Should You Put a Photo on Your Resume? It Depends Where You're Applying

There's no universal answer here, and anyone who gives you one is describing their own country's norms as if they were global. Resume photo expectations differ enormously depending on where you're applying, and getting it backwards, adding one where it's discouraged, or leaving one off where it's expected, can genuinely cost you a look from a recruiter who never gets past the format.

Where a photo is actively discouraged

In the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, the standard advice is to leave your photo off entirely. This isn't a style preference, it's about liability: anti-discrimination law in these countries makes employers wary of anything that reveals age, race, or gender before a candidate is even shortlisted, and a photo does exactly that. Many large companies' applicant tracking systems will flag or strip an attached photo automatically. Including one doesn't help you here; it just gives some reviewers a reason to be cautious.

Where it's still standard, or getting there

In much of continental Europe, particularly Germany, France, and parts of Central Europe, a CV photo has traditionally been standard practice, and older hiring managers may still expect one. That said, the same discrimination concerns driving the US and UK norm have been pushing European guidance in the same direction for years, so treat "expected" as a fading default rather than a hard rule, and check what's typical in your specific country and industry before deciding.

In Japan, and in several other Asian countries, a formal ID-style photo is still commonly expected on standard application documents, and skipping it can read as incomplete rather than modern.

When in doubt, look at the format, not the country

National norms are a starting point, not a rule. The more reliable signal is the specific job posting and the company itself. A multinational hiring for a US-based role will likely follow US conventions regardless of where you're sitting. A local application through a government portal or a country-specific job board is more likely to follow that country's own convention. If a template or portal explicitly asks for a photo, include one; if it doesn't mention it, that absence is itself a signal.

If you are including one, get the framing right

A resume photo is not the place for a cropped-out group shot or a filtered selfie. It should read as deliberately professional: plain background, good lighting, shoulders up, a neutral or lightly positive expression, similar in spirit to a LinkedIn photo but slightly more formal and usually presented as a small square or rounded-square rather than a full circle.

1. Start from a clear, well-lit photo where your face isn't the smallest thing in the frame.
2. Crop it with our Circle Crop tool if the template calls for a rounded photo, or trim to a plain square crop if it wants a corner-style ID photo.
3. If the background is cluttered, remove it with our Background Remover and place your subject on a plain white or light grey backdrop, closer to the neutral tone most CV templates expect.

The safest default if you're unsure

If you genuinely don't know the convention for where you're applying, leaving the photo off is the lower-risk choice in most modern hiring processes. A missing photo rarely counts against a candidate; a poorly-chosen or oddly-cropped one occasionally does.