Are you struggling to get that dream job? Are you going from one interview to another, thinking it's in the bag only to have your hopes dashed because someone else has more experience, better qualifications, or simply a more dazzling CV than yours?

Getting a new job is no easy feat. What is the correct layout for your CV? Should education sit ahead of employment and how important is it to have a hobbies and interests section? Perhaps having similar interests or even supporting the same football team as your employer might just swing that interview for you!

Yell.com are due to unveil findings from their recent research, which focuses on the personal interests of prospective job candidates. The research investigates the range of hobbies that job seekers partake in and examines the influence this portion of the CV has on potential employers. How much do personal interests influence employers when deciding whether or not an individual will fit with the ethos and culture of their organisation?

Claude Littner, Alan Sugar's trouble shooter from the TV series The Apprentice, is one man who can give you the right advice to ensure you're conveying the right kind of insight into your pastimes on your CV, and how this can positively affect your job prospects. Barbara Newman from Yell.com will also be on hand to tell you how to get started on an unusual hobby in your area.

Join Claude Littner and Barbara Newman live online to discuss getting that dream job

H: Vicky Letch, host
C: Claude Littner
B: Barbara Newman

H: Hello and welcome to the Business Show. I’m Vicki Letch. Now if like me you’ve always struggle with ideas of what to pop into that personal interest section of your CV, stay tuned, because today we’re going to be having a chat about what employers rate favourably. Now I’ve been joined in the studio today by a man who’s well used to hiring and firing, that’s Claude Littner, and Barbara Newman from Yell.com. A very warm welcome to you both, thanks for joining us. Before we get stuck in, just a reminder for all of you at home, we are live, live, live, so if you have any questions, remarks or queries pop them into the box on the screen, of course with your name, click send and then we’ll endeavour to get them answered for you as quickly as we possibly can. Barbara I just want to start with you. I understand that yell.com has recently undertook some research. Can you just give us an idea what you’ve discovered?

B: Two pieces of research we’ve done – the first was looking at some of the search statistics of all the people that search yell.com, and given that we’ve got about 7 million people a month using the service

H: Wow

B: Which gives us quite a good indication. And one of the things we’ve noticed was an increase in people looking for more unusual types of hobbies like – it vikram yoga, kite surfing, salsa dancing, pole dancing –

H: Ah pole dancing

B: And that prompted us to do a separate piece of research to go out and talk to people, so we did an online questionnaire of 1000 people asking them about what they put in the hobbies and interest section of their CV, and also asking employers how important they saw this part of the CV, and that’s when we saw something of a disconnect because we had 59% of employers saying this was an important indicator and helped them judge how people might fit into an organisation’s culture, and also to some extent gives that little bit of stand-out in a CV to someone who they might want to interview versus not, but only about 34% of the people that we talked to actually put anything about their hobbies and interests on their CV, so I think that’s something for people to start looking at and saying I think this is something actually that may make a difference when I’m applying for a job

H: Yes – always about that little extra effort isn’t it to get the employer’s attention. Now talking about grabbing someone’s attention, Claude I’m sure over the years you’ve seen a plethora of CVs presented to you. Do any of them stick out in terms of hobbies and interests?

C: I can’t say that particular ones do, but I think it’s very important that the candidate does put some hobbies and interests down because otherwise he doesn’t differentiate himself from the pack. It’s important that if they’ve got similar qualifications, similar kind of experience, their personality comes through as a first instance in the CV, so it is important to put those kind of things down, providing of course that they are truthful ones and you don’t just invent some you know lap dancing interest just to get the employer’s attention

H: Ok. Now we’re getting a visual. To all of you at home if you’ve just joined us, a very warm welcome. We’re having a chat about your personal interests section of your CV and what could spark an interest for your potential employer. Talking about that, what kind of hobbies and interests do you think will grab the attention of an employer or do you think it’s all relative?

C: Well I think it depends on the kind of job you’re applying for. Clearly if you’re going into a very very large company it’s important that within the team you’re working for you can amalgamate your skills, so if for example you have an employer who has got an international, multi-national kind of company and you can offer maybe a second language or some kind of maybe some tennis or something like that that perhaps the company might find very useful outside the workplace environment, those are all things that could be very interesting to an employer

H: Any ideas?

B: I think it’s something that stands out partly as well that just gives you that element of differentiation. You know talking earlier to somebody about what she put on her CV, she was saying that she could sing Spice Girls in French, so you know that may not be something that’s important to the job, but just gives that little bit of interest

H: Yes. And then I’d say perform, I want to hear it if I was interviewing her. Now you touched very briefly on different hobbies and interests and you said pole dancing because of course this is taking the world by storm – smile on this man’s face – and lots of people are doing it to keep fit – is that still, do you think a suitable thing to put onto your CV if you’re doing it obviously just to keep fit?

