Should You Put a Photo on Your CV? (A Region-by-Region Answer)
Few CV questions divide opinion like the photo. The truth is there's no universal rule — it depends on the country, the industry, and sometimes the specific employer. Here's how to decide, and how to get it right if you include one.
The general default: leave it off
When in doubt, the safer default is to leave the photo off — most of the time, no photo is the lower-risk choice. In the US, UK, Canada, and Australia a photo can actively work against you: many employers deliberately discard CVs with photos to avoid any appearance of bias in hiring, and some applicant tracking systems mishandle or choke on embedded images, scrambling the rest of your CV in the process. Unless there's a clear, positive reason to include one — a regional norm, an employer request, or a role where appearance is genuinely part of the job — skip it and let your experience do the talking. A photo adds no information a recruiter needs to assess your ability, but it can introduce bias and technical problems, so the burden of proof is on including it, not on leaving it out. The next sections cover the cases where that burden is met.
When a photo is expected
Across much of the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Europe, a professional headshot is common and often expected. It's also appropriate for roles where appearance is part of the job — presenting, hospitality, acting, modelling — or when the employer explicitly asks for one.
If you're applying within the Gulf or MENA region, including a clean professional photo is usually fine and sometimes the norm.
If you include one, do it properly
Use a high-resolution headshot showing your head and shoulders against a plain, neutral background. Dress as you would for the job, look approachable, and crop tightly. Avoid selfies, holiday photos, filters, busy backgrounds, and anything low-quality — a bad photo is worse than none.
Watch the ATS trade-off
Images can confuse applicant tracking systems and waste prime space at the top of the page. If you include a photo, keep the rest of the layout simple and machine-readable, and make sure your name and contact details are plain text, not embedded in the image.
Switch it on or off in write.cv
write.cv lets you toggle a photo per template, so you can keep one version with a headshot for regional applications and one clean, photo-free version for ATS-heavy or Western employers — same content, two exports.