Photograph on CV:
Should You Add One to Your Resume?

I have reviewed thousands of applications from the other side of the desk as a recruiter for tech companies. Prior to launching TechieCV (tech resume writing services), I worked as a Recruiter at Google. I was in charge of recruiting for the entire EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region, which is arguably the most diverse culturally speaking. One of these regional differences was the inclusion (or not) of a photo on resumes.

To be frank, I never personally saw this as an issue, but I did witness an evolution in compliance processes, regulations, as well as a stronger push to reduce unconscious bias in hiring decisions. As I tell you all I know about resume photos, you'll note that:

• There is a clear global trend towards getting rid of them.
• Exceptions are cultural, not operational, but that culture is changing too.

Let’s start with a simple clarification: today, “resume” and “CV” mean the same thing (your job application document). The former is the worldwide US standard and the latter is its UK/European counterpart.

There are exceptions (in academia, a curriculum vitae is different), but in this guide, I will use the terms “resume photo” or “CV picture” interchangeably.

Adding a photo on your resume might seem like a good idea. After all, first impressions matter, right? In reality, including a picture on your CV can actually work against you.

All recruiters are human beings (or at least we think we are). This means that as soon as you add a photo on a resume, you are introducing bias into the decision process. That bias can work in your favor, or against you... But don't take my word for it.

Studies show that when a photograph on a CV or resume is included, people make instant judgments based on appearance (often without even realizing it). Researchers have found that "attractive" candidates often get more interview callbacks and even better salary offers (10 to 20%!), compared to "average looking" candidates with the same qualifications.

One experiment in Spain showed that the same resume received 24% more interview invitations when paired with an attractive photo on a CV versus a less conventionally attractive one.

(If you're curious to learn more about our poor judgment skills, read the paper below!)

The point is: "unconscious bias" is inevitable. So you have to decide whether adding a photo on your resume is a gamble you want to take.

It's not just about you. You have to consider the employer's side of things too...

A picture on a resume can also reveal details like age, gender, ethnicity, and other characteristics that hiring managers aren't supposed to consider. Because of this, companies are being "discouraged" from letting pictures cloud their judgment.

In the U.S., the EEOC advises against employers requesting a picture on resume submissions to avoid discrimination claims. The same principle applies in the U.K., France, and many other countries with anti-bias legislation.

What does this mean for you? If you're asking yourself "should I have a photograph on my CV?", the practical answer for most tech roles is no. Many businesses will simply discard resumes with pictures.

Here you go, problem solved!

But... the issue of whether to add a photo on resume documents is slightly more complicated than that. Depending on where you plan on reluctantly going to the office 3 times a week, expectations differ.

I researched standards for 87 worldwide job markets and compiled a list of resume photo rules by country. I sorted the table below by region: North & Central America, South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania and Africa. You get a clear verdict (Expected, Not expected or Optional) as well as cultural and legal context for each country.

In the U.S. and Canada, including a photo on your resume is a hard no. Anti-discrimination laws like the Civil Rights Act and the Canadian Human Rights Act are there to make hiring fair, so recruiters avoid anything that could bias a decision, including your face.

Further south, though, it's a different story. In countries like Guatemala or El Salvador, adding a professional photo is still expected, especially for local roles. If you're applying to a multinational company, though, the no-photo rule might still apply. When in doubt, follow what the job post says or go without.

In South America, photos on resumes are still the norm in many countries. Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, and others usually expect you to include a headshot, especially for local roles or anything customer-facing.

That said, places like Brazil and Argentina are starting to move away from this, especially in tech or international environments. There are anti-discrimination laws on the books, like Brazil’s Lei nº 9.029 or Argentina’s Ley de Empleo, but it’s not yet standard to omit photos like in the U.S. or Europe.

If you're applying locally, a clean, professional photo is often still expected unless the job ad says otherwise.

In Europe, it really depends where you are. In Western Europe (places like Germany, France, and Spain), it’s still fairly common to include a photo in your CV, even though it's not required by law. In Northern Europe (Sweden, UK, Netherlands), it’s the opposite: photos are usually left out to avoid bias, and anti-discrimination laws like the Equality Act or Dutch Equal Treatment Act back that up.

In Eastern and Southern Europe (Hungary, Romania, Italy), a photograph on your CV is still expected in many industries, especially traditional or public-facing roles. If you’re applying to a multinational, you’re generally safe skipping the photo. If it’s a local role, check the norms or just look at what other people in the region are doing.

