As most questions in life, the quick answer is “it depends“.

Many contries and companies have “blind-picture” selection procresses, to make sure there are not bias regarding skin color, ethnicity, beauty, disability or other characteristics of the candidate. On the opposite, there are countries,  companies or sectors that really demand photos of the candidate because they are looking for those characteristics (or avoiding others!).

Some “experts” say that including the photo makes the candidate look naive and unprofessional, while others say that, as we are we are living in the multimedia age, and pictures prevail over text, so including your photo is a great way to empathise with recruiters, make your profile more easy to recall and stand out over candidates.

Candidates’ self confidence is another factor that determines when to include or not to include their photo in the resumè. Young, handsome, and well-dressed people have zero problems to look at the camera and find their best smile. However, shy, average looking, or low income people find it difficult to get a nice picture for a professional profile (Facebook or passport pics don’t count!).

Bear in mind that you have not a second opportunity to get a good first impression, so if you decide to put your photo in your curriculum vitae, make sure that it is clear, focused, fine quality and well-integrated into the cv. And, of course, that you look like the perfect person for the job post you are applying. Nothing discards more quickly a candidate that a bad-looking curriculum layout or picture.

So, at this point, decide for yourself if you want to place your best photo on your cv. If you are going to be a the back-end of a call-center, your look is not very important, but if you want to sell luxury cars, your look is crucial.

In this website you can find tons of templates for your resumè. If you want to include it, just change the profile picture with yours. If you don’t want it, just remove it. As easy as working with Microsoft Word!

[Camera image created with input from Freepik]