OCI Resume question - personal/interest section?? Forum

[vinfolio]

I was wondering what the consensus was about putting an interest/personal section on the resume for OCI.
I was planning to put this on there -

Have extensive experience with different cultures, having lived in six different countries. Interests include traveling, cooking Italian food, photography and playing tennis. Fluent in Italian and English.

Does this look okay??

[Jacky D.]

Looks good

[vinfolio]

Looks good

"Have extensive experience with different cultures, having lived in six different countries."
Do you think this adds anything to the resume? Also, do you see any other way of saying this to make it sound better?

[Jacky D.]

Looks good

"Have extensive experience with different cultures, having lived in six different countries."
Do you think this adds anything to the resume? Also, do you see any other way of saying this to make it sound better?

Your interests section is almost exclusively for OCI small talk. Expect it to come up in 75% of your interviews. That being said, you could probably do fine with just something about how you enjoy traveling and have lived in six different countries.

[vinfolio]

Thanks.
Anybody else?

[ncc5]

I have heard from interviewers that "travel" isn't the best thing to put under interests, because pretty much everyone likes to travel. Something more specific like "traveling through Italy" is a better option, because it can lead to more specific chit-chat. I honestly wouldn't worry too much about it though, it exists as a lifeline in interviews when you run out of things to talk about.

[Mredav44]

why didn't you just search for this topic?

there was an extensive post on this not even a month ago with 30+ responses. the overwhelming majority stated that it is a good idea to place your interests on your resume as long as they are "real" (e.g., not something broad like 'political philosophy'), and you are able to talk about them.

[Mal Reynolds]

I would cut out a bit from it. It looks a little long. Also you don't have to say you're fluent in English lol.

[Anonymous User]

I grew up as an expat too. I put International Travel as an interest and in parenthesis I said I've been to 60+ countries and lived in 4. I imagine I will talk about this a lot during my magic circle screeners (lived in HK and London as a kid) but it has never been brought up in screeners with other firms. I did talk about my international experience extensively during one callback interview but that's just because a partners wife was from a country that I've lived in.

[Pikappraider]

mine is 2 lines long and honestly probably has been almost as valuable to my resume as my 3 years of work experience at my own start up. I have had multiple 5-10 minute conversations about it and I think it really helped me land my 1L SA. I actually cut a minor job I had as an office bitch at a law firm during undergrad to fit the personal interest section

[Swimp]

Six different countries.