Should you put a photo on your CV?
Photos are normal in some countries and a liability in others. A country-by-country answer, plus how to take a good one if you need it.
Whether to include a photo depends almost entirely on where the job is. In some countries a professional headshot at the top of the CV is a normal part of the document. In others, many recruiters prefer not to see one, and some will remove it or set the application aside to protect themselves from accusations of bias.
The short answer
- Leave the photo off for jobs in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, unless the employer specifically asks for one (acting and modelling are the classic exceptions).
- Consider including one for jobs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, where it is still common though no longer required, and in some other parts of continental Europe.
- When unsure, leave it off. A missing photo is rarely held against you anywhere; an unexpected one can be.
Country by country
| Region | Photo convention | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Discouraged | Employers avoid information that could reveal age, race, sex or other protected characteristics. |
| Canada | Discouraged | Similar reasoning to the US; human rights legislation applies federally and in each province. |
| United Kingdom, Ireland | Discouraged | Most recruiters expect no photo. |
| Australia, New Zealand | Discouraged | Usually left off. |
| Germany, Austria, Switzerland | Common, optional | Long tradition of a professional photo. Many employers now accept or prefer applications without one, especially larger and international companies. |
| France, Belgium | Mixed | Historically common; increasingly optional. Check job ads in your sector. |
| Netherlands, Nordics | Mixed, leaning optional | Some applicants include a photo, many do not. |
| Spain, Italy, Portugal | Fairly common | Often included, though not required. |
| Parts of the Middle East and East Asia | Often expected | Conventions vary a lot by country and employer; some application forms have a set photo box. |
Conventions vary by sector and change over time. International companies, tech firms and organisations with formal diversity programmes in any country are more likely to discourage photos.
Why English-speaking countries discourage photos
The reason is legal risk and fairness. A photo reveals characteristics an employer is not allowed to base a hiring decision on.
- In the US, federal law prohibits employment discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex and national origin (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964), age for people 40 and over (the Age Discrimination in Employment Act) and disability (the Americans with Disabilities Act). The EEOC enforces these laws. None of these laws bans photos on résumés, but employers prefer not to hold information that could later be used to argue a decision was biased.
- In the UK, the Equality Act 2010 protects nine characteristics, including age, race, sex, disability and religion or belief. Again, a photo is not unlawful, but many recruiters prefer not to see one. See gov.uk on discrimination.
- Similar equality laws apply in Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The practical effect is the same: some screeners will remove the photo, some will simply find it odd, and in a few organisations it can count against the application.
There is also a technical reason. Applicant tracking systems (ATS) parse text. A photo, especially one placed in a header or text box, can confuse parsing and adds nothing the system can read. See ATS explained.
Why German-speaking countries still use them
In Germany, Austria and Switzerland a formal application traditionally included a professional photo, and many recruiters there still expect to see one. Germany’s General Equal Treatment Act (Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz, AGG), in force since 2006, prohibits discrimination in hiring on grounds including ethnic origin, gender, religion, disability, age and sexual identity. Since then a photo has been widely treated as optional, and some employers ask applicants not to include one. In practice, many applicants still do, and a good photo is unlikely to hurt you with a traditional employer.
Tip: If a German-language job ad says “ohne Foto” (without photo) or mentions anonymised applications, follow it. If it says nothing, a photo is a reasonable default for traditional employers and optional for international ones.
If you include a photo
A poor photo is worse than none. Use these rules:
- Professional, recent and plain. Head and shoulders, neutral background, good even light, looking at the camera. A good phone photo taken by a friend near a window is fine; a holiday crop is not.
- Dress as you would for the interview.
- Small and tidy. Roughly passport-photo proportions, at the top right or beside your name. It should not dominate the page.
- Compressed sensibly. A photo should add tens of kilobytes to the PDF, not several megabytes. Some upload portals have file size limits.
- Consistent with your online profiles, so a recruiter who checks LinkedIn sees the same person.
If you leave the photo off
Do not replace it with a logo, avatar or illustration. Just let the header carry your name and contact details. In a two-column layout, the space can hold a short skills or languages list instead.
Using one CV for several countries
If you apply in both photo and no-photo markets, keep the photo as an optional element and switch it on per application. In CV Once, the Continental template supports an optional photo and a date column for German-speaking markets. The builder flags a photo when your region is one where photos are not expected, such as the US or UK, so you remember to remove it before sending. Your photo, like the rest of your CV, stays in your browser and is never uploaded.
Next: what personal details to include and European CV conventions.