Having extracurricular activities on your resume can be a double-edged sword, as these may or may not match the job requirements. Often extracurricular activities such as team sports are preferred, but not so much those who enjoy playing a certain musical instrument.
Amid the raging debate around the 90-hour work week and work-life balance, Parminder Singh, Tatler Asia’s chief operating officer, recalled when his Indian boss rejected a candidate because of the extracurricular activities mentioned in their CV.
These extracurriculars played guitar and ran marathons, while his boss wouldn’t let him hire the candidate.
“I once had a candidate apply to my team for a marketing position in India: in addition to being a competent marketer, his CV mentioned that he ran marathons and played the guitar. My boss didn’t ask me didn’t let him hire him saying, ‘Yeah aadmi yeah sab kuchh’. karta hai to kaam kab karega?’ I thought these managers were gone. Turns out that’s not the case,” Singh said in his post on X.
He added that he regrets not being able to hire the young candidate and that the incident happened many years ago. “As many of you have asked, I was unable to hire him and I regret that. This happened many years ago. I left India and thought the Things would have changed, but it seems that is not the case.
Singh further cited Google as an example and called excellence a “transferable skill”. “Compare that to my time at Google, which had an unwritten policy: If you excelled at the Olympics, you could walk into a Google office and get a job.”
The debate over the 90-hour work week intensified after Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Chairman SN Subrahmanyan advised his employees to work the 90-hour week and regrets not be able to make them work on Sunday.
These remarks were made during an internal meeting with employees. He further asked employees about their desire to spend time at home.
“What are you doing sitting at home? How long can you look at your wife? How long can wives look at their husbands? Go to the office and start working.” After the undated video went viral, social media users and business leaders condemned the L&T chairman’s vision for work-life balance.
