Imagine: You’re a hiring manager for a sportswear brand considering two candidates—both with great CVs. You’re having trouble deciding which of the two to progress.
While reviewing the applications, you notice that one of the candidates is an enthusiastic runner. Therefore, you decide to choose the one you believe will be a slightly better cultural fit, as the candidate likely aligns with the fitness-related clothing products your brand offers, given their running hobby.
But, why “running hobby” instead of “running interest?” Great question. There is a difference between hobbies and interests. Hobbies are activities you actively engage in, whereas interests are your aspirations or subjects you’re fascinated by. That said, they can both be used effectively on a CV to make your already excellent skill set more personable and relevant.
We’ll explore interests and hobbies to include on your CV and show you how to list them to gain an advantage in the application process.
Hobbies & Interests Examples for a CV
Example CV
Why these hobbies/interests work
- If you’re writing something highly specific like a secondary school history teacher CV, you’ll want to tailor your hobbies and interests to demonstrate how well you’d fit into a mentoring role.
- Always choose hobbies and interests for your CV that relate to your field.
- Don’t be afraid to include something cool and credible, like being a contestant on University Challenge.
- Thought-provoking activities like helping troubled young people can effectively demonstrate your compassion and adaptability in challenging situations.
Most Common Hobbies & Interests for CVs in 2026
Understanding the importance of hobbies/interests on a CV, you may wonder which ones are the most popular in the UK. Here’s a quick overview.
- Cooking/baking
- At the top of the list, 40% of UK adults have cooking/baking as a hobby or interest. This is a great one to list on CVs for culinary positions or when working with food. It also shows you can follow instructions precisely.
- Reading
- Want to demonstrate some expert research skills? Reading is an excellent hobby to include on your CV when applying for jobs involving scientific research or business analysis, to name a couple.
- Pets
- Everyone’s interested in their pets. Moreover, roles such as veterinary nurses or even care-based nursing positions can see directly transferable skills from individuals who love and cherish their animals.
- Video games
- Applying for a tech-related role? Video games are a potential hobby/interest you could include. They can also demonstrate unique problem-solving abilities for analytical positions.
- Outdoor activities
- Nearly half of all jobs require outdoor work. So whether you’re applying to construction, agriculture, or other similar roles, many outdoor activities will be relevant. For instance, a gardening hobby could be great for an aspiring landscape gardener.
List of Hobbies & Interests for Your CV
Here is a comprehensive list of hobbies and interests to potentially include on your CV.
Volunteering
What better way to demonstrate you’re a caring, community-minded person than by including your volunteer efforts on your CV?
People want to work with kind people. Not to mention, many companies now give employees time off each year to volunteer for causes they care about.
Volunteering ideas
- Caring for animals
- Serving within your religious organisation
- Firefighter/ Paramedic
- Coaching youth sports teams
- Volunteering with organisations that help the homeless
- Private Tuition
- Helping out at local meetups or hackathons
- Volunteering at an animal rescue centre
- Working for local committees or organisations in your community (like the Education Authority, for example)
Exercise
Mentioning how you exercise as one of your interests or hobbies can be a great way to build a quick bond with the person reviewing your CV.
However, saying something like “sports” in your interests section is not worth including. Which sport do you play?
Exercise can be anything that gets the heart pumping. If you dance or do karate, those are unique hobbies that you should definitely mention on your CV.
Exercise ideas
- Organising (if you organise events like 5Ks, mention it!)
- Yoga
- Weightlifting
- Dance (salsa? barn dancing?)
- Golf
- Karate
- Pilates
- Basketball (do you play in a league?)
- Volleyball
- Tenpin Bowling
- Rock climbing
- Cycling
- Skiing/ snowboarding
- Swimming
- Walking
Art
Most companies would benefit from having a creative person join their organisation. If you’re looking for a career in marketing or design, that’s particularly true.
Even if you’re looking for a job as a programmer or data scientist, creativity can still be an invaluable skill.
Listing “music” is not a particularly unique hobby. Saying you play the guitar, however, may catch the employer’s eye.
If you have a portfolio of your work, you should include a link to it in your CV as well, if you’re really proud of it.
Creative ideas
- Photography
- Painting
- Drawing
- Comic books
- Sewing
- Classic films
- Instruments (guitar, violin, piano, etc.)
- Interior design
- Writing (fiction? performance poetry?)
- Calligraphy
- Stand-up comedy
- Singing
- Rappin’
Puzzles/Games
Just as your artistic endeavours can demonstrate your creativity to a potential employer, an interest in strategic games suggests that you can strategise and plan.
We probably sound like a broken record, but remember to be specific. Saying “video games” is not going to add value to your CV, whereas “PC gaming” might (do your research on the company to ensure this would be appropriate).
