“What do you do outside of work?” sounds like small talk, and sometimes it is. More often it is a low-pressure way for the interviewer to hear you speak naturally, check whether you have energy and curiosity beyond the job description, and picture you as a colleague. The answer does not need to be impressive. It needs to be true, specific and short.
A workable formula: name one or two real activities, add one concrete detail, and, where it fits naturally, connect it to how you work. Then stop and let the interviewer pick up the thread.
Why interviewers ask it
Three motives sit behind the question, and they carry different weight in different interviews.
- Personal qualities. The UK National Careers Service advises candidates to use this question to “show what kind of personal qualities, interests and skills you have”. Its examples: cooking can suggest someone organised who follows instructions, travel can suggest someone adventurous and flexible, team sports can suggest communication and teamwork, and music can suggest creativity.
- Rapport. Many interviewers ask it to relax the conversation. A candidate who answers in one word (“reading”) loses an easy chance to be remembered.
- Fit, for better or worse. Lauren Rivera’s 2012 study in the American Sociological Review, based on 120 interviews with employers at elite professional service firms and observation of a hiring committee, found that employers looked for candidates who were culturally similar to themselves, including in leisure pursuits, and that concerns about shared culture “often outweighed concerns about productivity alone”. That finding is about one sector, but it is a useful reminder that this question can carry more weight than it appears to.
Knowing the third motive does not mean you should invent a hobby you think the interviewer shares. It means you should give enough detail that the interviewer can find something to connect with, whatever your interests are.
Step 1: Make a shortlist of what you actually do
Write down everything you have done regularly outside work or study in the past year. Include the unglamorous: walking, cooking for family, football on Fridays, a language app, fixing old phones, organising community events, caring responsibilities you are comfortable mentioning. Most people underrate their own list.
Then cross out anything you could not talk about for two minutes. If you mention chess, expect a follow-up about openings or ratings. If you say you read, expect “What are you reading now?” Pick only activities you can discuss with real detail.
Step 2: Choose one or two, using three filters
- Is it current? Something you did last month is stronger than something you gave up at university.
- Does it have a detail? A number, a place, a result, a project or a challenge makes the answer stick.
- Is it comfortable to share at work? You are choosing what to reveal. See the section on privacy below.
Relevance to the job is a bonus, not a requirement. The National Careers Service suggests that “if the job requires certain skills, you should demonstrate these in your examples”, but forcing every hobby into a job skill sounds rehearsed. One natural link is enough.
Step 3: Build the answer in three short parts
| Part | What it does | Example phrasing (illustrative) |
|---|---|---|
| Activity | Names the interest plainly | “Most weekends I’m doing something with the running club I joined last year.” |
| Detail | Makes it real and memorable | “We do an early group run along the beach, and I’ve just finished my first half marathon.” |
| Optional link | Shows something about how you work, lightly | “Training for it taught me to plan in small weekly steps, which is how I like to run projects too.” |
The whole answer should take 30 to 60 seconds. If the interviewer is interested, they will ask more.
Step 4: Decide what to keep private
You are under no obligation to describe your religious life, family plans, health, politics or other personal matters, and an interviewer who presses on them may be straying into risky territory.
In the United States, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says pre-employment questions should be limited to what is essential for judging whether a person is qualified, that questions relating to race, colour, sex, national origin, religion or age may be used as evidence of an employer’s intent to discriminate unless they can be justified by a business purpose, and that employers are explicitly prohibited from asking about disability before a job offer. In the UAE, Article 4 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 prohibits discrimination in employment on grounds of race, colour, sex, religion, national or social origin or disability (as of November 2026). This is general information, not legal advice; for UAE concerns, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE) can be reached on 600590000, and the labour claims line is 80084.
In practice, that means you can answer the question well while leaving out anything you prefer not to share. If your main weekend activity is volunteering at a place of worship, you might say “I volunteer with a community group that runs a weekly food distribution” and focus on the logistics you handle. If most of your free time goes to caring for a relative, “Family takes up a lot of my time at the moment, and when I get an hour to myself I like to…” is complete and honest.
Also think twice about activities that could be misread without context: high-risk sports when applying for safety-critical roles, gambling-related hobbies for finance roles, or anything that might raise questions about availability (a semi-professional sport with weekday fixtures, for example). These are not off-limits; just be ready to add the context.
Sample answers, annotated
All examples below are illustrative, not real candidates.
