A user on TikTok has sparked debate after sharing a controversial idea for how to spice up her resume.
In a video with over 279,000 views, TikTok user Jamison (@jamminjamison123) wrote, “When you start putting a selfie on your CV cuz no one will hire you and you’re hoping your smile will get you hired.”
@jamminjamison123 Somomee hire me
♬ Just A Girl – No Doubt
The idea of putting a photo on your resume is a controversial one. Career experts generally advise against it unless the job is in a field that is in part dependent on appearances, such as for a role as a model or actor.
There are several reasons why career advisors suggest avoiding photos. First, many resumes are now processed through automatic analysis tools. Including a photo, some say, may affect the resume reader’s ability to process the information and could result in your resume being discarded.
Second, adding a photo takes up valuable real estate on a one page resume and can distract from other, more important information, such as positions you’ve held that are relevant to the job.
Third, and most importantly, it can open up the possibility of an employer discriminating against you—or tossing your resume out for fear of facing a discrimination lawsuit.
This is an ongoing issue in countries where resume photos are common.
For example, in Germany, it’s still common for job applicants to include a photo with their CV (though some are moving away from the practice).
This can open the door to discrimination. A study from July 2022 submitted applications with photos to numerous jobs in Germany and the Netherlands. Some of the photos showed a woman without any head covering; others showed women wearing veils or headscarves, which are common for practicing Muslims.
“In the Netherlands, almost 70 percent of job applications that included a photograph of an unveiled woman received a positive callback for jobs requiring high customer-contact. But for applications with hijab-clad photographs the positive rate was 35 percent,” reads an article about the study in TRT World.
“The field experiment in Germany has given similar results. While 53 percent of unveiled Muslim women got a positive feedback from employers, only around 25 percent of veiled women heard back from the workplaces,” the article continues.
Back on TikTok, several users reiterated that photos on resumes are a bad idea.
“I did this one time and they told me to take it off and re submit one without it,” claimed a user.
“Having a photo makes it less likely for you to get hired just letting you know,” added another.
“Most hiring software will auto reject CV’s with photos due to anti discrimination practices and mitigating the risk around it,” alleged a third.
That said, some users claim to have found success by adding a photo to their resume.
“No jobs interviews till I did this. Never been rejected since,” stated a commenter.
“This did in fact work for me,” offered a second.
The Daily Dot reached out to Jamison via email.