Puzzle/games ideas
- Chess
- Poker
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Sudoku
- Jigsaw puzzles
- Crossword puzzles
- Quiz
Other
Your hobbies or interests don’t have to be (and likely aren’t) confined by neat category distinctions. Just ask yourself whether your passion has the potential to demonstrate a valuable skill.
For example, in the list below, you’ll see brewing beer as a hobby. As long as the company you’re applying to is a more modern one, this could be appropriate to include. To be a successful brewer, you need to be precise and thorough—both great traits in a prospective employee.
Other ideas
- Learning languages (which/how many languages have you learnt?)
- Travelling
- Food enthusiast (discussing local restaurants can be a great way to break the ice in an interview)
- Gardening
- Brewing beer
- Cooking (which cuisine is your speciality?)
- Baking (who doesn’t love the person who bakes for office parties?)
- Having a barbecue (this would catch our attention)
- Social media (if you manage a successful social account for a local cause, that can be an invaluable skill)
- Camping
We know! That’s a lot of examples to sift through! You can always list a load of things you enjoy on your CV outline and narrow it down when you create a CV. We’ve also got some simple CV templates from Google Docs with a section just for hobbies and interests.
Remember, your hobbies are supposed to be for your enjoyment. If you don’t think you have any hobbies for your CV that will work, that’s okay, too!
Should Hobbies and Interests Be on a CV?
Before we delve into the types of hobbies and interests you should add to your CV, we first need to address the question of whether you should include them at all.
The main factor in deciding whether you should include a hobbies and interests section on your CV is the type of role and company you’re applying to.
While older, more established businesses are less likely to be interested in what you do outside of work, modern tech companies or startups are likely to be keen on understanding your potential cultural fit. One excellent way to demonstrate that on your CV is through your hobbies.
Example CV
Why these hobbies/interests work
- Even listing one hobby can catch the employer’s eye if it’s impressive!
- Entry-level candidates can approach resume writing with a “small but mighty” mindset.
- For example, mentioning that you’re a World Sudoku Championship Competitor for not just one but three years in a row shows dedication and unwavering focus.
- A niche interest like Sudoku is perfect for a front-end developer CV since it requires critical and mathematical thinking.
- If you’re applying for a web development job, try adding a related side project like apps; alternatively, if you’re highlighting your artistic side, talk about your interest in web graphics!
How to know whether you should list hobbies/interests
- Read the job description of the role you’re applying for.
- Do they mention their company culture or the importance of cultural compatibility?
- If the answer is “yes”, that’s a good indication that you should list hobbies and interests.
- Visit the company’s website. Read their “about us” section as well as their careers pages.
When it comes to your CV, not all hobbies and interests are created equal! For example, some of us here at BeamJobs are expert television show binge-watchers. If there was a binge-watching championship, we reckon we could win gold.
Still, this is a hobby we would leave off our CVs. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with this hobby; it’s just that it’s neither particularly unique nor noteworthy. Remember—the goal of your hobbies and interests is to help you stand out. If the hobby you include is something the hiring manager has seen hundreds of times, it won’t achieve what you want it to on your CV.
This means you should be as specific as possible when describing your hobbies or interests. “Sports” is not the same as “captain of mixed basketball team.”
Here are a few more examples of what we mean:
- Incorrect: Cookery
- Cooking Middle Eastern cuisine
- Wrong: Travel
- Backpacking through Europe
- Incorrect: Music
- Right: Electric guitar
- Incorrect: Volunteering
- Volunteering at local RSPCA
- Incorrect: Puzzles
- Correct: Expert at Sudoku
Interests and Hobbies to Avoid on a CV
If you’re unsure about whether to include a particular interest or hobby on your CV, it’s better to be safe than sorry. The last thing you want is to change a “yes” into a “no” by including something inappropriate on your CV. This means you shouldn’t list anything about politics on your CV (unless, of course, you’re applying for a job in politics).
This is not to say you should avoid talking about your volunteer experience through your local church if that’s your hobby! Just imagine you’re meeting someone you’d like to impress. If it’s a topic you’d avoid in that conversation, leave it off if you’d like to present a professional CV. With that said…
BeamJobs’ co-founder, Stephen, knows a thing or two about including a hobby that, under different circumstances, would have been better left off his CV.
Before I started BeamJobs with my brother and dived head-first into the world of CVs, I was a data analyst at a company called Chegg.
Back then, one of my biggest hobbies was playing poker. Now, as a data enthusiast, I adopted a very data-driven approach to playing poker. I studied the game diligently to develop a thorough understanding of winning strategies and probabilities.
Since I was applying for jobs as a data analyst, I thought it would be worth including as an interest on my CV. I also understood that poker might not be suitable for all of my job applications.
When it came time to apply to Chegg, I discovered that the position I was applying for would be as an early employee for their recently acquired company, Imagine Easy Solutions. I researched the founders and found out they had a history of entrepreneurship.
