10 Ways to Fix Your LinkedIn Headshot and Avoid Affecting Your Job Search

Apart from everything you add to your LinkedIn profile, the picture can also hurt your job search. The profile photo sometimes becomes why hiring managers, employers, and recruiters are not contacting you. Hence, it is true that without a good and decent profile picture, you would eventually create a bad impression of yourself in the LinkedIn world. You won’t even get the chance to showcase your skills and experience to potential employers.

The definition of a perfect profile image is different for LinkedIn. To create a good mark on the people who view your LinkedIn profile, you need to choose the right kind of picture. Summary, resume, CV, and all other essentials must be excellent. However, if your image conveys a negative impression, all other preparations might go to waste.

Take note of these tips for choosing the right profile photograph to help you gain all the positive impressions over LinkedIn.

1. Upload the Right Picture

LinkedIn is full of scammers because you cannot stop someone from misusing the platform. Therefore, having a picture is quite fundamental, without which people would judge your profile as a potential scammer. Another negative impression that the employers make for the profiles without a picture is that they are less used.

If you do not maintain your LinkedIn profile well, you will eventually lose opportunities. You do not want the employers to carry that impression for you. To make your LinkedIn profile help you enhance your job opportunities, you need to add a profile picture. Completing the profile is crucial as it has higher chances of showing up in the search results. The incomplete profiles are usually filtered.

When the recruiters look for a relevant candidate over the search section of LinkedIn, they will never find your profile even if you own the experience they need. If you are a bit concerned about privacy by adding a picture on LinkedIn, you can change the application settings. Change the settings from ‘Public’ to ‘Only Connections.’ Hence, the persons who are connected to your profile can see your photo.

If your chosen photo is not a headshot, do not prefer adding it to your profile. For instance, some people add a logo and nature picture, which creates a wrong impression. LinkedIn has proposed strict rules for what can and cannot be used as a profile photo. Moreover, the professional platform has the right to remove the profile picture if it violates their guidelines. 

Besides, if LinkedIn removes your profile picture thrice or more, you will be permanently restricted from uploading any profile images.

2. Use the Latest Picture

The first rule of adding a profile picture on your LinkedIn profile is that it needs to be a recent one. This rule is not so specific to force you to upload a week old pic. However, ensure that the picture is not the one you clicked ten years ago. It does not matter how good you used to look back then—just don’t use that picture.

The profile picture you choose must be a headshot, which means that it will show you from your shoulders to the top. Adding full body pictures to the LinkedIn profile will make you look small, and people will find it difficult to see you. LinkedIn also has a rule that 60% of the picture must showcase your face, and the rest can be your shoulder or background.

3. Crop the Picture

It would help if you also cropped the picture well so that the image contains your face as it would look weird on your profile. While you go ahead and crop the picture, you need to align your face at the center. Along with that, if you are removing people from the frame, then make sure no one has arms around your shoulders as it will make your profile picture look less professional. If your photo is self-clicked, then make sure you crop the extended arm from the frame.

4. Select the Ideal Format

The ideal format that ensures a high-resolution picture in terms of LinkedIn is 400 x 400 pixels. It is made specifically to avoid the profile picture look blurry after it has been uploaded. 400 x 400 pixels is the minimum resolution requested by LinkedIn, while you can upload a maximum of 4320 by 7680 pixels. The maximum size for the profile photo that can be uploaded over LinkedIn is 8MB.

5. Choose a Picture that Reflects Business Values

It is a golden rule to choose the perfect LinkedIn profile picture. Never select a photo that resembles an unprofessional look. If you fail to replicate the professionalism over the LinkedIn platform, employers will judge you as a care-free candidate. For instance, if you choose a picture of you sitting in a club or bar with a bottle in your hand, it is completely unprofessional and will end your recruitment chances.

Employers need something in the picture to make them believe that your presence would add value to their company. Your professionalism in the profile picture speaks a lot about your concern and need for a job.

6. Take a Look at Your Expression

Your LinkedIn profile photo needs to have a simple smile rather than any weird expression. The expression seen in the profile picture leads employers to assess your personality. You might not be aware of what adverse impact it might be putting on your career, but you will lag for chances over the platform for sure.

First impressions are critical, and your expression can help you turn in luck over there. In the early days, people used to know about each other’s personality by meeting one another. The first impression back then was decided only after a face-to-face meeting. 

But today, in the modern era, employers and hiring managers create first impressions about a candidate by seeing their LinkedIn pictures. Putting up those pearly whites on display over the image can help gain you a good impression.

Assume that the LinkedIn profile picture is replicating your first meeting with an employer. Therefore, make sure that you have a professional smile on your face in the photo you have finalized to upload over LinkedIn.

7. Ensure Lighting in the Picture is Perfect

If you already have a picture ready or plan to get one clicked, make sure that the lighting plays a notable role. If the lighting is not perfect, the employers will find you dark in it. It will give out creepy vibes to the companies, and they might just pass your profile. A well-lit profile picture is highly crucial for people to add more professionalism to it.

The ideal solution for it is to choose natural light by standing right in front of the window. Find an angle where the light falls entirely over the face without any shadows. If there is a shadow formation on your face, you need to move away from the background.

8. Pick the Right Dress to Wear

LinkedIn is a platform where you can seek jobs and opportunities. Consequently, wearing a casual dress for a LinkedIn profile picture is not the right decision. Your profession decides on the attire that you need to pick for your professional photo. If you are an experienced chef and are looking for opportunities, dressing up as a corporate guy or girl would confuse people.

Therefore, you need to wear clothes that you would usually pick for your workplace. It does not matter whatever you wear, but there should not be anything objectionable written on the T-shirts. If you are a lady who is fond of accessories, ensure that you keep it minimal to draw attention to your face rather than your accessories.

9. Background Matters!

60% of the LinkedIn profile picture is your face. However, you still need to consider the remaining 40%, which is the background in most cases.

Pick the desired wall, not specifically white and blank. The wall you choose can be non-distracting bright colors and patterns for the hiring managers.

If you want to have a photo around nature, you can do it as well. You can click LinkedIn profile pictures outdoors, but the background should not be distracting and blends perfectly with your attire.

10. Go Ahead and Upload Your Picture

Adding a LinkedIn profile picture is a considerable pivotal aspect that you must keep in mind if you search for a job over the platform. It is possibly the first step to introduce you to the recruiters.

After uploading the best profile picture by following the tips mentioned above, go ahead and complete other profile aspects. Remember, an incomplete profile has fewer chances of being showed up in search results.