Why your resume should never include a photo

I don’t care what Gen George of OneShift says in this article. Putting your photo on your resume is a bad idea. She says you SHOULD put your photo on your resume because:

1. They do it a lot in Europe.

So what? In case she missed it, Australia is not part of the EU. Having Jessica Mauboy sing at Eurovision does not make us European or obliged to adopt all things European.

2. Employers are going to Google you anyway, so putting your picture on your  resume allows you to control their perception of you.

Are you kidding? You might have the most professional photo in the world on your resume, but if you have a public Facebook account with loads of photos of you going overboard on a big night out, you are in trouble. A photo on your resume does not give you ANY control over the employer's perception of you.

3. Resumes with photos get more attention from prospective employers.

Every professional recruitment business I know of does NOT include photos on the resumes they send to their clients. We are very aware of how a photo can lead to discrimination, and we won't be a party to it. And if a resume with a photo does make it to the employer directly, the 'attention' it receives may not be what you had hoped.

4. If someone is going to discriminate, they are going to do it anyway.

So we should give them the tools to discriminate? Ridiculous! You want the employer to be engaged and excited by your skills, your experience and your ability to do the job. You want them to be excited about you before they see you so they are less likely to make any judgements based on your appearance. The fact is humans are visual, and we instinctively make judgements about people based on what they look like. Our own prejudices, preferences and penchants, many of them made subconsciously, are instantly engaged when we look at a person. We judge people. It's a human thing to do. But in the job/employment market, where people are looking for ways to exclude you from their shortlist, do you really want to give them the chance to exclude you because they don't like the look of you? 

5. People are doing more and more creative things to stand out. 

What, so the savvy, creative candidate who has good Photoshop skills is a 'better' candidate than someone else? Seriously? In that case, my twelve-year-old daughter, who uses fifty different filters before loading a photo onto Instagram and watermarks her own selfies, is clearly perfect for EVERY job. I have been in the industry for a very long time, and I am 100% confident when I say to you: do NOT put your photo on your resume. Let a potential employer judge you on your skills and experience, not your haircut.

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