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I once asked an interviewer why they wanted to know. I'd gotten the job and they happened to end up being my supervisor. Was truly curious about the question. The answer was that sometimes hobbies tell others what sorts of activities might inspire or motivate you and what sorts of things you might consider a reward. What stuff outside work means something to you. They didn't mean the specific details of the hobby, but the general ideas behind it.
For example...if I said I loved travel, I might be a good fit for a project that involved frequent travel to remote offices. If I enjoyed collecting antiques I might enjoy taking responsibility for a museum collection. If I loved literature I might be a good candidate to manage an agency library.
Q:”Why do you work at the Quik-e-Mart?”
A:"I need a job to pay the rent."
Nope, wrong answer. Next!
Q:”Why do you work at the Quik-e-Mart?”
A:”My passion is to provide clients with a uniquely delightful Slurpee and Marlboro purchasing experience while enhancing my abilities to provide awesome maintenance and re-cleanification of the the hot-dog rolling grill."
Yup, that’s the answer. You're hired!
So many times when I go on interviews, whether it be phone or in-person, they want to know what my hobbies are. I have no problem with this except that my hobby is travel. Literally, JUST travel and I travel A LOT (I pretty much use up all my vacation days every year … luckily my job is cool about it … WITH the caveat that I take my laptop with me and can be accessible if need be).
That said, I am looking for a new job and am alright with cutting the travel down to a smaller amount so that I can get acclimated to the job. But when they ask me what my hobbies are and I say travel, does that give a bad impression that I will be too focused on taking time off work? I personally think travel is amazing and essential for everyone … we have so much here … see what other places in the world have (literally nothing in some places .. ie. Africa etc) and it's mind-blowing. I personally think travel makes us better, more humble people … but if someone said their hobby is travel, how would you, as someone hiring a new candidate take that?
Could this be a bad thing?
I don't think it's a bad thing to say your hobby is travel, and if I were a hiring official, I'd likely see it as a positive. Now, if you start telegraphing that you want and needs all kinds of time off (other than what the company is offering, OR the desire to be allowed to travel while taking your work with you) I might think twice about you as a candidate, especially if there are other equally qualified candidates. I think it will ride on how you present yourself and how the company will or won't accommodate any requests to travel while you work.
And BTW, vacation time is MEANT to be used up, right? But if you are taking your laptop with you on vacation, and working, that is NOT a vacation
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MidValleyDad
I was told several years ago I could not ask such 'personal' questions during an interview. I also couldn't ask what books someone had read recently. They were considered non job related 'and could be used to disguise prejudices against the interviewee'. Could not ask any questions about family or marital status either.
Sounds like a paranoid employer, perhaps that has been burned before. Family and marital status are clearly out-of-bounds. Hobbies may be related to the work, and therefore very appropriate to the interview. Suppose, for example, being interviewed at a plant nursery, and your hobby is gardening. Perhaps you are applying at a car dealership and you hobby is restoring classic cars.
Sounds like a paranoid employer, perhaps that has been burned before. Family and marital status are clearly out-of-bounds. Hobbies may be related to the work, and therefore very appropriate to the interview. Suppose, for example, being interviewed at a plant nursery, and your hobby is gardening. Perhaps you are applying at a car dealership and you hobby is restoring classic cars.
It wasn't just one company. At least five companies that I interviewed for or with had similar restrictions. Several were Fortune 100 companies, all were large. It was because of legal paranoia. They or other companies in the same market space had been burnt by unsuccessful applicants claiming discrimination so to protect themselves they had a strict 'any questions had to be job related' policy
I once asked an interviewer why they wanted to know. I'd gotten the job and they happened to end up being my supervisor. Was truly curious about the question. The answer was that sometimes hobbies tell others what sorts of activities might inspire or motivate you and what sorts of things you might consider a reward. What stuff outside work means something to you. They didn't mean the specific details of the hobby, but the general ideas behind it.
For example...if I said I loved travel, I might be a good fit for a project that involved frequent travel to remote offices. If I enjoyed collecting antiques I might enjoy taking responsibility for a museum collection. If I loved literature I might be a good candidate to manage an agency library.
But it's unlikely that a company is considering you for all of those jobs. You're probably applying as a sales manager, or administrative assistant, or pharmacist, or engineer, and that is what you will do. You know from the get-go if you're applying for a job that will require a lot of travel (regional manager, for example), or curating a museum, or managing a library Few people are in any sort of "jack of all trades" job where they're going to get shuffled around to vastly different departments and job duties (maybe if they're administrative or an intern, but that stuff will likely end up as their job anyway and their interests won't fall into it).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemlock140
Sounds like a paranoid employer, perhaps that has been burned before. Family and marital status are clearly out-of-bounds. Hobbies may be related to the work, and therefore very appropriate to the interview. Suppose, for example, being interviewed at a plant nursery, and your hobby is gardening. Perhaps you are applying at a car dealership and you hobby is restoring classic cars.
That would fall under the "what experience do you have for this position?" question and those things can be brought up then. Hobbies don't need to come into it (and indeed, some employers are only interested in experience that happened on the job, not for hobbies/volunteer work/schoolwork).
My hobbies include being a results driven work "rockstar" self-starter/guru who works hard and plays hard!
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