In my HR shop, I like to work towards tracking the recruiting metrics that matter - time to fill, cost per fill, misses (churn after 6 months of hire), hiring manager scorecards, etc.
Oops! Forgot one - let's add "Percentage of Resumes Including a Photo that Destroys Candidate Prospects"...
Seriously. You would think that with 100,000 career advice sites out there, no candidate would send a resume with a picture on it. You would be wrong. Recruiters in the same shop as the HR Capitalist have detected a noticeable up-tick in the number of resumes received with a photo.
Candidly, it's never the beautiful people who use a photo on the resume. Not that it matters. You could be in People Magazine's annual "The World's 50 Most Beautiful People" and it would still be a negative for you to attach your photo to your resume. My mind automatically jumps the judment I can expect from the candidate in question. Will you crash the rental car? Perhaps fail to back up the server? The possibilities are endless once you have determined it "a good idea" to send your photo on the resume. The only thing that could make it more surreal is if you used a photo from "Glamour Shots" (my favorite - the black and white with you hanging your jacket over your shoulder with one thumb - sweeeeeet....)
Below is one we received this week. The name, photo, and some of the non-critical info has been changed, but this "personal info" section was the candidate's lead. Take a pass through and let me know how many Title 7 identifiers you can find on this one.
That just cracks me up. Fantastic! That Nick N. guy..he's quite a card. You know, I think he used to be handsome once.
Posted by: Frank Roche | September 07, 2007 at 06:49 AM
I've seen several resumes for executive positions that also have photos. Do the execs have different rules or should they skip the photos too?
Posted by: Lea | September 07, 2007 at 08:39 AM
Very interesting. I've had a handful of people do this -- interestingly, all women and all attractive. Kind of skeeves me out.
Posted by: Ask a Manager | September 07, 2007 at 04:57 PM
Oh, and I will add this: When men in my office have seen these women's photos, they have had NO PROBLEM with it. (I'm a woman so apparently not susceptible.)
Posted by: Ask a Manager | September 07, 2007 at 04:58 PM
Frank - Remember when Nick was the responsible one in 48 Hours? How things change....
Lea - My take is that photos are never a good idea from the candidate side. Even if they are an attractive person, there's no accounting for what people will find attractive on the other end, and it's so rare it looks out of place and disjointed.
Ask A Manager - you have had a different experience than I. I am not sure I have ever gotten an attractive one. Usually cheesy and "what were they thinking" type of photos. Nice take on the men in your office.... What clones of the male stereotype!!
Posted by: Kris | September 08, 2007 at 07:32 AM
You are so right!!! This is one of those posting that makes you shake your head in understanding and laugh at the same time because it is just so sad, and so true!
Posted by: Recruitnik | September 09, 2007 at 11:02 AM
Given the two posts you had, one on pictures and one on hiring crazies, maybe this guy is someone you want to hire!
Posted by: Mike Haberman | September 10, 2007 at 10:08 AM
maybe we should a paper bag over our head when we go for an interview too
Posted by: antoiusmacer@yahoo.com | April 30, 2009 at 01:13 AM