At least three or four times a week in my own, personal practice of placing IT sales professionals and managers, I run into the problem of the hiring authority reviewing my candidate’s linkedin profile and eliminating my candidate, before they even interview them, because the candidate does not have a picture on the profile or the picture is unfocused, very unprofessional or just downright lousy.
When are job candidates going to catch on that no picture on their LinkedIn profile tells the perspective employer that they are either so embarrassed at their looks or they just don’t want to go to the trouble of having an appropriate picture taken and posting it to the profile. Either way, it’s not good for the candidate. Pictures of you with your dog, your cat, your pet snake, your parakeet, the last big fish you caught, your buddies in the bar ( where they can’t tell which one is you), on the golf course, at a restaurant, at a Cowboys game, at your wedding, at your funeral are not only in poor taste, but downright stupid. Anything other than a professional business picture is going to hurt your chances of getting an interview.
Remember, hiring authorities are looking for just as many reasons not to interview candidates as they are looking for reasons to interview candidates. When a person posts their picture on there profile they have to ask themselves, “How might I be judged by this picture?”Anything the least bit less-than-perfect will get a person eliminated.
