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Should you put a photo on your CV?
The short answer
In the US, UK, Canada and Australia, leave it off. In Germany, Austria, Switzerland, much of the EU, Japan, South Korea and the Gulf states, a professional photo is expected and its absence can read as unusual.
Germany in particular is the exception people forget: a photo has been close to conventional there for decades, and some recruiters still expect it.
The practical problem with photos in automated screening
A photo occupies space and can push your name and contact details out of the top of the page, which is exactly where parsers look first. It also adds nothing to a recruiter’s decision about your skills.
If you are applying where photos are not expected, adding one is a small risk with no upside.
If you do include one, do it properly
Head and shoulders, square crop, even lighting, plain or near-white background, neutral expression, no sunglasses, no group photo cropped down, no filters and no heavy retouching. Dress for the role you want, not the role you have.
A relaxed, closed-mouth smile works nearly everywhere. Keep it small — roughly a square equal to about a tenth of the page width.
What to do instead of a photo
Use the space for something that gets you hired: a two-line summary that names your role and your strongest result, or a short list of the tools and methods you actually work with. Recruiters read those. They rarely comment on a headshot.
Our templates make the photo optional, and your uploaded image is stored privately — it is only ever shown back to your own account.
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