- Sep 7, 2024
- 241
- 441
Hiya @tc_hopeful
As someone who's worked with several career changers, I completely appreciate the worry here. But thankfully there’s no need to limit yourself to discussing interests or activities you undertook at university. This point actually applies to applicants at any point in their careers - whether you're in school or not. Ultimately, just focus on what you’re passionate about and how it has positively shaped you outside of work.
For instance, leisure activities are completely fine to mention here. As a career changer myself, I used this space to discuss my hobbies or interests that I genuinely enjoyed outside of work. If there are any activities you started during university and have continued, that could be great to highlight too. For example, I often mentioned starting improv comedy whilst at university and continuing to be involved in this sort of activity after graduation. When discussing the hobby, I tried to describing briefly what the it involved and how it’s helped me develop skills like quick thinking and confidence.
You could even mention purely leisure activities like travel, hiking, or exercise. These all involve a range of different skills. For instance, I'm also passionate about travelling and I especially love going to countries with really unfamiliar places and terrain and cultures. I mentioned this as part of my answer to this question, citing all the different countries that I've backpacked through and some of the quite incredible things that I had the chance to see and do in certain parts of the world. Whilst these aren't achievements per se, they're experiences that have allowed me to become more adaptable and resourceful.
Overall, I'd have a good think about the kinds of things you're interested in/passionate about, or even just things you enjoy doing on a regular basis. Discussing such things in a thoughtful way can really allow you to standout as an applicant.
