Is it wanky to put my photo on my cv?

[TheoriginalLEM]

I needed to quickly do a cv for a job interview that i have already secured.

So to prompt myself to include everything in some sort if order i used a template from word. I normally just do a plain document. Anyway the document came together well and there was space for a photo. I take a terrible picture so its definately not vanity, but the picture shows me at work looking happy and its very relevant to the post.

Two questions.

1. Are they going to think im lazy using the template (i was a bit) and will i stand out for the wrong reasons?

1. I now have my cv written out so could effectively ping it out to jobs im half interested in. Do i leave the pic/template or do i go back to sober cv?

Yabu - wanker
Yanbu - will stand out positively

No to photo but i think Spellcheck is a must for you!

The photo helped us to know: is this a person I can imagine working with? The interview was the next step. If there was a bias, it was necessary for the job; the person would have to fit into the team, and qualifications on paper alone just wouldn't work. A person can be supremely educated, have worked years in all the right places, and still might be a horrible person not fit in. Yes, we had to like them. Sounds awful, but it is realistic. But like them not because they were pretty or young or white -- there had to be rapport. You can get that from a photo.

I don’t understand how you can decide that you will work well with someone and have a rapport with them from a photo. What are they doing in the photo? I guess if you asked them to take a photo of them doing their favourite hobby then you can choose the “sitting in the pub with a big glass of wine” person over the stamp collector or the skydiver over the swinger. But you don’t need a photo for that - you need a “hobbies” section.

You can’t tell people’s personalities from photos. You can tell their six, their age, their weight, their ethnic background and whether they have some disabilities. But you can’t tell if they are nice or not. Or if you will get on or not.

For example -Dominic Cummins looked a lovely, pleasant, approachable chap in that garden in his rolled up shirt sleeves when he was explaining about his trip to the Castle.

The photo helped us to know: is this a person I can imagine working with? The interview was the next step. If there was a bias, it was necessary for the job; the person would have to fit into the team, and qualifications on paper alone just wouldn't work.

This is why no photos should be included. What nonsense, you cannot from a picture determine if someone would be a good fit, what shite.

No, don't . It looks weird.

It will make your CV stand out and be memorable for the wrong reasons

I still remember a 6 page CV from the early 90s where the first page was a full A4 copy of the guys graduation picture in his gown proudly holding his scroll we never interviewed him

How on earth can you tell someone's personality from a photograph?
I mean, you can see the colour of their skin, whether they're fat, that sort of thing but surely such things are irrelevant...

Anything that looks remotely "See my picture. Aren't I pretty and sexy? Don't you want to hire someone pretty and sexy like me?" gets binned. Immediately.

In that case, aren't you discriminating against people on the basis of what you see in the photos? Maybe you should just bin all of the ones with photos, or none of them?

Photos are more common on the cvs of younger people

So, eliminating some or all of the applications with photos means you are discriminating on the basis of age, indirectly at least?

I bet you almost never bin a man's CV because the photo is too pretty/sexy either, so you're probably also discriminating against women.

Lamahaha There's a lot of lip service paid to diversity in publishing but, despite a lot of well-meaning agents and editors, it isn't filtering down to the actual contracts. Publishers still acquire manuscripts that will sell well without giving any thought to the author's demographics.

What jobs let you have a top with an obvious piddle stain and unkempt hair?

I'd like to change career!

@Lamahaha

It's to be expected that you would prefer having a photo. It saves you having to wade through the detail. You will do a quick yes/no mentally based on the photo and then skim through the text to justify the decision you made in the few seconds it took to digest the photo. That's what happens with unconscious bias.

But that's not what happened. It was for a job where a certain personality type was required, and a photo can tell you a lot. There were about 18 women and two men. We chose together three women for the shortlist, and then I and two colleagues and our boss sat down together and looked at their qualifications in a professional way. Most of all we were looking for experience in a particular sector. We interviewed them all, and then discussed again, once more looking for personality factors as well as experience (all had the same qualification). The vote wasn't unanimous, but the boss had the last word.

The applicants we discarded at the first run-through were all ones who had absolutely NO experience for the job required (it was a medicine-based kind of job).

