Hobbies and interests on a resume: when they help

The default: leave them off

For most mid-career applications, the interests line is the first thing to cut. Recruiters screen for evidence you can do the job; “reading, travel, music” adds none and costs a line your skills or a quantified bullet could use.

When they genuinely help

Three cases: you are early-career and the page is thin; the interest demonstrates a job-relevant capability (a marathon for discipline-heavy roles, open-source contributions for engineering, a 10k-follower channel for marketing); or the employer signals culture fit matters (startups, mission-driven orgs, roles naming the interest).

Pick interests with evidence, not adjectives

Treat an interest like a bullet: concrete and verifiable. “Chess — competitive player, 1800 rating” or “Volunteer tax preparer, 3 seasons” beats “strategy games” and “volunteering”. If you cannot attach a fact, it is filler.

Interests that backfire

Anything polarizing (politics, religion — unless applying to an aligned organization), anything risky-sounding for the role, and long lists of passive consumption (watching series, browsing social media). One or two strong items maximum.

How to format the section

One line at the very bottom, labeled “Interests”, comma-separated. Never above skills or experience, never with icons or graphics that break ATS parsing. In RezUp, a one-line custom section keeps it parseable in both the PDF and DOCX export.

The test before you keep it

Ask: would a hiring manager reading only this line learn something that helps them say yes? If not, cut it and let your experience do the talking.

Hobbies vs interests vs activities

Recruiters read them the same way, but “Activities” earns its place most often: it implies participation with outcomes (club leadership, organized events, competitions) rather than passive preference. If your items are genuinely activities, label them that.

Interests by industry

Conservative fields (law, banking, government) expect none — cut the section. Creative and consumer-facing fields tolerate one strong line. Early-stage startups sometimes read interests as culture signal; check whether the posting or careers page mentions any.

Volunteering usually beats hobbies

If you must fill space, structured volunteering (tutoring, tax prep, coaching, open-source maintenance) carries verifiable responsibility and outcomes. It can even be a short custom section of its own with one bullet of scope — stronger than any interest line.

New grads: activities are experience

Before your first job, campus activities with responsibility — treasurer, team captain, hackathon organizer — belong under a proper “Activities” or “Leadership” section with quantified bullets, not compressed into an interests line. See our new-grad guide for full structure.

Never pad with inventions

An invented marathon or fake chess rating is the cheapest thing for an interviewer to poke at — small-talk questions come precisely from this line. If nothing true is worth listing, the honest empty line is stronger.

The one-line rule

However you use it: one line, bottom of the page, concrete items only, and only after skills and experience are as strong as you can make them. It is a garnish, never a course.