PET PEEVE #16 – Pictures, Graphics or URL Links – Stewart, #

With Fred Coon

October 28, 2003 – 20 Pet Peeves Recruiters Have About Resumes
Courtesy of Mike Worthington, ResumeDoctor.com

PET PEEVE # 16 – Pictures, Graphics or URL Links
Unless you are a super model or are applying to a position such as an actor or television personality that might require a “headshot,” there is absolutely no need to include your picture. A candidate should be judged based on their skills, education and work history, not race, sex, age, etc. Providing a picture only opens up problems. Secondly, pictures are next to impossible to download into recruiter and HRIS systems. In addition, sending a picture only increases the file size and download time of your resume. Remember, a candidate only has about 10 seconds to grab the recruiter; don’t waste these precious seconds for a picture to download.

Much the same goes for graphics and endless URL links. Including graphics only causes download time to increase and often makes a resume more difficult to read on a computer screen. Furthermore, because of the fear of computer viruses, many recruiting departments are set up not to accept graphics, pictures, downloadable files, etc. Your resume in that case will just be deleted before it is even opened. In the case of URL links, they just clutter up your resume and no recruiter will ever spend time “clicking” on these links. Give the recruiter the facts. Like what was mentioned in Pet Peeve # 20, no recruiter has the time to play Sherlock Holmes or guessing games to figure out a candidate’s background.

Recruiter’s likes and dislikes in a resume were surveyed nation-wide by Mike Worthington of ResumeDoctor.com. FACE to FACE will publish all twenty pet peeves in this column over the next months.

ResumeDoctor.com is a service provided by Personnel Department Inc. PDI is Vermont’s largest independently owned staffing agency. They have been locally owned and operated for over 14 years. They have been featured in many publications, TV news programs, and radio broadcasts. You may contact them at: http://www.resumedoctor.com.