Having extracurriculars on your resume can be a double-edged sword, as these may or may not be aligned with the job requirements. Extracurriculars like team sports are often preferred, but those who enjoy playing a certain musical instrument not so much.

Amid the raging debate around 90-hour work weeks and work-life balance, Tatler Asia COO Parminder Singh recalled when his Indian boss rejected a candidate for because of the extracurriculars mentioned in your curriculum.

These extracurriculars were playing guitar and running marathons while adding his boss wouldn’t let him hire the candidate.

“Once a candidate applied to my team for a marketing role in India: in addition to being a capable salesperson, his resume mentioned that he runs marathons and plays the guitar. My boss he wouldn’t let me hire him, saying, “Yeh aadmi yeh sab kuchh karta hai to kaam kab karega?” I thought these handlers were extinct,” Singh said in his post on X.

He added that he regrets that he was not able to hire the young candidate and that the events happened many years ago. “As many of you have asked, I have not been able to hire him and I regret it. That was many years ago. I have been away from India and assumed things would have changed but it seems they haven’t” .

Singh also 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 on the 90-hour work week gained steam after Larsen & Toubro (L&T) chairman SN Subrahmanyan advised his employees to work 90-hour weeks and regretted not being able to make them work on Sundays.

The statements were made during an internal meeting with employees. He also asked employees who want 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 husbands? Go to the office and start working.” After the undated video went viral, social media users and corporate leaders have condemned the L&T chairman’s view on work-life balance.