Hobbies and Volunteering on Your CV: When It Helps and When It Hurts

Often written in five minutes at the end of a CV, the hobbies and volunteering section is nevertheless scrutinised by many recruiters. Well-chosen, it creates rapport, reveals hidden skills, and makes the difference between candidates with similar profiles. Poorly chosen, it reveals too much, nothing relevant, or worse: it creates doubt. Here's how to decide what deserves a place on your CV.

What These Sections Really Reveal

A recruiter reads your hobbies with one question in mind: what does this line tell me about how this person works? Collective activities suggest teamwork; voluntary responsibilities demonstrate organisational skills; demanding practices, like long-distance running or music, reveal perseverance. These are indicators, not proof, but they complement the profile when they align with the job requirements.

• Captain of a volleyball team: natural leadership and relationship management skills.
• Treasurer of a club with 80 members: budgetary rigour and transparency.
• Volunteer at a food bank: reliability and concrete commitment, including weekends.

This intuitive reading explains why certain CVs stick in your memory: two candidates with equivalent experience, the one who has practised improvisational theatre for eight years leaves a stronger impression, as their hobby illustrates a useful skill in meetings: public speaking. Choose your mentions as you would choose examples in an interview: each line should support your case. For more on how to present your skills effectively, see our guide on compétences sur un CV.

When Volunteering Becomes a Real Asset

Volunteering moves beyond the anecdote category as soon as it includes measurable responsibilities. Organising an event for 300 people, managing an association budget of €20,000, leading a team of ten volunteers, or representing an organisation with local authorities – these are operational skills. For a recent graduate or someone changing careers, this section can even compensate for limited professional experience.

Integrate it into your experience section rather than hobbies: a line like '2023-2025: Volunteer Treasurer, Association X, managing a budget of €15,000 and six statutory meetings per year' carries more weight as an experience than at the bottom of the page. Learn how to structure your CV experience section in our guide on comment rédiger un CV. In this case, the volunteering section at the bottom of the CV can be removed without losing anything.

When It Hurts: Pitfalls to Avoid

Another delicate case: activities that contradict the job. Presenting yourself as highly available while showing a weekend-consuming association commitment may raise doubts for an on-call position. Conversely, an assumed solitary hobby may hinder an application for a very relational position; choose what you display based on the recruitment context.

Where to Place the Section and How to Word It

1. 1Include a maximum of two to four activities you actually practise, each with additional context.
2. 2Formulate in one line: activity, level or responsibility, possible outcome, without exaggeration.
3. 3Place the section at the end of the CV, unless the volunteering constitutes substitute professional experience.
4. 4Update for each application: what's relevant for a startup isn't necessarily so for an administrative role. Discover how to tailor your CV to different sectors in our article on CV compatible ATS.

If you have nothing significant to include, simply remove the section: an absent section is always better than an empty one. On HightCV, these blocks can be activated or hidden with a single click depending on the application, which avoids rewriting the CV each time.