[bencpeters]

I was with you until the extracirricular comment. I can see how some extracirriculars are irrelevant for an engineering job, but I think that it's important to remember that you're hiring a person, not a machine. For many people, extracirricular activities are one of the best windows into their personality that you're likely to get in the typical job application materials. At their best, they can give you an impression of what makes that candidate tick - what have they prioritized with their time and attention outside of the traditional work/school arenas of life (which often are a lot more prescribed)? What have they done/built of their own volition rather than for an assignment? (perhaps outside of the field of this job)

Extracirriculars certainly aren't everything, but to say that they are either only neutral or negative seems to me to be willfully ignoring one of the most important human characteristics of a candidate - and in some cases might prioritize candidates who have followed a lot of directions but rarely become truly passionate about something independently over someone who has devoted significant time and energy to something else.