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Is It Ever Ok to Include Your Photo with Your Resume?

A person holding a whiteboard that says 'Please Send Resume!'.

If you’re like me, your gut reaction to that question is, “Of course not!” However, given that employers use social media to research candidates and spend just a few seconds looking at resumes, will it become acceptable to include photos with your resume?

We received the following question on our LinkedIn group for job seekers and thought we’d share it here to get your insights.

"I grew up knowing that “one does not simply put their image on their resume.” This protects the job seeker from first-impression discrimination, and it protects the hiring company from charges of discriminatory or preferential hiring practices.

But as each resume I submit to each non-profit job I am eminently qualified for, am passionate about, and would give my left arm to support is turned down, I start looking for new ways to promote myself and my skills.

In my most recent job, I saw a number of resumes for individuals in different fields (legal, real estate, management, etc.) and several of them had pictures (mind you, these were folks who had graduated 2007 and later.). It got me thinking and researching. As a number of sites and discussion forums point out, we live in a digital age. If a hiring manager or committee is interested in my resume, they are going to do an initial check on me — Google, Facebook, LinkedIN, Google+, Twitter, etc. If you have even one of these social media sites that is in any way public and findable, these people know what you look like before you get (or don't get) that interview.

Should we unemployed and constantly rebranding, reimaging, and reinventing jobseekers rethink the use of our images on resumes?"


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by Allison Jones

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