Often underestimated, hobbies can nevertheless have an impact on your application. Employers are not only looking for technical skills: they also appreciate candidates who are able to adapt to the team, actively participate in the life of the company and bring a diversity of experience. Mentioning certain activities in a CV can thus reinforce the image of an open, creative or persevering candidate.
However, not all hobbies are perceived in the same way. A study published in the Journal of Personnel Psychology showed that certain very popular activities could, paradoxically, constitute a barrier to hiring.
These results highlight the importance of thinking carefully about how you present your interests in a CV. It is not a question of hiding your passions, but of highlighting them by showing how they develop useful skills for the targeted position.
Candidates who say they play video games as a hobby are often considered less competent in the eyes of employers.
Table of Contents
- Candidates who say they play video games as a hobby are often considered less competent in the eyes of employers.
- However, certain professional sectors are gradually seeing their perception evolve.
- The results showed that candidates indicating video games were consistently rated less favorably than those mentioning volleyball.
- In conclusion
A study in Germany found that a fictitious applicant who mentioned video games as an extracurricular activity was rated less attractive than an applicant with similar characteristics who cited volleyball.
Interestingly, although video games are extremely popular and associated with many cognitive benefits, they remain devalued in a professional context.
Employers tended to downplay the importance of skills learned through games, especially if they were not certified or integrated into a school curriculum. Concretely, this gave the impression that the candidate was less competent and less motivated.
However, certain professional sectors are gradually seeing their perception evolve.
In fields such as computer science, engineering, design, data analysis or project management, the skills developed through video games are increasingly recognized.
Some employers even value specific gaming-related qualities, such as systems thinking, adaptability, and the ability to collaborate effectively under pressure.
Despite this development, skills related to video games must be presented with caution in a CV, because they often remain underestimated, or even devalued, by many recruiters.
The study led by Johannes M. Basch and colleagues aimed to understand how applicants’ gaming skills influence their perceived employability and the quality of their CV.
The researchers compared the mention of video games and that of a team sport in the extracurricular activities section, taking into account two levels of mastery: medium and high.
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The results showed that candidates indicating video games were consistently rated less favorably than those mentioning volleyball.
According to the authors, this study is a first step in exploring the role of gaming skills in candidate pre-selection.
Future research will be needed to overcome the limitations of this study and examine whether these effects vary across industries, job requirements, and organizations.
Employers undoubtedly value candidates who bring more than just technical proficiency.
Someone who is interested in topics outside of their primary field may be seen as a valuable asset to a team. However, the world of video games is often associated with many negative prejudices, such as the idea that players are lazy or antisocial.
Although millions of people play video games, mentioning this activity on a resume without context can be seen as a waste of time.
Recruiters are generally more sensitive to hobbies that they immediately understand and respect. Knowing how your interests are perceived can therefore help you determine what is relevant to include in your CV and what is best omitted.
Overall, the results of the German study conducted by Johannes M. Basch and colleagues clearly show that listing video games as an extracurricular activity on a CV is still, in many contexts, perceived negatively by recruiters.
Even when gaming skills were described as high, the fictional candidate who mentioned video games was rated as less employable than a candidate who indicated a sporting activity like volleyball, underscoring continued bias toward video gaming.
This research suggests that although video games can develop useful transferable skills (strategic thinking, problem solving, coordination and teamwork), these are not automatically recognized as such by employers, especially if there is a lack of explicit translation to valued job skills.
In conclusion
If the world of video games is starting to be better understood and valued in certain sectors – notably technologies, engineering or design, there still remain significant obstacles to overcome for this activity to be fully considered as a competitive asset in the pre-selection of candidates.
For researchers, this study constitutes an important first step, but it calls for continued investigations into the way in which perceptions vary according to sectors, types of positions and organizations, in order to better understand how to effectively translate and promote the skills developed by video games in the professional world.
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