B: I think yes you put it in the context that you do it to keep fit as well so it’s - it’s just a different interest, it’s something that you are interested in doing something that’s just that little bit different

H: Ok. Now what about when you go to an interview, obviously the first thing I always want to do, or what I look to do is to build up a rapport with that person as soon as possible. Do you think hobbies and interests are a good in to build that relationship with someone?

C: Well what I found was that once you’ve got through that stage of actually getting to an interview, it is important to impress the prospective employer, and the more you can add in terms of your personality, understanding of the business, the employer’s business, that’s always going to be – put you in the forefront. If you’ve got an interesting hobby or career or something outside your career, I think these are things that the employer can focus on and can differentiate you from the others so I think it is very very important to put those things forward, but when you’re employing somebody, personality, how they’re going to fit in with the team is important and if you happen to be lucky enough to have an interest which fits in with the group, that puts you ahead of the others

H: So in terms of that, do you think it’s important then to tailor your hobbies and interests to a particular employer?

B: I think there’s – yes depending on the job you’re applying for. I don’t think we’re suggesting you should lie about them but certain hobbies may be more important –

H: I have done that before

B: To highlight than others

H: Ok

C: Clearly that’s absolutely right. I mean the thing is if you have a particular job that you’re applying for it’s important to try and dovetail our interests with those of the culture perhaps of the company, but clearly it’s important not to tell porky pies

H: Ok. We’ve had a question in, Lisa thank you very much and to the rest of you of course send those questions in, we will answer them live for you, Lisa wants to know – Claude this is for you – “what are the worst you’ve seen in terms of interest sections on CVs?”

C: Well that’s a difficult one really, I think there are two crimes really. The first one is putting nothing at all, and the second one is telling us something that’s obviously a lie, because you will get found out, so I couldn’t specifically say that there are any shocking ones that have come to my attention but I think that it is important to put something down that you are genuinely interested in because that’s something the employer can focus in on, ask you questions on and perhaps you might find there’s some synergy there which immediately puts you in the forefront

H: So if that section was missing from a CV you would notice that?

C: I think so, I think that the candidate then is no better than anybody else, and I’ve got nothing to sort of hook myself onto actually give him an interview, or her an interview, so I think it’s pretty important to put it down, but once again I would stress the fact that it should be something that’s pretty honest, otherwise you’ll go to the interview and even if everything else was good, if you’re found to not be telling the truth I think you’ll come unstuck

H: See now I quite often – certainly back in the day – I mean not so much now but back in the day I would always put personal interest, socialising – because I was younger and that was genuinely what I was doing with a lot of my spare time was socialising – do you think that’s an ok way to go, because I know lots of people that would put socialising as a personal interest?

B: I think it’s not wrong to put it down but I think now when you look at the competition for jobs you do need to stand out, and particularly with things like online CVs, employers are getting 100s and 100s of these, so it is important I think to think just a little bit about what else – you know one of the things we found in the research was that when people told us about the hobbies that they put on CVs, they were the more traditional things like socialising, reading – but when you ask them about what they might like to do, more interesting things came out, so it’s adding that extra stimulus there as well

H: I mean obviously if I were to do it now I’d mention the bareback horse riding that I do every Wednesday

C: I’ve seen you

H: Yes

C: You’re good

H: Seen it, yes. Naked. Should people take up more diverse hobbies then in terms of getting a job? Are we moving out of – you don’t just go to the interview, you’ve got to think around the houses – I really want this job, I’m going to take it outside of my work hours, I’m going to take up this hobby, it makes me look more interesting?

C: I think you’ve got to be true to yourself. If you’ve got absolutely no interest in any hobbies at all and you’re a sort of, you know work-related person whose got no other interests there’s no point in inventing something, but on the other hand I think just to create a rounded human being I think it’s important to have an interest in life outside your work so if you’ve got a full work life, it’s important also to have that creative exhibition outside your normal sort of work, so anything you’re interested in, you go on the Yell website or anywhere else and try and find something that’s interesting, if for example the Strictly Come Dancing that’s on TV, if you then get a passion for dancing, well try and take that up, not because it’s going to be good for your employment but because it’s something that you’re going to enjoy doing

H: Absolutely and I will say, I mean we will talk about the website and the quiz, there’s a great quiz on the website for you to do at home, we will talk about that in more detail, but I went on there and it suggested that I should do wine tasting. Now I adore drinking wine and I always say to my girlfriends I’d love to know more about wine, but I’ve never actually had that thought myself of I’ll do a wine tasting course, and I will do it now because yell.com told me to so I will

