By Gibbes Hance
Growth is something we all strive for, especially in our professional lives. Career growth helps you reach your full potential as it offers new opportunities, and, as a professional, to further your career prospects.
A well-written resume, or CV, helps show a prospective employer why you are the perfect fit for a job. And while there are numerous proven ways to refresh your CV, hobbies remain a very straightforward and effective option.
What are hobbies?
Hobbies incorporate those activities we spend time on, and, while they are mostly viewed as entertainment to kill boredom, they can also be very beneficial to a professional’s career. In fact, people who love their jobs either pursue a career in their hobbies or have these activities integrated in some way into their professional responsibilities.
Hobbies are fun activities; however, some are so advantageous that they significantly elevate a professional’s competency. Recruiters also have the opportunity to know and better assess prospective employees, especially regarding social responsibilities. Nursing, for instance, requires technical skills, as do so many other professions. However, soft, transferable skills are regarded highly in such career paths due to the nature of their responsibilities.
Hobbies that can improve your CV
Including relevant hobbies in your CV can improve your qualifications for a role. Here are some hobbies you can add to your resume and why they are relevant to your professional path.
- Volunteering: The career benefits of volunteering are numerous, especially in professions requiring you to interact with many people. As such, volunteers naturally develop good communication, social and teamwork skills, all of which are critical competencies that can further a career prospect.
- Multilingual: Learning a new language is not easy. Regardless, people who enjoy the process find a way to learn quickly and effectively. Being multilingual helps, in a professional setting, from increasing employability to improving client relationships, creating better access to international markets and improving pay range.
- Traveling: Some career paths require professionals to be on the road. Often, having an idea of a new location’s culture could be of enormous significance. As such, people who travel a lot can do well to include this hobby in their CVs. Aside from evidencing your familiarity with specific places, it also proves your flexibility.
- Planning: Management involves planning skills that people unknowingly pick up from their hobbies as planners. Including planning in your CV and citing some successful examples can help prove you have the skills to engage in any planning-related responsibilities.
Professionals can include numerous hobbies in their CVs; ultimately, they should be included only if they are relevant to their careers. However, as important as interests are in improving career prospects for social workers, educational institutions remain invaluable to career growth.
As such, Wilkes University offers RN to MSN bridge programs for registered nurses seeking to achieve an MSN degree and become nurse practitioners. The program is 100% online and focuses on high demand, advanced skills, professionalism and practice.
In conclusion, having a hobby or two can actually be very beneficial to your career prospects. Your CV will stand out, and it can also give you some great transferable skills. So, if you’re looking for a way to improve your CV and career prospects, add a hobby.
