Listing ‘Olive Oil’ As Résumé Interest Sparks Debate

Some people like reading or long walks. Others like olive oil.

But would you list olive oil as an interest on your résumé? That’s the latest internet debate after a post about the interests section on résumés went viral on X.

The person, who said they were reviewing résumés for a banking role, wrote that applicants needed to be “normal” and “well adjusted.”

“I reviewed a resume that listed ‘olive oil’ as an interest. That is not an interest,” they wrote. “It’s been hours and I cannot stop thinking about it. There will not be an interview.”

The identity of the X user, @90daysliquidity, isn’t clear, but they list “Tech Analyst” in their bio. They did not respond to a direct message from Business Insider.

The post caused a stir online. Memes abound, both celebrating and scoffing at the supposed olive oil-enjoyer.

An employee at Elon Musk’s xAI commented that they would hire a “cracked finance professional” who is interested in olive oil.

“If you have olive oil as an interest on your resume, we want to talk to you,” the official Coinbase account posted.

Is it really so bad to list “olive oil” — or any offbeat hobby — on your résumé? Business Insider asked five recruiters what they thought.

What makes a good hobby?

Paula Mathias Fryer would want to see just one more word added.

The SLO Partners senior director from California has been a technical recruiter for 15 years. She would have preferred olive oil “taster” or “grower,” she told Business Insider.

“It would have explained it a bit more,” she said. “Just those two words is a bit odd.”

Brianne Sterling, a New York-based director at Selby Jennings who leads investment banking recruitment, also wants more information. Are they just eating olive oil all day long?

“Do you make your own olive oil?” Sterling said. “If someone made their own olive oil, I would find that really interesting, and I might want to speak to them.”

Sterling is a fan of chocolate, but doesn’t plan on putting it on her résumé anytime soon.

Hobbies offer a common interest between the applicant and the hirer, Sterling said. She listed some popular ones in investment banking: football, basketball, travel, and World War II history.

It poses a question: what makes a good résumé hobby?

The off-limits topics are more obvious: politics, religion, anything you wouldn’t talk about at the dinner table. Picking the best hobby, on the other hand, depends on the recruiter.

Margaret Buj, a London-based principal recruiter at Mixmax, wants candidates to be interesting. Olive oil was “weird” to her — but better than the answers that are “cliché and vague.”

“Traveling, socializing, reading,” Buj said. “Who cares? We all do that.”

Should you even list hobbies or interests?

Space on a one-page résumé is a precious resource. Hobbies don’t display relevant work experience, and they don’t directly show what your contribution to the team would be. Is it even worth listing them?

Mathias-Fryer used to vote no. She saw hobbies as “less professional,” an unnecessary waste of space. Then came AI, which has upended recruitment and filled hiring managers’ inboxes with identical, ChatGPT-generated CVs.

Applicants now need to do “whatever they can do to stand out,” she said. “If that’s a hobby, so be it.”

Matt Stevenson disagrees. The New York-based managing director of executive search agency 33eleven loves to see a quirky hobby. It’s another thing to connect about, he said. But, on the candidate side, Stevenson thought that hobbies were too risky.

“You don’t know who is going to be reviewing that résumé, what their hobbies are, and what their personality is like,” he said.

As for that X user, endlessly thinking about the olive oil-loving applicant?

“I would pick up the phone and call the guy,” he said. “Scratch that itch.”

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