I recently received an impressive CV for a writing position at JAM. I scanned it quickly and noted several professional and educational qualifications. And then, under 'interests and activities':
Launched a group on yahoo.com as an opportunity to meet like-minded people and enhance my leadership and writing skills in the process.
At first I was a bit amused - it's the first time I had come across someone mentioning starting a yahoogroup as an achievement of sorts. But on second thought, why not? It does show some initiative and leadership. Unless the group was composed exclusively of the initiator's kindergarten classmates.
In fact, I wished the applicant had mentioned the specific yahoogroup so I could check it out...
On a broader note, I wonder whether in times to come people will mention I have '48 fans' and '2162 scraps' on orkut. In certain kinds of jobs - like media - being well networked is an asset, after all!
So perhaps it's time we stopped including hobbies and interests such as 'reading, dancing, painting, cooking...' in resumes. Coz these are mostly fake and/ or pheku.
Reading, for example, should be qualified with the kind of books you read. Or one can safely assume it's Archies double digest and Mumbai Mirror's 'ask the sexpert' in the loo each morning.
And cooking is relevant only if you promise to share your dabba with your colleagues in office. But hey, not if you're the kind who's partial to veggies like turai and tondli...
On a more serious note, given the utter and complete lack of time people have outside their jobs to cultivate esoteric hobbies, it should be perfectly acceptable to list 'sleeping, eating, watching Discovery Travel & Living.'
If honesty really is the best policy...
