Has anyone ever include a picture of him or herself in a professional resume for a customary job? I've been flirting with the idea for two reasons: 1.) To show what sex I am without having to state it explicitly, given my name is Kaveh, arcane, etc., and 2.) To personalize myself more. Is this a good idea or not? Pros/cons? Thanks, Kaveh
I would think it would not be necessary, and could be detrimental, if the employer doesn't request such, but I'm not sure. Another thought, it could jeopardize the process by cueing the employer to characteristics that shouldn't be part of the resume filtering process, by disclosing potentially biasing information: race, gender, skin color, etc., and even causing societal biases in the cases of nose-rings, face tattoos, mohawks, etc. Stuff that should not have any weight in the employment process, but do. Giving them a picture, as innocent as it may seem, could cause a problem. Just my thoughts
I wouldn't given US employment laws. I think Jim covered the basis of that. It won't hurt your with small employers, but could be an automatic disqualification at a few large corporations. In any case, it won't improve your chance of landing an interview.
I've always been turned off by this practice; my first impression when I get one of these is that this person is smug. I say this with all due respect, this is not a statement about you, K! And, it's how I feel, and I'm admittedly old school. BUT, I do bleeding edge tech, so factor that in too.
That might be acceptable if you're applying for new-media/social-networking type companies, but outside of those I wouldn't put my picture. As someone going through a job search now, I'd suggest you focus on getting your resume professionally reviewed. I put together what I thought was a great resume, and had it torn to shreds and rebuilt from the ground up by a friend who runs an HR department. Turns out that many companies scan resumes in and have software do the first sorting. Getting the right keywords and phrases in your resume is the most important thing you can do to ensure you make it past the computers and onto a human being's desk.
It seems to me that if you have all the qualifications, and looks are not a necessary qualification for the specific job, no one should be influenced by how you look. Therefore, don't do it. If the person doing the hiring is interested in your resume, he or she will meet you soon enough.
I worked with a guy named Jan and most people that he emailed would think he was a she. To remedy this he started including a middle name (Edward) in his email signature.
As someone who has hired personnel I would not recommend putting a picture on a resume in the US. Interestingly I have hired people in Malaysia and China and apparently it is more common there.
Gotchya guys. It was merely to distinguish my sex and possibly make me more memorable, but my resume is outlandish enough!:happy102
Following up on Kaveh's question, I have been told that many employers do not accept resumes that aren't submitted online, following the strictly enforced format. I've heard that this practice seems to cast some kind of a mystery on the selection process because once a person fills out the form and hits send, there's nothing else to do but wait. In days gone by, the advice for folks looking for a job were encouraged to network and make personal contact, submit the application and resume to a person, etc. Does anyone here know what happens with all of the applications? Are there a pre-established set of key words or phrases, etc., that can get an otherwise application kicked out without any clue as to what should have been said, or not said, that caused an otherwise qualified and eager applicant to lose all chance of an interview without any recourse?
You raise a good pt. The online resume send is ludicrous, as is the process of filtering by keywords.
