Interests section on resume? Forum

[bloobook]

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[drmguy]

domestic traveling.

I never thought of this. I think I might have to borrow this one for my resume. I put 40,000 miles on my car in about 10 months traveling around the west coast.

[facile princeps]

Pretty sure the only reason I have a 1L summer biggov internship is because I had "baseball history" in my interests section. My interview was a more or less a thirty minute strategy session for the approaching fantasy baseball season.

Reminds me of a story a recruiter told us this year in an info session:

A guy put "Yankees expert" on his interests or whatever, and it turned out a partner down the hall at the firm was an actual Yankees historical and current expert. They brought him over to chat with the interviewee thinking they would connect and have a great convo--turns out the interviewee knew nothing about baseball and was just trying to look like a true New Yorker.

Whoops.

That's funny.

This thread has me thinking i've been doing it all wrong; I've never had interests on my resume. It makes sense, but this is brand new information for me. Thanks guys/gals.

[gregfootball2001]

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[Haymarket]

Very interesting! Thanks for posting all this.

If I put a 'Personal' section at the end, what do you think of this?

• Junior U.S. Olympic Shot Put finalist; Intermediate Italian and beginner German languages
• Interests include the New York Giants; basketball; reading Science Fiction; Opera/Musical Theater

Is the shot put thing weird, as it's from when I was younger?

Thanks.

Why are those things capitalized at the end? Since when is Musical Theater a proper noun?

And you should frame languages in terms of proficiency. The way you worded it sounds really weird. Also, why are you using semi-colons? Commas are fine. But I hope you are prepared to go in depth about each of these things or to be asked to go into the languages on the spot.

[dixon02]

domestic traveling.

I never thought of this. I think I might have to borrow this one for my resume. I put 40,000 miles on my car in about 10 months traveling around the west coast.

I'd probably go even further and say "West Coast road trips" or something of that variety.

[dixon02]

Very interesting! Thanks for posting all this.

If I put a 'Personal' section at the end, what do you think of this?

• Junior U.S. Olympic Shot Put finalist; Intermediate Italian and beginner German languages
• Interests include the New York Giants; basketball; reading Science Fiction; Opera/Musical Theater

Is the shot put thing weird, as it's from when I was younger?

Thanks.

No it's not weird, it's awesome as long as it's something you can actually talk about (you presumably have some good stories to tell?) Put that on there and I guarantee you'll be asked about it as much as anything else on your resume.

[drmguy]

domestic traveling.

I never thought of this. I think I might have to borrow this one for my resume. I put 40,000 miles on my car in about 10 months traveling around the west coast.

I'd probably go even further and say "West Coast road trips" or something of that variety.

I think I am going to do Visiting National Parks

[gregfootball2001]

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[Breezin]

Very interesting! Thanks for posting all this.

If I put a 'Personal' section at the end, what do you think of this?

• Junior U.S. Olympic Shot Put finalist; Intermediate Italian and beginner German languages
• Interests include the New York Giants; basketball; reading Science Fiction; Opera/Musical Theater

Is the shot put thing weird, as it's from when I was younger?

Thanks.

I'd say:

Enjoys Opera, shot putting, and the New York Giants.

Opera lets you elaborate on how much you love to sing and do musical theater.
Shot putting lets you talk about how driven you have always been in whatever you set out to do -- Junior US Olympian, now law.
New York Giants lets you talk about how your a sports nut and play pick-up basketball all the time -- then you can hey what sports do you play?

[Breezin]

Also I would drop the beginner/intermediate languages unless that's a selling point to a firm that is specifically looking for those skills. Sounds fluffy. I mean I took a couple years of Spanish; am I an intermediate Spanish speaker? Have you traveled to those countries or did you teach yourself those languages? It could still be interesting to talk about but the way you have it on your resume comes across a bit fillery.

[IAFG]

Be careful what you write down. My recruiting manager just mentioned something she saw on mine last week (at the end of my SA).

[cinephile]

I actually spent some time yesterday researching my interests just to be sure I knew enough about them to hold a conversation.

[bartleby]

I put "collecting Starbucks mugs" down after "Watching football, playing basketball" and before "food blogging"

I don't think it'll kill me and it could be something stupid to talk about. And if it kills me, oh well.

[fatduck]

The guy who posted, "Benjamin Franklin, Ulysses S. Grant, and Andrew Jackson" struck a chord cause I'm a history dork as well. My favorite topic by a mile is the Civil War.

$100, $50, $20

come on, man

[AVBucks4239]

The guy who posted, "Benjamin Franklin, Ulysses S. Grant, and Andrew Jackson" struck a chord cause I'm a history dork as well. My favorite topic by a mile is the Civil War.

$100, $50, $20

come on, man

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh.

(Am I the only one who didn't get that?)

[Sapientia]

The guy who posted, "Benjamin Franklin, Ulysses S. Grant, and Andrew Jackson" struck a chord cause I'm a history dork as well. My favorite topic by a mile is the Civil War.

