How Much Do You Really Want to Know About Candidates?

Okay, don’t be jealous, but I totally have a fan.

Last week, what appeared at first to be a spam comment on my post turned out, on second glance, to be a legitimate (if slightly off-topic) comment/question from someone who’d found on MSN an article I wrote last year, geared toward job seekers.

After reading “10 Ways Your Résumé Irks Hiring Managers“ (one of which is including personal or nonessential information like interests, activities, and links to personal Web sites), reader Sonia Zuzartee posed the question:

Could omitting such information from her resume actually put her – particularly as someone from another country – at a disadvantage by not enabling hiring managers to see “the ‘real me’ outside of my work experience and qualifications?”

Of course, I see what Sonia’s getting at – that certainly, there must be cases where these things might be relevant (after all, doesn’t it stand to reason that someone with a diverse set of interests would bring new and interesting ideas to the table?).

But it still seems to me (just as it did when I wrote the article and which the hiring experts I interviewed confirmed) that things like interests and hobbies or personal Web sites that have no discernable relevance to the job in question have no place on a resume.

Of course, who better to settle this than you guys?  So, tell me…

Do personal interests – if arguably relevant – ever belong on a resume or are they always taboo?  Honestly, how much information do hiring managers really need (or want) from a resume?

And, hey, as long as you’re sharing…What about resumes irk you the most? (C’mon, it’s Monday…)

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