A Photograph on a CV: Whether and Which

Whether to include a photograph on a CV has no universal answer: practice differs by region, industry and even individual company. It is more useful to understand the arguments on both sides and decide per situation.

Arguments against

• A photograph opens the door to unconscious bias — by age, gender, appearance. In several countries recruiters explicitly ask not to include one for this reason.
• Some CV-processing systems handle images poorly and may distort the parsing of the document.
• A photograph occupies space that could carry information.
• A bad photograph does more harm than a good one does good.

Arguments for

• In some countries and industries a photograph is part of the expected format, and its absence looks careless.
• For professions involving public-facing work with people it is appropriate.
• It makes a CV memorable among dozens of similar documents.
• Many recruiters will find you on a professional network anyway, where a photograph exists.

How to decide

1. Check the vacancy requirements: sometimes they say explicitly.
2. Look at the practice of the country and industry: in some regions a photograph is standard, in others discouraged.
3. Look at the company site: if they have a team portraits section, a photograph is probably welcome.
4. When in doubt, leave it out: absence is neutral, a bad photograph is harmful.

Requirements for the frame

If a photograph is included, it faces the same requirements as a business portrait plus a few specific ones.

• Small size in the document: the face must read when printed on an ordinary printer.
• A formal register: a CV is the most formal context of all.
• A neutral background without detail.
• Currency: a five-year-old photograph creates a discrepancy at interview.
• Moderate processing: a heavily retouched frame looks out of place in a business document.

Technical details

Placement: the top corner of the first page, roughly the size of a postage stamp or slightly larger. Format vertical or square.

Resolution: enough for printing but not excessive — a CV file should not be heavy. Twice the size it occupies on the page is usually sufficient.

File format: a CV is sent as a single document with the photograph embedded, not as separate files.

What definitely not to do

Holiday photographs, group shots, selfies, informal settings, filtered images, frames with pets. All of these occur more often than one might assume, and they make an unambiguously negative impression.

Separately: do not use an ID photograph. It was made for a different purpose and reads as a pass rather than as an introduction.

Generated photographs

The same criterion applies as in other business contexts: likeness is mandatory. The difference is that verification is guaranteed here — an interview will happen.

In practice: if generation is used at all, use it only to bring your own shot to a business standard while fully preserving your appearance. Anything else creates an awkward moment at the first meeting.