$100, $50, $20

come on, man

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh.

(Am I the only one who didn't get that?)

LULZ no i didnt get it

[Richie Tenenbaum]

Very interesting! Thanks for posting all this.

If I put a 'Personal' section at the end, what do you think of this?

• Junior U.S. Olympic Shot Put finalist; Intermediate Italian and beginner German languages
• Interests include the New York Giants; basketball; reading Science Fiction; Opera/Musical Theater

Is the shot put thing weird, as it's from when I was younger?

Thanks.

I'd say:

Enjoys Opera, shot putting, and the New York Giants.

Opera lets you elaborate on how much you love to sing and do musical theater.
Shot putting lets you talk about how driven you have always been in whatever you set out to do -- Junior US Olympian, now law.
New York Giants lets you talk about how your a sports nut and play pick-up basketball all the time -- then you can hey what sports do you play?

Putting "shot putting" sounds weird. The person is better off putting what he originally said--"Junior U.S. Olympic Shot Put finalist." If you're a badass at something, it takes away the weird factor. And it comes off better to put that on your resume, rather than bring it up in conversation when they ask you about why you like to "shot put"--which is a bit awkward to talk about so an interviewer might not even ask, which means you're the random person who like to shot put--and with no explanation behind this, it just is odd.

Also, not sure why you think talking about the NFL will be a natural segue into talking about playing basketball.

I would opt for something like this:

Interests
*Junior U.S. Olympic Shot Put finalist
*Opera and musical theater enthusiast
*Avid New York Giants fan

No ones going to ask you about something as generic as "basketball" and the vast majority of interviewers will not touch science fiction (and for some that do, it might just be an awkward conversation). But highlighting these three things allow easy conversation pieces for a variety of interviewers--everyone can ask about being a Shot Put finalist, and then you will have shared interests with the people who talk about opera/musical theater and/or the New York Giants.

Also keep in mind that you don't want anything on your resume that you don't want to talk about 30 separate times. If you really don't have must to say about being a Junior U.S. Olympic Shot Put finalist, then consider leaving it off (though I'm sure it probably is an interesting story--just warning you if it's not).

[BlueLotus]

How are these? Are they too random? Should I be more specific? How many interests is too many?

"Interests: hiking, bicycling, kayaking, birding, Scrabble, J.R.R. Tolkien novels, Raj Kapoor films, Philadelphia sports"

Also, do PI resumes have to adhere to the strict 1 page limit? I'm a 1L with pre-law school work experience, and I'm one line short of it becoming 2pp.

Should all of my work experience, paid or otherwise, be under one heading, or should I separate compensated work experience and internships/volunteer work?

Should I include a line mentioning my memberships to bar ass'ns in the market I want to target to demonstrate my "ties" and seriousness about wanting to come back home?

[Myself]

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[Anonymous User]

I always get asked about my interest section (govt law, non-profit law, govt policy) and have a couple mins of chat about it. At 2nd round govt law, they asked about my interests and I discussed my interest section and added a couple more. Being a triathlete and cooking "x" type cuisine are the most freq asked about...others, not so much, may revisit the other ones (i.e. travel blogging,spy novels, and college basketball).

I think the two most popular, triathlon and cooking, work because it shows accomplishment and dedication to learning a skill, esp cooking bc I'm a guy. People are usually impressed when I describe the triathlon distances, so I work it to the fullest.

[flashback]

interesting subject! Guys, what do you think about some of my interests? Should I put them down or is that too weird and I should go with more traditional ones like "travel"?
My interests include spiritual things, such as:
1) meditation,
2) also, I am into ancient Egypt and its Gods and Goddesses- not sure how to express it though.

[dixiecupdrinking]

interesting subject! Guys, what do you think about some of my interests? Should I put them down or is that too weird and I should go with more traditional ones like "travel"?
My interests include spiritual things, such as:
1) meditation,
2) also, I am into ancient Egypt and its Gods and Goddesses- not sure how to express it though.

I think "ancient Egyptian history and mythology" would be a solid interest to list—provided that you are prepared to discuss it intelligently with someone who might happen to know a lot about it.

Meditation, I'd probably keep to myself... seems too personal to be conversation-worthy and could weird out certain types of (especially older) people.

[PickMe!]

So I've read some about having an interests section on a resume--how common is that? And what sort of interests are suitable for putting on there? My concern is sounding ridiculous if I put like "contemporary art" on it or something.

If I had room I would include it.

[Anonymous User]

So I've read some about having an interests section on a resume--how common is that? And what sort of interests are suitable for putting on there? My concern is sounding ridiculous if I put like "contemporary art" on it or something.

If I had room I would include it.

Make room and include it. law interviews tend to be conversational. They assume you can do the job so they will not ask you legal questions. I put TLS & Xoxohth on mine, and it got tons of attention.