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Sample of an interview on hobby

Interviewer: Aditya, what’s your hobby? Aditya: Maa’m, I am interested in reading, playing cricket and movies. Interviewer: What do you read Aditya? Name the book you read recently. Aditya: Madam, I am not able to recollect the name of the book as it’s been quite some time when I read it. My reading is from newspapers, magazines etc.

 

This is a common conversation which is recorded during interviews. Our Aditya has difficulty in understanding the difference between being interested in something and pursuing something as a hobby. In this article, we will look deeper into the concept of hobby, and the ways to develop them.

 

‘Interest’ is something which one does whenever one finds an opportunity for it. Take, for example, when I walk into my house and the TV is turned on, I sit on sofa and watch the Sop for a while, as it interests me. However, that does not mean that I have ‘watching TV’ as my hobby.

 

Hobby on the other hand has the following prerequisites:

• One does it passionately
• One finds time for it despite being involved in daily routine.
• Its something, the person ends up developing expertise over a period of time.
• This is something one does not do for a livelihood.

And these four characteristics make ‘hobby’ different from ‘interest’.

 

While it has become clear that hobbies are much more serious affair than interests, it’s yet to be discovered as what hobby to develop and how to do that? In the forthcoming section, we will be discussing this nitty-gritty of hobbies.

 

Hobbies are basically of three types, as I classify them:

·         Medieval – While as children we came across the word ‘hobby’, our elders told us things like coin-collection, stamp-collection, gardening, cooking (for girls) etc. All these are medieval hobbies, which are outdated and generate little interest from people when you talk about them. My advice, drop them or resurrect them in a much more serious manner.

·         Modern – These are hobbies which have generated interest among people in last couple of years. The like of Reading (of specialized topics), car racing facts,

·         Post-Modern – Something which generates awe when you talk about it with someone. They demonstrate a very unique shade of your personality which makes you stand out in the crowd. Such hobbies are not commonly found in the crowd and they are very rare in themselves. Here, I am producing a list of some of them, along with the sources from where you can learn more about them.

 

 

Name of hobby	Where to look for	What all can be learnt
Space Technology	Hobbyspace.com	Space Technology Astronomy, GPS, Modeling, Near, pace, Radio, Rocketry, Satellite, Building, Satellite Observing, SETI, Space Science, Space Simulators, Space Culture Space Activities etc.
Comics and related issues	Comicbooks.about.com	Origin of comics, superheroes and related history, comic creators, comic characters in movies, comic books, reading them etc.
Building Scale Models	Papertoys.com exploratorium.edu/ronh/solar_system	Making paper models, science models, clay models etc.
Rocketry	www.nar.org	History of rocket development, its growth into serious science, international events associated with amateur rocketry etc
Theatre & Cinema in India	Pib.nic.in	How the theatre developed in movies, its role in freedom movement, current Indian cinema etc.
Video games	videogames.yahoo.com	Types, age and interest wise categorization, competitions & championships etc
Microprocessors	computer.howstuffworks.com/microprocessor.htm www.microprocessor.sscc.ru www.intel.com/education/mpworks/index.htm	How it works, history, various technologies, leading companies, leading innovators etc
Psychology	Keirsey.com www.ibiblio.org/personality/ wilderdom.com/personality/L6-1PersonalityTypes.html	Understanding people, scientific study of personality, its importance in interpersonal skills
Nobel Prize	nobelprize.org	The foundation of Nobel Prize, categories, winner in different categories etc.

 

The conversation between the interviewer and the candidate may look something like this:

Interviewer: Aditya, what’s your hobby? Aditya: Maa’m, there are many things interest me, however, I am very passionate about Video Games, as they help me not only in reenergizing my batteries, but also an opportunity to sharpen my problem solving skills. Interviewer: Do you really think video games help in problem solving. Many people complain that it results in shear wastage of time and is harm to the eyes! Aditya: Video games do help in problem solving, as they put us under situation where we have limited resources at our disposal, and need to achieve a goal. Obviously, the whole setup expects us to best utilize the resources. As far as the health hazards are concerned, that is the case with anything which is done in excess. I believe that if good care is taken, video games offer an opportunity to sharpen our thinking process without harming our health. Interviewer: Can you name some websites which promote video gaming. Aditya: Yes maa’m, zapak.com for example is one such website. It has also come out with a very innovative concept of video gaming for women alone.

 

And the interviewer is very satisfied with Aditya’s performance.

 

Nagesh K Banchhor

CEO, PRO-C Education

nagesh.banchhor@gmail.com