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In a tough job market, white-collar workers are doing everything they can to stand out. Lawyers and bankers are even emphasizing creative hobbies like building birdhouses on their resumes.

According to a recent report from , job-seekers are adding a hobbies section to their resumes to humanize their applications and attract hiring managers’ interest. These candidates have worked at prestigious firms and gone to top schools, but beneath the accolades are human beings who have trained miniature dachshunds and worked on “perfecting restaurant-quality scrambled eggs.”

The goal is to make a hiring manager sit up and take notice. They should think, “Yes, this is somebody I’d like to be in the trenches with at 3 o’clock in the morning on a deadline,” Reder Sheikh, a partner at recruiting agency Major, Lindsey & Africa, told the Journal.��

Sheikh added that more than half of the legal associates she matched with jobs last year had a hobbies section on their resumes, an increase from just a few years ago. She said that a unique side hobby can encourage recruiters to take a second look at a candidate’s application and make it easier to connect in interviews. 

According to Sheikh, the section should come at the end of a resume and take up only a single line. 

Meanwhile, another recruiter says hobbies add character to resumes. “AI is pushing out resumes that all look the same,” Richard King, who runs a corporate recruitment agency, told the Journal. “Let’s bring the human back.”

King noted that it was fairly normal to list hobbies and interests until the mid-2010s. Recruiters then told job-seekers that they shouldn’t include the section in order to reduce bias in hiring, calling it irrelevant. Now the section is making a comeback.��

Why people are talking about it now

The topic of including hobbies and interests became relevant earlier this year, when a post on X, which the poster has since deleted, went viral. 

“I reviewed a resume that listed ‘olive oil’ as an interest,” the anonymous poster wrote, per . “That is not an interest. It’s been hours and I cannot stop thinking about it. There will not be an interview.”

Some X users claimed that the reference was quirky and unique, while others said it could have benefitted from adding more detail. 

, a New York-based technology principal at EY, told the Journal that interview conversations can benefit from a subject beyond the usual talking points, provided the applicant meets the role’s core qualifications. He said that he would welcome talking about a candidate’s appreciation for olive oil. 

Still, candidates must decide which personal details feel appropriate to share. When applied to Meta several years ago, the data scientist hesitated before including a note about performing in the Washington Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker.

Choo questioned whether highlighting an interest that felt distinctly feminine was wise in a male-dominated industry. She decided to include it anyway. The response was uniformly positive, and she got the job.