Germany is the market people ask me about most. The traditional German application document is called the Lebenslauf, and for decades it came with a Bewerbungsfoto: a studio headshot, top right, taken by an actual photographer. Today, many old-school hiring managers still expect it.

However, the law has changed. The AGG (the German equal treatment act) has been in force since 2006, and it makes appearance-based decisions a liability for the employer. It means that no German company can ask you for a photo even though they might still expect it.

Here’s how I advise you to deal with this ambiguity: use a photo for traditional companies (banks, insurers, law firms, family-owned Mittelstand companies), and remove it if you’re applying to a tech company, a startup, or a US firm with an office in Germany.

CV photos in France are one step further along the same road. You can still find pictures on most French CVs, but these are gradually disappearing and employers do not expect them anymore.

The CV anonyme experiment came out of France precisely because the government wanted to measure how much a name and a face impacted resume screens, and the Labor Code discourages the practice.

The bottom line is that nobody will reject you for including one. Nobody will notice if you don’t. In tech, most French candidates I see now leave it off.

Asia has some of the strongest expectations when it comes to resume photos.

In countries such as Japan, China, and South Korea, a resume photo is still the norm, and leaving it out might even hurt your chances in more conservative industries.

Places like India, Malaysia, and Singapore are more flexible now, especially in international environments or modern industries. Some countries are just starting to move away from photos, but overall, tradition plays a big role.

If you're applying locally, you’ll probably want to include one unless you’re specifically told not to. For global or startup roles, check the company culture first: they often prefer a resume without a picture on it, in order to reduce the risk of bias.

Japan is the one country where not including a photo will get you rejected. To add complexity, there are 2 documents to send when applying for jobs in Japan: the rirekisho (履歴書) and the shokumu keirekisho (職務経歴書).

The rirekisho photo is a must because the document is a standardized form with a picture box. The shokumu keirekisho is the free-form career history (the equivalent of the English resume), and it does not require a photograph.

Most companies require both documents, so you will need to add a headshot.

In Australia and New Zealand, don’t include a photo. It’s not just a trend. It's backed by anti-discrimination laws like the Fair Work Act in Australia and the Human Rights Act in New Zealand. Recruiters are trained to ignore appearance and focus on skills.

In the rest of Oceania, it’s a bit more relaxed. Places like Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga may still expect a photo (especially for roles that are public-facing) but it’s not a must unless the job post specifically asks for one.

In Africa, resume photo expectations vary a lot depending on the country and the type of job you're applying for.

In North and Southern Africa, especially in Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia, employers generally expect a photograph on your CV, often attached in a formal layout.

In contrast, countries like South Africa lean toward global standards and discourage photos to avoid bias.

Across the rest of the continent, it’s a mixed bag. Some industries still ask for a photograph in your CV, especially in government, education, or customer-facing roles, though international companies are increasingly moving away from the practice. If you're unsure, skip the photo (unless it's clearly requested).

Hopefully, you're starting to see the trend here: most countries accept CVs without a photograph, and those that do are starting to move away from resume photos anyway.

It’s not just about bias. As a recruiter, I found that resume photos made my job harder.

Most companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to filter resumes before a human even sees them. Since these systems are designed to parse text, adding a resume photo or picture on resume disrupts formatting and can prevent proper parsing, meaning your application might be discarded automatically.

It means that you might be getting automatically rejected by a piece of software, simply for adding a photo.

(To learn more about that, check my article on How ATS Work).

There’s a statistic going around saying that “88% of resumes with a photo get automatically rejected”. I have never been able to find where that number comes from, and having screened resumes for years, I do not believe it.

The truth is probably more nuanced: it affects your ranking and searchability.

When parsing your resume, ATS analyze its text, classify your skills & experience, and pattern-match with their requirements. If a photo breaks text parsing during your application, you will be buried under everyone else.

Most ATS can now score candidates against an open role, so it might rank you lower. More importantly, your profile won’t show up when they search through their database.

What this means is that if you apply to competitive companies, you are missing out on opportunities. Less attractive companies receive fewer applications and will most likely read every resume that gets in, whether the profile was correctly copied or not.

Recruiters spend an average of 7 seconds skimming a resume.

They are going to try and locate key information on the page quickly. This is why you usually want to stuff your 1st page with your "Best Of" (Profile Summary, Technical Skills, Education, Most Recent Job).

Adding a headshot or photo on a CV usually takes up a lot of space that could be better used.

