Should you put a picture on your resume or not? This is a question many of us who have come to Germany as migrants often ask ourselves. We don’t know much about the Germany’s job market, work culture, and expectations.
When I first wanted to move to Germany and started looking for jobs, I had the same question. I really wanted to know the answer, but it wasn’t easy to find clear information. Recently, one of my friends who was also applying for jobs in Germany asked me the same thing:
“Should I put my picture on my resume or not?”
At first, I said “I am not sure to be honest”. But then I remembered that a few months ago, I saw a post from “Katharina Engfer” on LinkedIn when she said “No Picture / No Interview”. That post got a lot of traction and engagement, and many HR professionals and also people from other job functions commented on that post.
The post received around 400 comments in German language and from people working in Germany. I thought it was a really interesting debate and wanted to understand how people think about it. However, reading all the comments one by one would have taken too long.
So, the data analyst in me decided to take another approach: I collected the comments and sent them into an LLM to analyze the overall sentiment to see whether people agreed or disagreed with the statement and their reasons. I also categorized the responses to see patterns, and separated HR professionals from non-HR, since HR people are the ones who review resumes first.
Here’s what I found:
The data showed that this is indeed a controversial topic. Both HR and non-HR respondents were split 50/50 on whether you should include a picture on your resume.
- 67% of HR professionals said that resume picture is not a factor in their decision
- 53% of non-HR professionals agreed that you should put a picture on your resume
It is interesting to see while 2/3 of HR professionals said that having a photo is not a decision factor, still half of non HR professionals believe that you should put a picture on your resume.
When analyzing the reasons behind these opinions, I noticed clear patterns:
- Those who agreed said that having a picture helps them “see the person behind the resume” and form a more personal impression. They felt that without a picture, it’s harder to get a sense of the applicant.
- Those who disagreed often said they simply don’t care whether there’s a picture or not. For them, what matters most are skills and experience. They believed than when a resume has a picture, it will lad to biases in decision making
So, what’s the conclusion?
My understanding is that it depends on the type of company you’re applying to:
- In many international companies, not including a photo on your resume is fine, mainly to avoid potential bias or discrimination. HR teams in these companies are often international themselves and are used to reviewing resumes without photos.
- However, if you’re applying to a domestic German company, it’s still quite common to include a professional picture. Some HR professionals may even expect it, and not including one could (unfortunately) reduce your chances of getting shortlisted.
From reading the comments, I noticed that including a picture on your resume is safe in most cases.
People who think a photo isn’t necessary usually said they don’t care either way. it won’t affect your chances. However, those who prefer to see a picture mentioned that not including one might hurt your chances of getting an interview.
So, if you include a photo, it won’t harm you with the first group and could help you with the second. The only potential downside is when applying to large international companies, where photos are often explicitly discouraged to avoid bias.
In conclusion:
- For big international companies, it might be better not to include a photo.
- For domestic German companies, including a photo can be beneficial and poses less risk.
Of course, this conclusion is based on my own analysis of online discussions, so take it with a grain of salt. I’m not an HR expert and just someone curious about data and job culture.
If you’re an HR professional in Germany, or an immigrant who has applied for jobs here, I’d love to hear your thoughts:
- Do you include a picture on your resume?
- Do you think applicants should?
- And what’s your reasoning behind it?
Thanks for reading this and please share you opinion with me 🙂