As such, I included poker as a hobby on my CV. That gamble (poker pun intended) paid off. I found out during my interview that one of my interviewers was a keen poker player. This gave me an opportunity to elaborate on my data-driven approach to the game and how I would take a similarly quantitative approach to my job.
We hope this demonstrates the potential positive impact of including unique interests or hobbies in your job applications. They help personalise you and provide a potential common interest with your interviewers.
Stephen’s anecdote also highlights two important points:
- Research the company and role you’re applying for; ensure that the hobby you include is relevant.
- Don’t lie. By his own admission, Stephen would have been quickly exposed by a much better poker player in his interview if he had told a lie!
How to Add Hobbies and Interests on a CV
Before we dive into the best way to include hobbies or interests on your CV, let’s start with an example.
Example CV
Why these hobbies/interests work
- Your social manager/photographer CV should showcase your creativity in the hobbies and interests section!
- Enjoy outdoor activities like kayaking? These types of hobbies can indicate experience in capturing the perfect photograph and other design strengths.
- Hobbies like fly fishing and comic art can suggest sociability and interconnectedness with others—good soft skills to list on your CV.
- You can use hobbies and interests to show that you’re well-rounded, but the best way to make this section stand out is by highlighting those that directly or indirectly relate to the job you’re seeking.
Guidelines for adding hobbies/interests to your CV
- Add a specific section to your CV called “Hobbies,” “Interests,” or “Hobbies & Interests.”
- Limit the number of hobbies you include to a maximum of five.
- Keep it toward the bottom of your resume layout.
- We have brand-new Google CV templates and Word CV templates that already have this section built in.
- Be as specific as possible.
- Don’t let this section be the reason your CV extends to two pages.
All of these rules follow the principle that your interests/hobbies shouldn’t be the focus of your CV. They’re on your CV to add colour. Unfortunately, some hiring managers won’t place much or any emphasis on this section of your CV. That’s why you shouldn’t make it so prominent.
Unfortunately, you won’t be able to secure a job as a surgeon with your hobbies alone—you still need to have the right qualifications for the role! With that said, the more specific you are with your hobbies and interests, the more likely what you list will resonate with the person reviewing your AI cover letter and CV.
You also want to be able to relate your hobbies or interests to what makes you a particularly good fit for the role you’re applying for. Let’s look at a few examples.
Example 1
Job title: Marketing Executive
Hobby: Painting
How it relates: This demonstrates an eye for creativity and design—both important traits for a marketer.
Example 2
Job title: Manager
Hobby: Long-distance runner
How it relates: Committing to improving at long-distance running requires dedication without the ability to see immediate results, which can occur in management as well.
Example 3
Job title: Software engineer
Hobby: Baking cakes
How it relates: To be an effective baker, you need to be precise with measurements, temperatures, and timing but also require a high degree of creativity. To be a strong developer, you must be creative and rigorously logical.
Example 4
Job title: HR manager
Hobby: Volunteering as a paramedic
How it relates: Much like a paramedic, to be a good HR manager, you must be caring and empathetic while staying calm in tense situations.
Hobbies and Interests CV Tips
Most people don’t live to work; they work to live. Therefore, most of your time is likely to be spent outside your office.
Including your hobbies and interests on your CV is a great way to humanise yourself and become more than just a CV to the hiring manager.
Tips for adding hobbies and interests to your CV
- Research the company and job description for the role you’re applying for to determine if you should include hobbies.
- Create a dedicated “interests” or “hobbies” section on your CV.
- Remember: Interests are related to topics you find intriguing, while hobbies are activities you take part in and enjoy.
- Keep this section brief (four to five interests at most) and place it at the end of your CV.
- Your hobbies are for you—don’t take up a hobby just to please a potential employer.
A hobbies/interests section works well for entry-level candidates who want to include additional relevant skills or when applying to companies that emphasise workplace culture in the job description. For example, many retail organisations emphasise their culture, so someone applying to be an entry-level retail assistant could benefit from a hobbies/interests section.
A hobby is something you actively engage in, whereas an interest is something you may be intrigued by or dream about. For example, someone who actively reads for an hour a day could consider reading a hobby. On the other hand, someone intrigued by psychology could consider that an interest. You could even combine the two by saying you enjoy reading about psychology, which could be ideal for an aspiring therapist.
Between one to three hobbies/interests works best for most resumes. It typically shouldn’t be the focus of your resume, but moreso act as a way to provide a bit more information or personability to your already excellent skill set.
Either the bottom or the left-hand side margin beneath your education and top skills is the best place for hobbies/interests. This placement leaves room for your work experience, education, and achievements to remain the primary focus of your resume.
Voluntary work is one of the best things to include in a hobbies/interests section when you don’t have work experience, as it closely resembles a work-related environment. Otherwise, aim for activities that are most relevant to the position. For example, listing a favourite sport or fitness activity, such as rugby or HIIT training, could be beneficial when applying for an entry-level job at a gym.
