Interests section on resume? Forum

[ajaxconstructions]

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.

Idiot should have put Yankee Fan.

[ilovesf]

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.

Expert, . I just have "the San Francisco 49ers" listed in my interests.

[PennBull]

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.

Expert, . I just have "the San Francisco 49ers" listed in my interests.

I do too! And the Utah Jazz. I feel like they will be interesting talking points since I'm from Buffalo and I always get asked by friends how the hell my fandom came about.

[Matthewnym]

True story. I did 4 competitive hiring processes in law school (1L summer, 2L summer, 3L externship, post-grad (no SA so post-grad and 2L summer were different)). For 3 out of those 4 processes, I made a strong interview connection because of my music interests on my resume, significantly improving my chances at an offer. 2 of those employers subsequently confirmed the fact that my musical interests were a contributing factor in my hiring. These included judges, USAO, and Fed Gov, so it's not just a firm thing.

[Anonymous User]

I think "travel" can be okay...just be prepared to say where you've been, where you'd like to go, etc. A friend with lower grades than mine got a job over me because she made a connection with the interviewer re: travel to a certain European country. I don't hold it against her, of course, but I'm just pointing out that it helped her.

An interests section is an absolute must if the interviewer is looking at more than 10-20 similar resumes. It's what makes you interesting. Believe it or not, interviewers don't want to spend a 10-20 minute interview talking about the subtle nuances of your grades, like whether you got straight A-s or 3 As and 2 B+s or whatever.

[Ozymandias]

But just saying "travel" is boring and kind of silly. Almost everyone I know loves to travel.

[Anonymous User]

Tennis, Kayaking, Travel, Foreign Languages

Good for an interests section?

[PennBull]

But just saying "travel" is boring and kind of silly. Almost everyone I know loves to travel.

Completely agree. Your interests must stick out and pique their curiosity. They're not asking you about your interests because they have to--they are looking at your resume and are wowed or intrigued by something.

"Travel" does not inspire intrigue. Be more creative.

[PennBull]

Tennis, Kayaking, Travel, Foreign Languages

Good for an interests section?

Where to travel? What foreign languages? Where do you kayak?

Grab the interviewer, don't just blandly appear in front of them.

[utswdukie80]

Curious if anybody has any suggestions for words for someone who likes to tinker with things. I like to take things apart, put them back together, maybe improve them in some way if I can. I'm also a patent guy so I feel like this would jive well with my legal interests. Any thoughts?

[Asst. Principal Bone]

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.

YODELING.

[wuduhel]

Curious if anybody has any suggestions for words for someone who likes to tinker with things. I like to take things apart, put them back together, maybe improve them in some way if I can. I'm also a patent guy so I feel like this would jive well with my legal interests. Any thoughts?

Do you like to sew? Have you been in the military?

[piccolittle]

Okay, what about "Horseback riding, historical fiction, British and Italian culture"? Would this be a good lead-in to my travels in Italy and my seven years living in the UK? Or am I going to be expected to be an expert on Renaissance Florence or something?

[Samara]

How many interests should you list? There's obviously room for several, but it seems silly to put down seven things.

[Ludo!]

3-4

[ilovesf]

How many interests should you list? There's obviously room for several, but it seems silly to put down seven things.

I have a whole line for backpacking: Armenia, Bosnia, etc. then a line that says:sports team, British literature, specific food

[GeePee]

Three is a good number. Make sure you can talk about them, because they will probably come up in nearly every interview. Just to reiterate what others have said, interests are a good idea because they give your interviewer leads into things to talk about that are not "so why did you go to law school" or "how was 1L" or "tell me about your 1L job" or any other question that they're going to ask 17 times over the course of the day. You can make an interviewer remember you by talking passionately and uniquely about your interests, and that is almost always a good thing in OCI season.

[piccolittle]

Sorry if this has been asked, but can an interest also be used to support ties? Like, could I use the fact that I have a horse (and do a sport which needs a lot of open land) to support my interest in a certain area of the country? As in, there are good barns in the area, the space/land issue means I would prefer not to live in a city, etc, in addition to my family ties?

[kalvano]

Sorry if this has been asked, but can an interest also be used to support ties? Like, could I use the fact that I have a horse (and do a sport which needs a lot of open land) to support my interest in a certain area of the country? As in, there are good barns in the area, the space/land issue means I would prefer not to live in a city, etc, in addition to my family ties?

Absolutely. I wouldn't try and jam it in to the conversation if it doesn't fit, but if it comes up, that is a specific reason.

[hiima3L]

A family friend who is a managing partner at a big firm said it's an absolute must. She claims she can tell if someone will be a good fit or not based on his/her interests section. I once spent 30 of 40 minutes of an interview talking to an interviewer about home brewing (one of my interests), which segued into a discussion about burritos. Unfortunately, I did not get the job.

On another person's advice I left interests out for biggov't/fed jobs/clerkships, but a judge I externed with said he likes seeing them, so who knows.

Edit for another anecdote: a judge I interviewed with told me that, when deciding between 2 equally qualified candidate last year, he ended up picking the one who listed "cooking Italian food." This was what got the guy the job because the judge couldn't make a decision.

[Anonymous User]

What if we really don't have any interests that are... interesting? I mean, I like reading and playing sports and watching sports and watching funny movies and playing video games and making obnoxious jokes and reading the news. None of that exactly screams "this is a unique butterfly who brings exciting, unexpected hobbies to the table of... hobby discussion or whatever."

[bjsesq]

Were it not for the interests section, I probably wouldn't have a job right now. No bullshit.

[ajaxconstructions]

Were it not for the interests section, I probably wouldn't have a job right now. No bullshit.

Interest = ?

[bjsesq]

Were it not for the interests section, I probably wouldn't have a job right now. No bullshit.

Interest = ?

Fisticuffs

[dixon02]

What if we really don't have any interests that are... interesting? I mean, I like reading and playing sports and watching sports and watching funny movies and playing video games and making obnoxious jokes and reading the news. None of that exactly screams "this is a unique butterfly who brings exciting, unexpected hobbies to the table of... hobby discussion or whatever."

I'm sure you can tailor them into interests. What do you read? Any favorite authors and/or genres? What sports do you play, and where do you play them? Listing rec league soccer or intramural softball is a very solid interest- at the least it shows you're active, at best your interviewer also plays that sport and will chat you up. Also, listing your favorite sports team as an interest is perfectly acceptable if you're a big fan (and a very good idea if it's a team local to where you're applying). Any favorite actors or directors for movies? You get the idea. You can make anything work.