The photo helped us to know: is this a person I can imagine working with? The interview was the next step. If there was a bias, it was necessary for the job; the person would have to fit into the team, and qualifications on paper alone just wouldn't work. A person can be supremely educated, have worked years in all the right places, and still might be a horrible person not fit in. Yes, we had to like them. Sounds awful, but it is realistic. But like them not because they were pretty or young or white -- there had to be rapport. You can get that from a photo.
But the main thing was previous experience in the field.

You’re just making it worse with every post!

@VettiyaIruken

How on earth can you tell someone's personality from a photograph? I mean, you can see the colour of their skin, whether they're fat, that sort of thing but surely such things are irrelevant...

You can tell a lot about personality from a photo

Their outfit, accessories, pose, posture, how they style their hair, if they look confident or shy, the background etc.

A template is fine. Do not include a photo if you are not asked for one. I have had many jobs and was only once asked for a photograph, when I was young.

Good luck! Applying for jobs is exciting.

In the photo i have a patch of piddle on my top, a tripple chin and unkempt hair. Definately not a look at me aren't i sexy photo.

Are you applying for a job as a toddler?

What people basically look like is not under their control, it doesn’t tell you how competent they are or how hard working they are.

How you come across in a photo IS under your control - I am not at all photogenic but I can put on clean clothes, brush my hair and take a picture from a more flattering angle. Essentially, I can choose to look like I made an effort.

You can tell a lot about personality from a photo

Their outfit, accessories, pose, posture, how they style their hair, if they look confident or shy, the background etc.

I've read some nonsense on MN, but this has to been one of the worst.

@Ifailed

You can tell a lot about personality from a photo

Their outfit, accessories, pose, posture, how they style their hair, if they look confident or shy, the background etc.

I've read some nonsense on MN, but this has to been one of the worst.

I agree.

Their outfit : wealth, class, ethnicity
accessories: wealth, class, ethnicity
pose: health
posture: health
how they style their hair: wealth, class, ethnicity
if they look confident or shy: not definitively
the background etc.: wealth, class, ethnicity

All discriminatory.

What you mean @ifailed is that a photo helps you recognise a person who is “someone like us”

Sorry @ ifailed - that should say @ dwiz8

Indeed.
The only thing you can tell from a photograph other than their size, colour, etc is how good the person is at posing for a photograph.
It tells you precisely fuck all about their work ethic, personality etc.

@BrightYellowDaffodil

What people basically look like is not under their control, it doesn’t tell you how competent they are or how hard working they are.

How you come across in a photo IS under your control - I am not at all photogenic but I can put on clean clothes, brush my hair and take a picture from a more flattering angle. Essentially, I can choose to look like I made an effort.

That can be assessed at interview. It has no place in shortlisting.

I once applied for a job that asked for a photo (1990s) and got invited for interview. I turned up on time but the time the two interviewers had on their schedule was different to the time on my letter so they thought I wasn't attending and had binned my cv. When I turned up and showed them the letter they apologised and the interview went ahead and they recovered my cv from the bin. I could see from across the table that they'd drawn a moustache and glasses on my photo

You can tell a lot about personality from a photo
Their outfit, accessories, pose, posture, how they style their hair, if they look confident or shy, the background etc.

You have to be kidding right? you do know people pick the photos that make them look their best, so you're not actually seeing the person, but what they have presented to you. and even then, facial features do not reveal the mind inside.

@nikori i wish i was!

I work with animals amd there is an animal in my pic and im in my work gear so vhoice of attire irrelevant. Piddle stain goes with the job

@Throckmorton

You can tell a lot about personality from a photo Their outfit, accessories, pose, posture, how they style their hair, if they look confident or shy, the background etc.

You have to be kidding right? you do know people pick the photos that make them look their best, so you're not actually seeing the person, but what they have presented to you. and even then, facial features do not reveal the mind inside.

You can tell someone's personality from a photo

Stop pretending you can't

No photo!! You'll look like a 16 year old who has nothing relevant to put in that space.

i've never seen this in the UK with 1 exception, we had a german woman include it on her CV and it was a bit of a topic of conversation in the office... about how in the EU it's more common. i'd literally NEVER seen it here and when i opened the doc (i was on "first sift" duty) Word opened with her face in an A4 cover sheet, my first thought was that I'd got the wrong document?!