Should You Put a Photo on Your Resume? A Country-by-Country Guide

Whether to put a photo on your resume isn’t really a design question — it’s a regional norm, and getting it wrong in either direction can quietly hurt an application. Here’s what the norms actually look like by region.

United States, Canada, UK, Australia

In these markets, leaving a photo off is standard, and it’s often recommended against — mainly because of anti-discrimination norms in hiring. A photo doesn’t typically help here, and on rare occasions a company’s screening process will set aside resumes with photos entirely to avoid any appearance of bias in the process.

Much of continental Europe

Expectations vary noticeably by country. In Germany, Austria, and Spain, a professional photo is close to standard, and its absence can occasionally read as an incomplete application. In Belgium, Finland, Italy, Greece, and a number of other European countries, a photo is common but far more optional — leaving it off isn’t a mark against you.

Japan, China, South Korea

A resume photo is still the norm in much of East Asia, particularly in more traditional industries, and skipping it can work against you. That said, international teams and modern industries within these markets are more flexible than a general job market average would suggest.

India, Malaysia, Singapore

These markets have become considerably more flexible, especially for roles at multinational companies or in tech — a photo is common but rarely a hard expectation either way.

The cross-border trend

As hiring has gotten more global, a growing number of multinational companies have moved toward photo-blind review specifically to keep evaluation consistent across markets with different local norms — even in countries where a photo would traditionally be expected. If you’re applying to a global company rather than a strictly local one, that’s worth factoring in.

The practical takeaway

Match the photo decision to where you’re applying, not to where you’re from or a single global default. On ResumeSpace, photo support is available on every template, but it’s off by default on the ones built around US/UK-style applications — you can add or remove it per resume depending on who’s actually going to read it.

Sources: StylingCV, US vs. European vs. Asian Resume Formats.