Hobbies that will get you promoted

Will moose hunting, skydiving or the ability to debone a duck get you the job?

By Dave Crisp

My blog last week, about companies collecting people’s hobbies and interests to find those with diverse skills for particular jobs, got me thinking how we could put together additional competency listings for particular jobs. These might help candidates choose what to reveal about their non-work lives — or perhaps even what they should cultivate as hobbies.

Knowing my CEO was a hard-driver and moose hunter reinforced my impression he’d be happy with “manly” executives who wouldn’t be adverse to “blowing away” staff when it came to layoffs, to put it in slang. In parallel on the feminine side, maybe moose hunting isn’t a prerequisite (though it might find a few female fans), but perhaps the hard-driving CEO would admire women with the courage to debone a duck like the protagonist in the movie  Julie and Julia held up as her greatest challenge.

Normally such considerations wouldn’t enter my mind, but when a candidate mentioned he’d love to move to Toronto from the United States for better moose hunting, I recognized the connection (and also that the image he held of our geography would work in my favor for recruiting).

Could we, for instance, add to the usual list of work competencies several types of hobby/interest “needs?” In the risk-taking category (call it column A), skydiving seems to figure highly. Could we include bungee-jumping, rock climbing, maybe motorcycle riding (should there be “over/under 250cc” categories to distinguish manly bikes from namby-pamby motor scooters)? What about spelunking – too risky?  I once actually told a 100-mile runner not to mention her hobby in job interviews because it might imply two things. Some bosses might see it as flatly nuts and even more might wonder if you spend 30 hours on a weekend running 100 miles for training or actual events, would you have any time or energy for work?

Then in column B we might have “socially responsible” interests. Same caveats here: It might be great to shut off lights everywhere or drive a Smart car, but building your own self-sufficient green home in the wilderness might also indicate fewer hours devoted to business… and maybe no high-speed Internet or cellphone service to keep in touch 24-7.

And how about column C for courage? Might this be a place for the fire walk participants or people who are willing to live in the inner city? Does an interest in gambling put you in this category or in column A,  or does it disqualify you as a risk for embezzlement?

You get my drift. I’m sure a better humour writer could have a field day with this. Given the choice of putting my interests on Facebook or my organization’s internal equivalent, I think I’d weigh my revelations carefully. Reading and “fitness activities” all of a sudden look like good bets, balancing intellectual and physical without raising too many problematic questions. On the other hand, if you’re a three time national cake-decorating winner, go for it. Everybody likes cake.

One of my former senior execs was originally hired before finishing high school (which was ultimately his highest level achieved) because he’d collected enough empty beer bottles to buy a motorcycle – a major show of persistence, I have to admit. If he’d been keeping the bottles to form a collection, I’d have doubts,  but presumably he stopped spending valuable time on it once he got a paid job.

Where am I going with this? I’m not sure, but it might be very interesting to hear from Google or one of the others who work such systems if there’s a pattern in what’s most successful for getting hired. Then again, maybe that’s proprietary competitive information. There’s still lots to learn in the Internet age.

Dave Crisp is a Toronto-based consultant with a wealth of experience, including 14 years leading HR at Hudson Bay Co. where he took the 70,000-employee retailer to “best company to work for” status. For more information, visit www.crispstrategies.com.