You can think of it as adding useless information in the "Above The Fold" content of a website's landing page. It's not going to convert well.

You probably got the general idea by now: most regions do not require resume photos, and the few more conservative areas are starting to move away from them. This being said, if you're in a market where it's still expected and you're committed to adding a photo to your CV, it’s worth making sure it doesn’t hinder your chances.

This section is about how to nail it, if you must do it!

You do not need a professional headshot: follow these simple best practices for a resume photo.

Not sure what kind of resume photo to use? These examples show what makes a professional photo in your CV work, and what gets it thrown out.

Here’s a simple rule: wear what you would wear to the interview for that specific job. A suit is the safest resume photo outfit and should be the standard for most jobs or traditional industries, such as finance, consulting, etc… “Business casual” attire is also fine, and even recommended for industries like tech.

Use simple and dark color arrangements rather than flashy tones, so as not to distract the reviewer. You can, however, add more vivid colors to the background (blue, yellow, etc…) though you should avoid red or black which can carry negative connotations.

You do not need a studio. You need a window, a white wall, and someone to hold the phone.

Stand a couple of metres in front of a plain wall so you do not cast a shadow onto it. Make sure that the window is in front of you, never behind you.

Have someone take the photo from two metres away, then crop the frame. A phone held at arm’s length distorts your face, which is why selfies look wrong.

An increasing number of candidates use AI-generated CV photos. Here’s my take on whether you should do it, as a recruiter.

A resume is required to represent you accurately. That’s of course true for your skills and experience, but so should it be for your photo. The issue with using an AI headshot on your resume is that it technically isn’t you despite how impressive the technology has become.

Of course, recruiters are not supposed to make a screening call based on a photo, but it is the fact that you are technically misrepresenting yourself which causes ethics issues. If your AI-generated photograph looks real, it probably won’t cause any issue, but if the reviewer can tell it is AI, you might get rejected for it. Basically, there’s much more downside than upside here, so I would recommend against using AI for your resume picture.

If you have decided to include a photo on your resume, its placement and size should be right. You wouldn’t believe how many “creative” CV photo placements and weird sizes I’ve seen over the years. Headshots taking an entire first page or pictures at the start of every page… I’ve seen it all, and correct size and placement isn’t obvious to everyone.

Let’s start with the most important attribute, and the easiest to get wrong: the size of your resume photo. There isn’t a universal size, and standards depend heavily on markets. Use the table below to find the correct CV photo size, based on where you’re applying.

One thing worth knowing, because no other guide says it: outside Japan, none of these is an official standard. They are passport specifications that people borrowed for their CVs. That is why you will see slightly different numbers everywhere, and why being a couple of millimetres off has never cost anyone an interview.

When it comes to resume photo placement, you’ve got 3 valid options: top-left, top-right or center. Your CV photo should be part of your header / personal information section alongside your contact details. Don’t place it lower on the page or within other sections (profile summary, etc…).

As explained above, in most cases a photo shouldn’t be included in your resume. However, recruiters may still want to know what you look like. Maybe not during the first screen of your resume, but before giving you a call or welcoming you for an interview. We're all human, and we often want to "put a face to the name".

So if you're set on sharing your appearance, skip the picture on your resume and post a professional resume photo on LinkedIn instead. It gives you the same visibility but with fewer risks. Post a headshot taken in a professional setting (bonus points if it’s during a public speaking event), and the job is done!

Rather than having a hiring decision be made on a single photo, LinkedIn gives you the opportunity for 360-degree personal branding.

You can control the narrative and add much more info about yourself than a single photo would ever convey.

Yes, this may cause bias, but if done well, it’s likely to work in your favor.

LinkedIn requires at least 400 × 400 pixels and will accept up to 8MB for a photo file. It automatically crops the frame to a circle, which you need to account for. Center your face and leave background space around your head.

The rules from the section above still apply: use a plain background, take a real photo (no AI), and dress for the job you want. The one difference is that LinkedIn is “warmer” than a resume, so you’re allowed to be more expressive.

If you’re applying for a tech role or any job in markets like the U.S., U.K., Canada, or Australia, skipping the photograph on CV is the smart move. This will help prevent bias, avoid legal risks, and keep your resume clean and professional.

Let your skills, experience, and accomplishments do the talking, and use your LinkedIn profile for personal branding instead. In today’s job market, a CV without a photograph isn’t just acceptable. It’s expected.