B: And that’s great because that’s the purpose of the quiz was to give people just some new ideas of things that might fit with the sort of person that they seem to be

H: Yes it’s brilliant. I mean we’ve had another question in, this is from Nathan Holn, thank you Nathan, he wants to know “is it a good idea to include a headshot image of yourself on your CV?” This is a good question because I often argue with people about this

C: Yes. I think it is a good question actually, I do like to see a picture of a person I’m going to interview, but I think that it’s not really necessary. I’m pretty old-fashioned to be honest with you and I’m used to seeing CVs without pictures, but when somebody does provide a photo, I just think it’s a – it just aids you, so I would say do it if you think it’s an advantage, but I don’t think it’s a must – it’s not a must have

H: I would always struggle to know what sort of picture to go for, you know the passport serious look, the moody pout, the thumbs up I’m ready for action – it’d be very difficult.

C: Yes I think that I mean – I think a serious pose is much more in-keeping to be honest with you, because you are applying for a job

H: Yes

C: The job is – it is a serious sort of commitment on both parts and so I think you don’t want to make a fool of yourself too much, but I think a decent shot of you I think is helpful

H: Do you have any views on photos?

B: I’d go along with the same sort I think, traditionally people haven’t but again it’s just something that gives that extra bit of standout

H: Yes I think so, I quite like it and of course you can tell a lot from reading about people and then looking at how they look, it’s nice to marry the two together

C: That’s right

H: Definitely. We had another question in, this is from Maggie, Maggie wants to know “I’m a chartered accountant with 10 years experience, but I really want to get into media” – oh do you really Maggie – “either TV or newspaper, maybe doing strategy or business development, performance improvement, that kind of thing, but I have no media experience. Any tips for persuading someone to take the risk with me rather than someone with a background in TV journalism, other than enthusiasm and reading up about the organisation?”

C: This is always very hard because what tends to happen is as a chartered accountant, a professional person, you’re pigeon-holed, and therefore if you decide at some point you’ve had ten years experience as a chartered accountant, that you want to change your career, it’s hard because people immediately think of you just as a chartered accountant and therefore you haven’t got any other skills, so what I would say is follow your dream, if that’s what you want to do, you want to get into media, you should do it, you should have a try, network, do whatever you can to try and sort of do something that you really enjoy doing because you’re a chartered accountant, if you’ve fallen out of love with doing that then you should change your career. You only have one life, it’s important to be fulfilled

H: Absolutely and before we were live, Barbara, we were having a chat about your day yesterday, sky-diving, and I should think that actually would help you in the long term in terms of Maggie wanting to change her career – pushing your boundaries of comfort, getting out of your comfort zone in terms of hobbies might actually help to give you that confidence to then make that change with your career perhaps?

B: It might, I think there is that element of pushing yourself but I think as Claude said if it’s something you really want to do, what you don’t want to do is look back 10 years later and say I really wish I’d done that, so you know find where you can change, see if somebody will take you on

H: Yes great, ok. Fiona’s written in now, Fiona would like to know, she said “hi. Are there any hobbies you think it’s inappropriate to tell a prospective employer about?”

B: I think there’s an element of use your common sense, depending on the job that you’re applying for depends how wild and whacky the hobbies are. I mean generally you want to be true to yourself

H: Yes

B: But I think you do have to use an element of judgment, in the same way as you talk about the experience you’ve had, you’re using an element of judgement as to what you put on there

C: I think that’s absolutely right, I think that what you want to do is not make yourself look foolish, so if you have got a sort of a whacky interest, I wouldn’t push it forward too much, I think you’ve got to judge what the employer is looking for really, so you wouldn’t sort of go out and sort of say something outlandish, on the other hand, it’s very much how you judge the situation within an interview. If you’re getting into a sort of a friendly situation with the employer, and you think you’re getting on well, you might just introduce this sort of slightly off-beat pastime

H: Yes, great. Ok now let’s get stuck into the website itself, because I was really excited to go on there, it reminded me of an experience at school when you originally go and talk to someone about what you may want to do when you leave school and they say what are your likes and dislikes, but actually it’s far more accurate. I was really surprised and just – is it 10 questions on the quiz?

B: 10 questions

H: 10 questions, it did, it absolutely did pinpoint the types of things that I like to do, so do you just want to talk us through the website itself and how you would go on there to find what hobbies are suitable for you?

