In my line of work, I get to take a thorough look at the CVs that may or may not be right for certain positions we at Arras People are recruiting for. As much as certain keywords for the specific role catch my eye, there is one other, not so crucial element that always draws my attention – what people do outside of the workplace.
I’ve found that CV writers have several different ways of labelling their extra curricular activities: Hobbies and Interests, Activities, Clubs, the aforementioned Extra Curricular Activities. Any one of the headings work for me, and I’d also make the educated guess that they work for a lot of our clients looking for project and programme professionals. The active human being tends to be the healthy human being – former US president Teddy Roosevelt’s vigour for the so-called ‘strenuous life’ made him a strong advocate publicly for participation and the new frontiers of what you can achieve.
Do me a favour, though: Don’t go around adding random things you might do someday all of a sudden to look more attractive – it won’t work. As I’ve said, I don’t look to put forward candidates because they play basketball like me, and I don’t intentionally avoid putting forward joggers because of my chastisement as a kid for being called a treadmill (‘You run but you don’t get nowhere!’) There’s a bigger theme I’m focusing on here, and it’s about fulfilment and achievement. After all, it’s really not hard to put yourself into the position of supporting the pursuit of extra-curricular hobbies, interests or volunteer work in your everyday life – unless maybe said person then can be able to use it merely as a badge of honour in the political arena (sometimes falsely). But I post this today under the realisation that this is what I am doing. And though it can be ridiculed as mere posturing or a massive dollop of ‘stating the obvious’, the idea is something that reflects something more in the project manager that pursues the aforementioned strenuous life. And it’s dates to something that many of us have spent a lifetime doing – pursuing satisfaction outside of the everyday grind.
Don’t believe me? Tell me then: What did you do after school let out for the day? Did you find a game of five-a-side at the local activities centre? Attend piano lessons that led to the baby grand you have in your house today? Collect insects and put them in a jar? Did you watch Blue Peter, and then send in your entry for the Design a Doctor Who Monster contest? Did that, in turn, lead to an affinity for art classes? It’s all activities, a matter of participation and involvement that, ideally, leads to something far greater – enjoyment.
The word ‘ideally’ creates an amount of trepidation in that last sentence, and I won’t try to deny that very intent. For those who come from a sport background, you’ll know full well that there tends to be less of an emphasis on the enjoyment of the games people play today than there was in another generation. Why? Overbearing adults and/or parents, coupled with bullying, sometimes pot-stirring teammates and opponents that want to win at all costs have something to do with it. Pressures tend to mount on youngsters more now than for my parents as kids. Think this is just an American thing? Watch ‘Bend It like Beckham’ again and get back to me – the dog-eat-dog mentality is more universal now than ever before, lest you sacrifice a decent shot at the pros.
But for the kids who take on so many hobbies these days – a sport for each season, an instrument for each limb, a garden tool for each tomato plant you help your mum with, a character impression for each home movie your thrill-seeking sister will eventually embarrass you with by posting on YouTube – there develops one common thread: multi-tasking and multiple-responsibility adolescents. This, in itself, is a development mechanism that could become the next Project Manager delivering a structure or IT system for the 2012 Olympics.
‘Ah,’ you might say, ‘but dost thou practiceth what thou preacheth?’ Well played, discerning reader. To answer your question (for posterity’s sake, we’ll assume you were the one that asked it), adding extracurricular activities to my repertoire has met with struggles. But in spite of my love for fatherhood and a blessed marriage that usually is enough for most people – I would say that I’m trying to be as good as my words here. Not because I don’t want to have to hide from the hypocrisy police; rather, I just know that the seemingly unimportant things outside of waiting for another bill to arrive are, well, actually more important in the grand scheme of personal satisfaction. I’m glad to say that I found a baseball team in my area (and believe me, not everyone can) that I enjoy spending my Sunday afternoons with. I’m glad to play the occasional round of golf with my extended family members and friends alike. All I need is for the weather to come around! Failing that, I’ll go inside and shot some baskets with a team that wants to get out every so often and play. Fact is, my partner has the good sense of love and respect to get it. I’m a boiling kettle, and the steam needs let off. She is, too, and when she has something she’s ready to take on – night classes towards a Masters’ degree, for instance – I’ve got her back.
Among the CVs I’ve looked at, I still see people that list their interests and hobbies at three or more at the very least. Habit, I’d argue, and quite a good one, at that. For if the strenuous life is pursued by those who think there’s ‘something missing’ in adulthood, an additional sense of fulfilment may just be an online search and subsequent swing of the cricket bat away!
If you couldn’t tell by the activities he listed participating in, Dan Strayer is an American expatriate living in the UK. At any rate, Strayer is a former Sports Editor and Writer for several different American newspapers who now serves as a Marketing & Research Officer for Arras People. He still shakes his head when he thinks of the coach that laid the ‘treadmill’ moniker on him, then smiles again when he realises that coach never left American soil.
