CV and Personal Interests

[lki203]

Thoughts on including 2-3 personal interests as the last line of my CV?

Furthermore, how quirky can you get? (For instance, is something like "beer brewing" or "wine culture" acceptable?)

[Allouette]

I would avoid it, because it is irrelevant. Personally, I have two prof family-friends & one former-prof parent who grit their teeth when students include similar things in their CV. Ultimately, some people might find it interesting or unique, but there will be others who will definitely think it is padding, or inappropriate, and it may make you come off the wrong way.

It's a tough call, because different people on each adcomm will react differently to things like that. My philosophy for this application business is to always err on the side of caution. It may lose me some originality points, but I'd rather my clarity, concision, and maturity make me stand out above my personality and quirkiness.

[smmmu]

I would tend to disagree with that. If accepted, you will be working fairly closely with the people reading your application for at least the next 4-5 years, so I think it can't hurt to give some indication that you're also a pleasant and sociable person they would actually want to be around. Briefly mentioning your hobbies can't hurt in that respect.

Plus some of your hobbies can show positive attributes - e.g. persistence is surely a requirement for completing a PhD, so if you've, say, ran a marathon, I'd say in a way that's very relevant.

With mentioning anything alcohol-related I'd be cautious though, that could obviously come across the wrong way. I also thought about putting my home-brewing on my CV, but ultimately decided against listing it just to be on the safe side.

[TakeruK]

When I first read this, I thought you wanted to conclude your SOP with this! I was going to say to not do it!! But I read it more carefully and I think having a "personal interests" section as the last part of your CV is perfectly fine. It might not be relevant but I don't think most people will inspect a CV line by line anyways. They would probably scan your CV, checking out whatever interests them. If they don't want to find out about your interests, they can skip it. SOPs are more carefully read so irrelevance might be more of a problem!

I know that my undergrad university's co-op office encouraged us to put this section in our CV when applying for industry as well as research jobs. I also know that many of my almost-PhD'ed friends do this in their job applications too. Homemade alcohol could be something trickier though. I think it really depends on the culture of your field. In the sciences, I think there is a pretty large fraction of students who brew their own beer or make their own wine. At all three schools I've been at, I've met multiple people in the same field / similar field that do this. I think it was more prevalent in Canada since most undergrads (other than freshmen) are above the drinking age.

But you might want to research the school to make sure it doesn't have strict anti-alcohol policies (I didn't even know "dry campuses" existed until this year!). Otherwise, I don't think you need to worry about people on the adcomm not liking alcohol. Unlike a post somewhere else in this forum last month, simply stating that you brew alcohol as a hobby is not going to offend non-drinkers.

In general, most people can still have a good relationship with you even if they don't enjoy/approve of your hobbies (e.g. some of my friends really enjoy the Twilight series, which I do not enjoy, but that doesn't affect our relationship!). If someone is unprofessional enough to decide to not work with you because of what you like to do in your own time, then you probably don't want to work with them either.

[DarwinAG]

I would tend to disagree with that. If accepted, you will be working fairly closely with the people reading your application for at least the next 4-5 years, so I think it can't hurt to give some indication that you're also a pleasant and sociable person they would actually want to be around. Briefly mentioning your hobbies can't hurt in that respect.

Plus some of your hobbies can show positive attributes - e.g. persistence is surely a requirement for completing a PhD, so if you've, say, ran a marathon, I'd say in a way that's very relevant.

With mentioning anything alcohol-related I'd be cautious though, that could obviously come across the wrong way. I also thought about putting my home-brewing on my CV, but ultimately decided against listing it just to be on the safe side.

CV is meant to show your professional side. I would avoid it. It's irrelevant. Yes hobbies are important. yes you will be working with these people for the next 4-5 years, which gives them an opportunity to get to know you on a social level. The CV is not the place for that.

[bamafan]

CV is meant to show your professional side. I would avoid it. It's irrelevant. Yes hobbies are important. yes you will be working with these people for the next 4-5 years, which gives them an opportunity to get to know you on a social level. The CV is not the place for that.

This.

CV ≠ resume; it is meant to be a more detailed academic document regarding your educational pursuits. It's just not relevant for a CV.

[Shamrock_Frog]

I listed a few of the road races I've run on mine. During an interview I had one professor ask me about my running and how long I could run. He had recently taken his lab to run a 5k race in a nearby city because it was a fundraiser for the type of cancer his lab researches.

[med latte]

I would suggest looking at the CVs of the profs you want to work with, and try to mirror those. 

 

I can see hobbies coming up in a conversation during a campus visit, but on a CV it may be seen as padding and an example of poor judgement. Just depends on the culture of the department.

[rising_star]

I'll put it this way. I don't have any personal information on my CV except what becomes obvious from my name or specific awards I've won. I am also an avid craft beer drinker. I introduced myself that way at a new faculty orientation and made some awesome friends because it was a memorable introduction. What I said was "My name is [rising_star]. I'm here as [Position], teaching in the [studies Program]. And one interesting thing about me is that I really like craft beer." Up to that point, people had been talking about how many kids they have, the crazy country they'd previously lived in, etc., and I couldn't think of anything other than what I said. It totally changed the direction of the fun facts provided after that. So I'd save mentioning an interest in homebrewing for something like that and then only after you've gauged the audience.