How to Turn Your Hobbies into Soft Skills

Interviews can be stressful, especially if you feel like don’t have the experience or skills. You’re a better candidate than you think. Did you know that your hobbies are the perfect place to develop and show off some skills? Now you do.

Whether you’re a gamer in your spare time or you really love chess, hobbies are packed to the brim full of soft skills (also known as transferable skills). These are super valuable and easy to attain. Employers LOVE these skills as they are the skills that show you’re human and how you’re able to work. Your apprenticeship interview is your chance to show off these skills.

Don’t know how? Read on to get some ideas on how you can.

• Creative Hobby Skills and Qualities
• Athletic Hobby Skills and Qualities
• Knowledge Hobby Skills and Qualities
• More Questions You Might be Asked

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Creative Hobby Skills and Qualities

Some examples of creative hobbies include;

• Acting
• Cooking
• Crochet 
• Fashion
• Journaling
• Photography
• Pottery (Making and Painting)
• Scrapbooking.

Think of all the attention to detail you have. This can be such a hard quality to learn so if you have it, show it! Having a keen eye will show an employer that you’ll produce high-quality, thorough, valuable work. 

If you can EAT UP an Instagram post design or a TikTok trend, you’ll absolutely have visual communication skills. This will be great if it’s social media you’re looking to get into or even if it means that your presentation designs will be on point.

For so many of these hobbies, you must have excellent memory skills. Remembering things well is always so useful, both in and out of the workplace. You might be able to easily memorise key details about a project or client. Important deadlines? They’re nervous of you.  

Some other note-worthy skills and qualities you may have gained from these hobbies:

• Adaptability
• Dedication
• Enthusiasm
• Goal-Setting
• Innovation
• Resilience
• Self-Motivation
• Stress-Management
• Time-Management.

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Athletic Hobby Skills and Qualities

Some examples of Athletic hobbies include:

• Climbing
• Dancing
• Hiking
• Horse Riding
• Swimming
• Netball
• Parkour
• Running
• Sailing.

If you do any type of athletics, you’re likely quick thinking, which will do you wonders for problem-solving and making decisions.

Athletics can be tough, so maybe you have developed essential resilience skills. Apprenticeships are all about pushing you out of your comfort zone and getting you to try new things.

Play in a sports team or collaborate with others? That takes verbal communication. Although we speak to people everyday, it’s a skill to be good at it. Being able to motivate others, show an idea quickly and clearly, or even keep people engaged are all really important characteristics. 

Here are some more skills and qualities that you might have:

• Adaptability
• Coaching
• Enthusiasm
• Interpersonal Skills
• Leadership
• Memory
• Persuasion
• Self-motivation
• Teamwork.

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Knowledge Hobby Skills and Qualities

These hobbies may be:

• Gaming
• Language Learning
• Listening to Podcasts
• Puzzles
• Reading.

These hobbies require time and dedication. It can be especially hard to make time for them if you have loads going on. Doing this is a clear demonstration of time management. This is essential in the workplace, especially as you might be juggling 1,001 tasks at once.

Self-motivation also plays a key role and employers LOVE it. You’ll be able to reach goals, complete tasks and push yourself outside of your comfort zone.

If anything, these hobbies truly demonstrate your willingness to learn. Apprenticeships are all about learning, so you’ll already be a shoe-in.

Demonstrating that you’re open to new challenges and can face them head-on is such a talent, let the world know.

Other skills and qualities you might have from these hobbies:

• Active-listening 
• Adaptability 
• Critical Thinking
• Cultural Competence and Awareness 
• Dedication
• Goal-Setting
• Memory
• Organisational Skills
• Patience
• Resilience. 

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More Questions You Might be Asked

There may be more questions than you think that you can link to your hobbies. Here are some questions that you might be asked:

• Tell us about a time that you have demonstrated goal-setting?

• How do you keep to your deadlines?

• What skills can you contribute to this apprenticeship?

• Describe a situation where you have overcome a challenge

• Do you prefer to work independently or as part of a team?

* Try and show a mixture of both using the same or two different hobbies.

• Tell me about yourself.

The Star Method (or the STAR Technique) is a really useful structure that’ll help you get your best points across. Not sure what the Star Method is? Click below to read all about it.

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Interviews can feel daunting, but the reality is employers want to know all about you, your experiences so far and the quirks and interests that make you, you. Trust yourself and your abilities, you got this.

Good luck!

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