Central Florida Employers Don’t Want Job Seekers Pictures on Resumes but it’s Okay on LinkedIn

Our 2015 Employment Outlook for Central Florida we asked 93 Central Florida companies if they think job applicants should put their photos on their resume (page 10).  Not surprisingly, only 11% thought this was a good idea.  When asked if they feel that way because of the concern with discrimination, one HR professional commented, “Hiring managers can have a lot of biases, which would be influenced either negatively or positively.” Ironically, this survey uncovered more than 50 jobs filled by people who were hired directly from LinkedIn, which proudly displays not only pictures but pretty much anything members want to share with the public.

linkedin OJWhy this may be a concern, our employment outlook confirmed next to job boards, LinkedIn is a very good resource to find potential candidates.  Most LinkedIn profiles have pictures.  As a matter of fact, if a LinkedIn profile doesn’t have a picture, many times employers feel that profile is incomplete and will be ignored.

This isn’t a new discussion, but I find it very interesting that 89% of Central Florida employers don’t want to see a picture on a resume in 2015 but are offended if a LinkedIn profile they’re viewing doesn’t include the picture.  Many of the resumes have a LinkedIn profile link included or employers just search LinkedIn for any of the resumes they really like. 

Why?

Aren’t LinkedIn profiles resumes with pictures?  By looking up people on LinkedIn that sent you their resume, aren’t you just doubling your workload?  If it was standard to put a picture on a resume, would you even have to investigate on LinkedIn? 

The experts just make up reasons why resumes should never have pictures:

  1. Resume is a formal document about your past and is more a fact sheet.
  2. Resumes with pictures don’t load into applicant tracking systems (ATS).  However, companies are using the “Apply with LinkedIn” offered by LinkedIn.
  3. You send a resume to an employer who get freaked out by a picture of the job seeker. Employers search LinkedIn directly for candidates and that is why it is okay to have a picture.
  4. Resumes have to be one to two pages long and a picture would take up too much room.
  5. The initial internal HR screeners who have no “skin in the game” may screen on what someone looks like vs. credentials.

Are we just delaying the thought of pictures on resumes being a standard?  None of those reasons make much sense in today’s recruiting world.  I guess the real difference is that if a jobseeker is online, they are putting themselves out there for the world to see.  But all the recruiting tools that employers are buying like people aggregators, social media recruiting tools, applicant tracking systems and sites like LinkedIn are producing more discriminatory information automatically than ever before and it doesn’t seem to bother anyone. Does it?

Recruiting is a sport and we are all looking for the best and the brightest.  For most, it is all about the credentials and past performance.   Pictures and portfolios are just a bonus but if it is included and packaged at the time of application, wouldn’t it most likely be a big win and time saver?

It’s 2015 employers and if a job seeker puts a picture on their resume, they’re a freak and if you don’t include a photo on their LinkedIn profile, they are even a bigger freak.

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