Women Should Not Include Their Picture on their CV/Resume!

According to a study conducted in Israel, the decision of whether to include your photo in your CV depends upon if you are a woman or a man – and how attractive you are! Don’t believe me - take a look at this article: http://www.jpost.com/LifeStyle/Article.aspx?id=197151.

I have always been of the opinion that photos can play a positive role, personalizing a paper CV and helping to bring out the applicant’s three-dimensional reality. Of course, the picture should be appropriate and professional, traditionally a head-shot with a pleasant expression. I have seen CV photos that include half of another person, or where the candidate looks so downcast that it seems someone is forcing them to sit in front of the camera; in these cases the photo does more harm than good. Also, if you are applying for a job and are concerned that your age or religious clothing might make the company less likely to invite you to an interview, then going without a picture may well be the correct decision. I know, some people are probably thinking that if the employer doesn’t want someone 50+ years old, and the candidate is above 50, then they should understand this immediately from the CV and not waste anyone's time. Sometimes though it is possible to overcome such employer restrictions - if you have the opportunity to meet with them, they see that you are composite of many characteristics, only one of which is something that is not to their liking. Therefore, saving this sensitive discussion for a personal interview rather than when you are simply evaluated based upon your CV is always preferable.

The above article introduces a new twist. Stated simply, women’s chances of being invited to an interview based upon their CV goes down when they include their photo, and this reduction is in direct relationship to their attractiveness. Yes, according to this study, the more attractive a woman is that puts her picture on her CV, the LESS likely she is to be called by the employer. For men, interestingly enough, the results are the opposite: including a picture increases the likelihood of being contacted by the employer, and more attractive men have a better chance to get called.

The researchers for the report were very surprised by these results, and did further investigation to try to understand the reason for this situation. The results indicated to them that typically the people that initially review incoming CVs are women (mostly young and single), and that these gate-keepers were negatively influenced by an attractive female candidate. The article says it clearly: the researchers believe that the CV reviewers were jealous of women candidates that were “good looking”. By the way, this reaction only occurred when job seekers were applying directly to the employer; when applying to a placement company where the CV reviewer does not end up working with the candidates that are ultimately hired, there was no penalty for a woman with a picture on her CV being attractive.

So, what are job seekers supposed to make of such statistics? At a minimum, if I were a woman, I would think twice about including a photo in your CV. And can you carry this concept over to LinkedIn? If the conclusions of the researchers are accurate, then before making a decision about including your picture in LinkedIn (which almost everyone does), you need to first consider who your target audience is, not generally, but actually which organizations will be reading your LinkedIn profile, and who individually is the most likely viewer going to be. Only then can you make the final decision.

All the new technologies and options we have available are truly amazing, and absolutely make a job seeker’s efforts much more effective. However, these modern conveniences come with potential draw-backs, and the first step in dealing with them is to recognize they exist. I wonder how universally we can apply these soap opera conclusions, but it is certainly interesting to consider.

Pictures and Telephones - Small Things Count When Seeking Work

I would like to touch on three (3) independent issues, each one interacting separately yet combining to make an impression on employers.

Picture – Should You or Shouldn’t You?

This is a question that comes up all the time. Is it appropriate to include your picture on your CV and/or in your LinkedIn profile? Before you answer this in the affirmative, take a look at this article that I happened upon: http://www.careerealism.com/linkedin-profile-picture-killing-job-prospects/. I am not a particularly visual person, so my response is generally to do what makes sense to you. From my recent experience, I would say that the majority of CVs do not have photos, and the majority of LinkedIn profiles do contain a picture. If you have a nice professional looking photo, then it is not difficult to make the case that adding this picture will personalize your application, increasing the chances that the company representative will have a favorable opinion of you. A graphic designer might use the picture to present an example of their work. I have seen a number of LinkedIn profiles where the picture is of an animal (dog, chimpanzee) and I have a difficult time understanding the motivation for including such an image; it is certainly preferable to use a medium other than a business networking site to express your love for animals. An example of a picture that might produce different impressions upon different viewers is a picture of you with a baby. On the one hand, babies are simply cute and may cause the employer to have an automatic “ah gee” reaction and instinctively connect, while on the other hand, seeing you with a small child may instead initiate doubt in the mind of the employer as to whether you will be so busy with children at home that you won’t have the necessary energy to devote to work.

Phone Messages

This should be less problematic to decide upon, but still not everyone does it well. I view this as similar to how you consider a referee in a sports match; if you notice them at all then they are doing a poor job. Some variation, possibly in both Hebrew and English, of “You have reached Joe Blow, please leave a message” is to me simple yet effective. The musical/funny kind of messages, while maybe causing a smile to appear on the listener’s face, could also backfire. Many people seem to accept the default cell phone system message, which does not identify the person that is called (only the telephone number) using a robotic voice, something that always leaves me wondering why the person didn’t invest the 5-10 minutes to personalize this. And, without meaning to state the obvious, if you have voice mail on your cell phone (and all job seekers should give the caller the ability to leave a message), don’t forget to check your messages regularly and call people back promptly.

Who Answers Your Phone?

On many occasions I have called the telephone number on the CV, only to have a young child answer the phone. Using my own children as an example, I receive only a small percentage of the messages that they take, and the fact that I allowed a youngster to answer my “business” telephone leaves an unknown (and hard to believe positive) impression on the caller. As long as you have a cell phone with voice mail, I don’t see any reason to include your home telephone. And think twice before you let others answer your cell phone.

Are any of these things critical to your job search success? Maybe not, but still, each little thing you can do to make a more favorable impression towards employers of interest is worth an effort.