A graduate applying for a marketing assistant role
“I run a small Instagram account where I review cafes in Sharjah. It started as a joke with friends and now has a few thousand followers. I’ve learned a lot about what makes people stop scrolling, and I check the analytics every week to see which posts work. Outside that, I play five-a-side football on Thursday nights.”
Why it works: the first interest has a specific detail and a natural link to marketing. The second is ordinary and that is fine; it shows a balanced life without trying to impress. Note the candidate gives an approximate audience size rather than a precise boast.
An accountant with eight years’ experience
“Honestly, quite a lot of my time goes to my two children. When I do get time to myself, I’ve been learning to cook dishes from different regions. I’m working through a cookbook a chapter at a time and I’ve just reached the bread section, which has been humbling.”
Why it works: it is warm and human, it includes a small moment of humour, and it shows persistence without spelling out a moral. Mentioning children is the candidate’s own choice; nobody should feel they have to.
A software engineer moving to a new country
“Since moving here I’ve joined a weekend hiking group, which has been the fastest way to meet people. I also maintain a small open-source tool for converting bank statement exports into spreadsheets. It’s not big, but a few people use it and I enjoy fixing the issues they raise.”
Why it works: one social interest, one technical one. The open-source detail invites a follow-up the candidate will be comfortable with, and it shows they respond to users without saying so directly.
A weak answer, for contrast
“I like reading, travelling and spending time with friends and family.”
Why it falls flat: it is three generic categories with no detail. Almost every candidate could say it. A single specific (“I’ve been reading a lot of history about the Silk Road since a trip to Uzbekistan last year”) would change it completely.
Handling follow-up questions
Interviewers often probe once or twice. Prepare for:
- “What do you enjoy about it?” Give a real reason. “I like that it has a clear end point” or “It’s the one time I’m not looking at a screen” is better than a polished line about personal growth.
- “How do you find the time?” Be straightforward. This is sometimes a disguised workload or availability question, so a calm, practical answer (“Saturday mornings, mostly”) reassures.
- “What’s the last book or film you enjoyed?” If you mentioned reading or film, have a recent example ready and one sentence on why you liked it.
What to avoid
- Saying you have no time for hobbies. It can sound like burnout or like you have nothing to talk about. Even “I walk most evenings to switch off” is better.
- Claiming interests you do not have. One follow-up question exposes it, and the damage spreads to your other answers.
- Turning it into a second sales pitch. Listing five hobbies, each mapped to a competency, sounds coached.
- Long monologues. If you love the subject, it is easy to talk for three minutes. Keep it short and let the interviewer ask.
- Controversy for its own sake. Political campaigning or strong opinions on divisive topics can be part of your life without being the first thing you share in an interview.
Should hobbies go on your resume too?
An interests line on your resume can prompt this question, so whatever you list there should be something you are happy to discuss in detail. For experienced candidates, a short interests line is optional; for graduates with limited work history, it can add useful evidence. If you are unsure how much space to give it, look at how the resume examples for different roles and career stages handle it, and see the fresh graduate resume builder if you are early in your career and need to make the most of activities outside study.
Frequently asked questions
Is it all right to say I spend most of my free time with family?
Yes. It is honest and common. Add one detail so the answer is not generic, such as a regular weekend routine, and you can stop there. You do not need to share more than you want to.
Should I mention volunteering?
Volunteering is often a strong answer because it shows commitment and usually comes with concrete detail. Describe what you actually do rather than the cause in general terms.
What if my hobby is gaming?
Gaming is a perfectly normal answer. Make it specific: the type of game, whether you play in a team, whether you build or moderate anything. Avoid sounding as though it takes up every evening if the role has demanding hours.
Can I use the same answer in every interview?
The core can stay the same, because it should be true. You may choose a different second interest or a different link to the work depending on the role.
Does this question matter in a UAE interview?
It comes up in interviews everywhere, including the UAE, often early on as an icebreaker. With colleagues from many backgrounds, an answer with a concrete, friendly detail gives the interviewer an easy way to connect, whatever their own interests are.
Sources
- Top 10 interview questions, National Careers Service (UK)
- Hiring as Cultural Matching: The Case of Elite Professional Service Firms, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
- Prohibited Employment Policies/Practices, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
- Federal Decree-Law No. (33) of 2021 Regarding the Regulation of Employment Relationships, UAE Government (u.ae) / MoHRE