Don't get creative with the heading.
• Keep it to one or two lines total. Recruiters who like the section want a quick read. Recruiters who don't will skip it either way, but a short section costs them nothing.
• Lead with the strongest item. If one hobby is directly relevant to the role, put it first.
• Add a number or outcome wherever you can. "Chess club member" is forgettable. "Chess club president, grew membership from 12 to 60" is a leadership story in eight words.

Hobbies that help, and hobbies that hurt

Some categories translate to hiring signals more reliably than others:

• Endurance sports and long training arcs (marathon running, triathlons, martial arts) signal discipline and delayed gratification. They are the most consistently respected hobby category among recruiters.
• Team leadership roles (captain, coach, club president) signal the leadership and conflict management that job postings ask for by name.
• Creative work with an audience (a blog, a YouTube channel, photography with exhibitions) signals initiative and the ability to finish and ship work.
• Technical side projects (open source, hackathons, home labs) signal genuine interest in the field, which matters enormously for technical roles.
• Volunteering is the single strongest hobby category in the data. Deloitte's 2016 Impact Survey found 82% of hiring managers are more likely to choose a candidate with volunteer experience, yet only 30% of resumes include it.

And the ones to avoid: anything illegal or extreme enough to raise safety questions, anything that reads as a political or religious statement, anything you can't talk about confidently for two minutes, and anything from childhood that you haven't done in a decade. "Played piano as a child" is not a hobby. It's a memory.

The US vs UK difference

This is one section where geography changes the answer. In the UK, an interests section on a CV is a long-standing convention: university careers services like the University of Bath actively advise students to include one, and a Prospects/HECSU study of UK graduate employers found hiring managers saying the section gives them "a window into personality" and helps otherwise identical candidates stand out, provided the hobbies are genuinely interesting rather than the generic trio.

In the US, the section is optional and less expected. American resumes are shorter, and the hobbies section is the first thing cut when space gets tight. If you're applying in the UK, include the section more often. If you're applying in the US, include it only when it passes the tests above.

One rule holds in both countries: never put a hobby on a resume that you wouldn't also be comfortable discussing in the interview, because that is exactly where it will come up.

What about the ATS?

A hobbies section won't help or hurt your ATS score in any meaningful way, and that's worth knowing so you don't overthink it. Applicant tracking systems scan for keywords from the job description, and hobby keywords almost never match a posting's required skills. The exception is a technical hobby: open-source contributions or a personal project can legitimately carry keywords like Python or React that the posting asks for.

The practical ATS rules are the same as for the rest of the resume: keep the section in plain text, use a standard heading, and don't hide hobbies inside graphics, icons, or text boxes that a parser can't read. If you're not sure your resume parses cleanly, run it through a free ATS checker before you send it. That check matters far more than anything in the hobbies section itself.

The 30-second decision

Still unsure? Run your hobbies through this test:

1. Does this hobby prove a skill this specific job asks for, or fill a gap my work history leaves open?
2. Can I talk about it for two minutes without bluffing?
3. Would I be comfortable if the interviewer spent five minutes on this topic?
4. Does it survive the bias check: does it reveal anything about my religion, politics, health, or age that I'd rather keep private?

Four yes answers, with the fourth being a "no, it doesn't reveal anything," and the hobby earns its line. Anything else gets cut. Most resumes end up with two or three lines that pass, and that's the right size.

Frequently asked questions

Should I put hobbies on my resume if I have 10 years of experience? Usually no. With a decade of results to show, hobbies add nothing a hiring manager needs, and they take space from achievements. The exception is a hobby that is directly relevant to the role or demonstrates a leadership story your work history doesn't.

Is it OK to list just one hobby? Yes. One strong, specific hobby beats five vague ones. A single line like "Marathon runner, 4 races completed" is a complete section.

Do recruiters actually read the hobbies section? Some do, some don't. The honest split from recruiter polling is roughly half who value it, a quarter who ignore it, and the rest who only care when it's relevant. Write it for the half who value it, keep it short for the rest.

Should I include hobbies on a UK CV? Yes, more often than on a US resume. UK CV convention treats an interests section as standard, and UK graduate employers say it helps them get a sense of the person. Keep it to one or two lines at the bottom.

Can a hobby hurt my chances? Yes, in three ways: if it's fake and you get asked about it, if it reveals something that triggers bias, or if it's so generic that it makes the whole resume feel padded. All three are avoidable.

What if my hobbies are boring? Then leave the section off. A resume without hobbies is completely normal. Nobody has ever been rejected for lacking an interests section, but plenty of candidates have weakened a good resume with a filler one.

The hobbies section is the smallest decision on your resume and one of the most argued about, which tells you something: it matters at the margins, and margins decide close calls. Write it only when each line proves something, keep it short enough that even a skeptical recruiter doesn't mind it, and never let it take space from the work that actually gets you hired.

Before you send your resume anywhere, run it through ZenWrit's free ATS resume checker to make sure the whole document, hobbies section included, parses cleanly and hits the keywords the posting actually asks for.

Related reading: How to List Freelance Work on Your Resume, How to List Volunteer Work on Your Resume, Skills-Based Hiring Is Here: How to Write a Skills Section That Actually Gets You Interviews, How to Write a Resume for an Internship, What "ATS-Friendly" Really Means