Comment by booleandilemma
18 hours ago
I was asked what my hobbies are during an interview once and it made me believe they were just looking for a personality hire or a pretty face.
18 hours ago
I was asked what my hobbies are during an interview once and it made me believe they were just looking for a personality hire or a pretty face.
The mirror side of this is when almost all the intern applications/cover letters we used to receive contained a paragraph about the hobbies of the applicant (all domain-irrelevant). I find that weird but I guess it is sort of common nowadays?
I was involved with picking a candidate for an internship in 1999, we had three candidates and they all mentioned basketball on their resumes. I think it's just something to help the resume fill one page. And help provide a direction for a 'validate the resume' interview.
Sometimes, if the hobby shows leadership etc, it might be relevant even if the domain isn't.
This is quite common. Hobbies may suggest to them an attention to detail, working well in a team (sport) or leadership abilities.
Especially in recent graduate positions. I maybe won't make sense if the interviewee was 35 but if they're 21 there's just nothing else to talk about. That said, at least in software, the right answer still includes something about coding or building things.
Umm .. pretty standard & generally lame line of questioning at many companies/countries. Sounds like you were offended or surprised by it?