B: Right well there’s two ways you can approach yell.com, if you know what you want to do obviously you can just go there and just search for parachuting or whatever it may be in the location that you want, if you’re not sure and you want some suggestions if you just type in hobbies, we’ll give you a list of all different things that you might try, but if you really feel that you don’t have a clue and you want that suggestion of you know take me through, then that’s what the quiz will do, it will take you through some very simple questions about what you’d do in different situations, say if you’d been to the top of Ben Nevis, are you just going to stand there and enjoy the view or are you anxious to get down, and that just helps, I guess analyse your personality a little bit and then once you’ve been through the questions we’ll match that to a typography and the sort of hobbies we think that you might like. Now I’m not saying that that’s going to always be 100% right but you know you might have 3 suggested to you and two of those you might think great, yes, one of them you might think no that’s not me

H: Yes. The gardening wasn’t really me, I will admit, but the wine tasting and the cooking lessons, spot on. I think I came under home body category, not quite as exciting as yours Claude

C: True

H: Tell the nation

C: Well I can tell you I’m a culture vulture, but that’s absolutely not true, and I think what’s important in all these things is not to take it too seriously, it’s a pointer, it’s an indicator, and you know don’t just think you know if the survey comes out showing you’re a particular kind of person, you’ve still got to do what you want to do, you’ve got to follow your dream

H: Ok. We are absolutely hurtling towards the end of the show, so little bit of panic at home if you do have a question, do pop them in the box in your screen. Of course who you are as well, click send and we’ll try and squeeze them in to the final moments. Quite interesting to say of course you can go to the quiz if you don’t have much of an idea of what you want to do, but you also cater for people say who want to scuba dive and they live in Kent so they can do a refined search and you can come up with ideas of where they can do things like that?

B: Yes I mean that’s the essence of what yell.com is about, you want something in a particular place and we’ll help find you the people who do it, so whether it’s scuba diving, kite surfing, photography, pole dancing, whatever, yell.com should be able to cater for all those different interests.

H: You keep going back to that pole dancing you little minx! Ok here we go, Darika, lovely name, Darika wants to know “are there certain hobbies that lend themselves better to certain careers?” I mean we have touched on that slightly

B: I think probably Claude will back this, say if you’re going to go for a job in a creative industry

H: Yes

B: Then things that reflect creativity like photography or writing your own book, making your own clothes, might suggest you’re a creative person and would fit better within that if you were applying for what would be a more routine job, so maybe for an accountancy clerk or something, then a hobby like painting soldiers or doing something in Second Life might mean you’ve got the application that would fit better with that type of job

H: Yes

B: I don’t know whether you’d –

C: No I think that’s absolutely right, I mean the thing is that what’s important is that you enjoy the hobby that you are taking up, it’s not a matter of – oh I must take up a hobby so I’m more interesting as a person so I can get the job, that just doesn’t work, I think that you’ve got to take up a hobby that you actually want to participate in, and if as a result of that that helps you to get the job and have a more rounded experience within your workplace that’s absolutely great

H: I mean it’s not bad homework to have is it, get a hobby that you’re going to love doing. Dan’s written in, Dan would like to know “I’m quite into snowboarding and surfing but have found employers wary of these in the past as believe they think it could cause injury to me resulting in time out of the office. Is it best to hide things such as these?”

C: No I think picking up on the point that was made earlier, if you’re going into a kind of an edgy kind of media-type of job, I think that you know a thrilling kind of snowboarding pastime is one that perhaps the employer might find quite exciting, you’re in with a young crowd, perhaps there’s lots of other people who are similarly encouraged to do these sort of you know off-piste type pastimes, so I think bring it to the fore, if it’s true and that’s what you enjoy, that’s what your personality is, tell your employer about it. If he doesn’t like it, that’s maybe his problem but you can’t kind of change yourself into something that you’re not

H: Ok that’s great, this has been very insightful and do you know what I am going to go home and pop personal interests back on my CV, but before I do it I’m going to go back onto the website. Thank you to you both so much. Now to all of you at home thank you for all of your questions. If you’d like more information do go onto yell.com. Of course if you already have a hobby in mind you can do a refined search, and they can help you out. To let you know exactly where you can do these things or to undertake these hobbies. If you have no idea and you want a little bit of guidance because that’s what I wanted, go onto yell.com, it’s yell/hobbiesfinder?

B: Yell.com/hobbiesfinder

H: Thank you and then there’s a quiz on there and it’s good fun to take the quiz anyway and it just let’s you know – it tells you what your interested in just in case you don’t know! I didn’t know I wanted to do wine tasting and I’m now going to do wine tasting, so do have a look at that, thank you for your time, see you next time. Bye bye

Still got a question or comment?

Name

Your question Question

Enter code